Dio - is natural tenor or barytone?

valecko

My ancient mystery question is: "Is Dio by nature tenor or barytone?"
Sure, Dio sings in tenor range up to cca C5. But has he this range by nature or by training?
He speaks pretty low - almost bass. So what?
In 70s and 80s he had much brighter and higher voice. In 2000s he significantly dropped down.
Did he mutate as he get older?


Here Ken Tamplin sings Dio's songs :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY8iTPnmRuc

It is very impressive but it does not have that Dio's sound.
I think it is NOT because Dio is the God singer but because he simply has natural higher voice than barytones.
Ken Tamplin sounds more like Bruce Dickinson type - just because he is obviously natural barytone as 90% of males.

So do you think Dio is natural tenor or barytone? If he is tenor it is just impossible for barytones to sing like he.

INFJ

I've been thinking about the same thing. I think low tenor makes a lot of sense. He had heaviness in the sound, but was still able to move pretty quickly between notes and to go high.
Range Planet has him as tenor. E2-C6. If you look at notes he hit more consistently it starts at B2 and goes up to G#5.
https://therangeplanet.proboards.com/thread/1250/ronnie-james-dio

He is either low tenor or high baritone, but I lean much more towards low tenor.

valecko

Yes, this song fully confirm this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxnqs9pdFIY

Dio is singing here too high without any marks of difficulties, belting/mixing, falseto etc.
Same here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htLlpJZ6r18
at 14:21 (C#5 with full chest voice) - it is not possible for bariton to sing.....