Heaven&Hell/Live From Radio City Music Hall(2007)

The Great Ronnie James Dio(RIP) once again hooked up with pals Tony Iommi/Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice to have another go round of Dio fronted Sabbath. 

The only catch is this time they were calling themselves Heaven And Hell not Black Sabbath perhaps due to legal stuff who knows but any hard rock music listener will know the deal!

When I reviewed the  epic Mob Rules(1981) this incarnation of the band was my first introduction to Black Sabbath and I just loved and still do the Mob Rules album as sometimes those first listens to a certain period of a band just resonates with you the listener just a little more!

Special thanks to our family member…Fender The Wonder Dog whom hung out with me on a Sunday afternoon while I scribbled this review!

Of course as soon as dug Dio Sabbath RJD split and released the epic solo album Holy Diver(1983) and from there in the early 90’s Ronnie once again hooked up with these guys for the Dehumanizer (1992) album and of course that went down in flames as well….

But….

2007 and the Sabs….er I mean Heaven And Hell are back in town, well Radio City in NYC that is and they record a Live Album. So following the purchase of a Dio/Sabbath Greatest Hits set to coincide with the Tour here comes once the tour winds down the live album and Deke’s is up for it!!

Disc One
No. Title Length
1. “E5150/After All (The Dead)” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 8:30
2. “The Mob Rules” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 4:04
3. “Children of the Sea” 6:52
4. “Lady Evil” 5:20
5. “I” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 6:27
6. “The Sign of the Southern Cross” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 9:06
7. “Voodoo” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 7:42
8. “The Devil Cried” (Dio, Iommi) 11:40

Disc two
No. Title Length
1. “Computer God” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 6:41
2. “Falling Off the Edge of the World” (Dio, Iommi, Butler) 5:45
3. “Shadow of the Wind” (Dio, Iommi) 6:05
4. “Die Young” 7:44
5. “Heaven and Hell” 15:15
6. “Lonely Is the Word” 6:48
7. “Neon Knights”

This album is chalk full of Huge and I mean Huge Bombastic Iommi Riffs and man I just  dig the Sabbath Sludge crawl of opener After All which upon first listen is kinda of a head scratcher but this is there deal and they’re gonna do what they wanna do! Pay your $6.66 to the bus driver folks as Ronnie and Crew are taking us on a one way trip to Hell! Crazy opener but cool!

The next 6 songs that follow…Mob Rules/Childern Of The Sea/Lady Evil/I/ The Sign Of The Southern Cross and Voodoo are classic Ronnie Sabbath. The songs have a quicker tempo than any of the Ozzy era led Sabbath for the most part and perhaps it was a calculated move back in 1980 when Ronnie joined. Shake  up the Sabbath song structure retool it for the 80’s. New band …New set of rules. Sounds like to me anyways especially the track Mob Rules with Appice driving the beat forward folks and the guy is a monster on the drums on this show as well as he gets the complimentary drum solo on The Devil  Cried.(one of the new tracks that was on the Dio Sabbath Comp)

Disc 2 opens with Computer God from the Dehumanizer album and this is another one of my Dio Sabbath Fav’s. Sure it trucks along at a snail’s pace at times but when the chorus kicks in it’s all bets off with Geezers grumbling Bass. Vinny smashing the cymbals while Tony hooks it altogether musically with his King OF Doom Riffs. Ronnie harness it all in with the vocals!

Cool that these guys don’t play for years together yet when they put there issues aside it’s like a step has never been skipped! This album proves that as they fire away at Die Young along with a 15 minute sing along with Satan on Heaven And Hell  and to finish things up a big round of blast off with Neon Knights! Neon Knights is a huge fireball of speed riff’s  and drums that are rocking off the Highway To Hell!

This is a fantastic live record ….

Advertisement