I’m sure most of you into Metal already know about the reunion of Sabbath with with the fucking godly Mr. Ronnie James Dio.
They played a sold out show in NYC (Radio City Music Hall) a couple days ago. And the sellout was in MINUTES. 6000 tickets for a band that hasn’t played together in 15 years. By all accounts the show was pure magic…Mr. Dio sounds better than ever fronting the heaviest band on this planet. The tour will continue…check out heavenandhelllive.com for the latest dates/news regarding this tour.
Along with the tour is the release of ‘Heaven and Hell The DIO years’ on April 3. It contains highlights of the recorded work the band did in the early 80s and three new songs! As of this writing I’ve heard two of em…and let me tell you, its vintage SABBATH that will give you the shivers, its great stuff! I will review the album further when I venture out to get it tomorrow.
In celebration of the reunion I’m spinning my vinyl copies of ‘Heaven and Hell’ and ‘Mob Rules’.
Side A:
Neon Knights
Children Of The Sea
Lady Evil
Heaven & Hell
Side B:
Wishing Well
Die Young
Walk Away
Lonely Is The Word
‘Heaven and Hell’. Before I say a word about this album I want to touch upon the debate regarding the various Sabbath vocalists….it will always rage, of course the one between Dio and Osbourne creating a neverending firestorm of debate. Bottom line for me…they are both very different singers, technically, Ronnie is a far superior vocalist with spot on range all over the place…always powerful, soul-filled perfection for the most part. However, Ozzy has an emotion filled style that sounds like NOTHING else then or now. I fucking LOVE him just as much as DIO but both (along with ROB HALFORD) are pillars of the formation of HEAVY METAL as we know it. ‘heaven and hell’ is eight songs of metal magic. The classics ‘neon nights’, ‘heaven and hell’, ‘lady evil’ along with the more cult ‘walk away’ the epic ‘lonely is the word’ and my personal favorite of the album ‘children of the sea’, which still stirs the emotions in me to this day every time I hear it. Simply a classic album all must own. Tony’s guitar work is fucking spectacular on this album. And did I mention the Ronnie fucking slays. hell yeah. Get it on vinyl if ya can find it…spin the black circle!
On now to the album these fellas released a year later in 1981 ‘mob rules’.
Side A:
Turn Up The Night
Voodoo
The Sign Of The Southern Cross
E5150
The Mob Rules
Side B
Country Girl
Slipping Away
Falling Off The Edge Of The World
Over & Over
This album (which was recorded in Los Angeles) starts off with the high energy ‘turn up the night’ that collapses into the groove-laden ‘voodoo’ that contains haunting vocal passages by Dio. Track 3 ‘the sign of the southern cross’ is quite possibly my favorite Dio era Sabbath track…an epic journey of acoustic to MASSIVE FUCKING RIFFS under the superior, otherworldy lyrics and vocals of RJD…goddamned rules all! You want doom, listen to this track and CRY. A goofy interlude track intros the title track…another awesome song with exploding riffs/solos…this song is simple and very effective with very catchy vocal lines and solos galore. great fun. Time to flip this slab over… ‘Country Girl’ is another doomy number complete with some harmonized vocals…it is during this track you can see the solid performance of drummer Vinny Appice…very heavy and yet places finesse fills at the blink of an eye. ’slipping away’..more epic brilliance, check out the quick bass solo by Geezer! ‘falling off the edge of the world’ starts out soft with haunting vocals over acoustic guitars that erupt into a doom march only to launch into a mid-tempo melodic rifferama a few seconds later. This shit rules people! The album closes out in style with the draining power ballad ‘over and over’…this song contains an awesome solo by Tony…and yeah Ronnie James Dio is GOD. fucking GOD I tell ya.
Like I said go to heavenandhelllive.com for the latest information.
Read all of Shane’s Music Reviews in our Music section.
