Pitchfork: Dios Forced to Change Bandname by Dio!

Dios Forced to Change Bandname by Dio!
20 years later, "Holy Diver" still epitomizes everything we love about really unconvincing metal singers

In what's become one of the weirdest and most trivial name-changing fiascoes since Oingo Boingo became simply "Boingo", Californian psych-pop folkies Dios have been made to alter their bandname, in cooperation with a cease-and-desist order from Ronnie James Dio, who, since 1983, has fronted the hilarious cheese-metal band Dio.

The 62 year-old Dio-- who has also fronted Elf, Rainbow and Black Sabbath (post-Ozzy years) at various points throughout his career-- contended that the two band names sounded too much alike, and added support to the claim that heavy metal fans can get befuddled over one letter of the alphabet. "It seems confusing to the public to have a band called Dio and a band called Dios," Dio's manager and wife Wendy told Rolling Stone recently.

The newly dubbed Dios Malos dropped their self-titled psychedelic beach-rock debut in May and have been touring in support of it since. As per the name change, the band had this to say on its website: "It doesn't mean what you think because it doesn't really mean anything. It's a shame we had to do it, but as J.P. said, 'We're up against rainbows and magic,' and when it comes to casting spells we're barely level 3 musicians with nothing but cheap magic missiles and plate mail armor to protect us from the wrath of eight-headed hydra law firms with unlimited mana and 100-sided dice."

And in case you're beginning to think this all sounds pretty retarded... well, you're not alone: "It's pretty retarded," bassist J.P. Cabellaro told Rolling Stone. "It didn't really seem like there was going to be any point of confusion... It's the same as it was before, except for now we're going to be Dios Malos." They're pretty locked into that URL, though, huh.