Last In Line

An American heavy metal outfit assembled from the surviving founding members of Dio, Last in Line came together in 2012 in the wake of Ronnie James Dio’s passing two years earlier. Remaining faithful to the dramatic, densely powerful yet melodically driven power metal and hard rock approach associated with their namesake, the ensemble delivered its first full-length recording, Heavy Crown, in 2016. Further releases such as the 2019 album II and the 2022 EP Day in the Life allowed the musicians both to uphold Dio’s legacy and to chart an independent course.

The lineup originally comprised drummer Vinny Appice, bassist Jimmy Bain, guitarist Vivian Campbell, keyboardist Claude Schnell, and vocalist Andrew Freeman. Conceived at the outset as a Dio tribute act concentrating on selections from the band’s initial trio of studio albums—Holy Diver, The Last in Line, and Sacred Heart—the group performed a series of well-received concerts before declaring in 2014 its intention to record an original debut LP. Former Dio bassist Jeff Pilson was enlisted to produce the sessions. Once tracking concluded, the musicians boarded Def Leppard’s Hysteria on the High Seas cruise in January 2016 to generate advance interest in the project, yet Bain, already battling pneumonia aboard the ship, succumbed in his sleep to complications arising from lung cancer, thereby casting the band’s continuation into doubt.

Last in Line pressed ahead regardless, issuing the eagerly awaited Heavy Crown on Frontiers Records in February 2016 to strong critical response. For the follow-up effort, simply titled II and again released through Frontiers in February 2019, the group secured the services of veteran bassist Phil Soussan, known for prior stints with Beggars & Thieves, Ozzy Osbourne, and the Vince Neil Band. In 2022 the ensemble unveiled Day in the Life, a limited-edition EP whose centerpiece was a muscular, high-intensity reinterpretation of the well-known Beatles song.