Season's Greetings to all you Ciaosters! Also on Dooyoo as xBorgx
Season's Greetings to all you Ciaosters! Also on Dooyoo as xBorgx
Member since:16.08.2001
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Whilst looking through the H’s in HMV (metal section – checking out Helloween, if I am honest), I spotted this album – heck it was actually glaring at me, maybe even leaping out to get my attention. I was curious, but cannot say I was rushing to get my wallet out and take it to the till, my hands all a tremble. No, there was none of that. I knew basically who Heaven and Hell were, but thought of buying a brand new by them was not at the top of my list of priorities…
Who are Heaven and Hell?
When Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath he was replaced on vocals by ex Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio. The quintet of Toni Iommi, ‘Geezer’ Butler, Bill Ward and Ronnie created one of the greatest albums of all time – Heaven and Hell (1980). Bill Ward left soon after and replaced by Vinnie Appice and then released and other album ‘Mob Rules’ (1981). Then Ronnie moved on to form his solo band, nipped back a few years later (unsuccessfully) to record Dehumaniser in 1992. Turn the clock forward to 2007 and the four of them began to record songs for a proposed Black Sabbath ‘The Dio Years.’ They liked doing it so much, that they decided to go on tour under the name of Heaven and Hell, discarding the Black Sabbath tag totally. Iommi is quoted
as saying, ‘You know what you are going to get,’ meaning those going to the gigs won’t be expecting any Ozzy songs…
But like I said, I wasn’t excited about ‘The Devil you Know,’ just curious. So curious that I visited youtube later that day to see what this new album was like. I heard Bible Black and I was awe-struck… Suffice to say I went out and bought it in hardly any time at all.
We begin with the slow doom-fest ‘Atom and Evil.’ This is the epiphany of all that is Black Sabbath with Dio at the helm, leading the rest of them along a dark passage, crunching guitars complimented with grinding bass and thunderous drums. A rip-roaring guitar solo and wonderful harmony vocals. I don’t know why but it reminds my of early Rainbow in the way Dio sings this one. It fades to a slow yet chaotic final…
And next we have ‘Fear.’ The tempo is ‘upped’ here, but only just. We are still being lead down that dark passage, where Dio’s voice calls out in the darkness. Thumping guitar and bass, more harmony vocals. Not a great song, but one that will grow on you after time.
Third up is the classic ‘Bible Black.’ Some daft lyrics here, but on the whole a winner of a song. It has a classical intro, Iommi’s guitar, a banshee in the night…
'He reached for a book all bound in leather… Something that he knows he’s never read… The first page says beware you’ve found the answer… The next one says I wish that you were dead…’
Thudding drums and the metal begins… This a definate Sabbath number – a song that would not seem out of place on the actual 1980 Heaven Hell album, wedged between Die Young and Neon Knights… The feeling, the emotions are strong here and the dark passage we are being led along seems as though it might come to an end after all…
Take me back, I must have the Bible Black…
It is a hard one to follow and ‘Double the Pain’ struggles a bit. A fuzzy bass line gives into heavy guitars and we are off. It is all doom and gloom again, and we are lost along that passage again. Yet there is an air of optimism as we are guided through.
More slow metal with ‘Rock and Roll Angel’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw’ These are hard to get into at first, but not too bad on the whole, the former has a nice interlude with quiet guitars and a superb guitar solo.
‘And there’s service with a smile… Don’t need to see your money… But one more thing to do… And we’re just about to do it to you… The turn of the screw…’
‘Eating the cannibals’ is a fast one… A little bit daft, but the whole band are one form.
The last three are great. ‘Follow the tears,’ is a very slow cruncher to begin, with a haunting organ to accompany the … crunchiness… Then we had operatic voices and marching drums, giving way to a chaotic sound. It all falls into a metal groove, though.
‘Neverwhere,’ blasts into life and great little riff by Mr Iommi. The dark passage has a light at the end of the tunnel. This (and the last one) tend to replay themselves on my ipod.
‘Breaking into Heaven,’ is the classic album finale, where we reach are journey’s end, and Messrs Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice take us back to reality. A grinding, yet emotion-filled start, reaching a great crescendo…
‘High above the world we had it all… So no one seemed to care when evil came to call and… Soon we knew temptation and we sinned… Then he closed the door, we can’t come back again…’
So, was it worth it? I think so, yes. I don’t really think the guys have got together just to earn a few quid… I genuinely feel that they like making music together. Is it a classic album and will it stand the test of time? Well, I don’t feel it is as good as the Sabbath album ‘Heaven and Hell,’ but it is better that the other two they made I think. There is nothing new here, but does there need to be? Black Sabbath were always the band that my ‘brother liked,’ to be honest and I always preferred the likes of Rainbow and Iron Maiden, but I guess I adopted them more, especially when Ronnie joined.
There are a lot of good things about this album, and yes there are a few bad things too. But for an hour or so of head-banging and reminiscing on better times, or just discovering something new, I would recommend this…
All song written and produced by Dio, Iommi and Butler. Recorded at Rockfield Studios.
Released in 2009.
www.heavenandhelllive.com
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