Live 4 Metal: Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath-Heaven and Hell

“Cry out to legions of the Brave
Time again to save us from the Jackals of the Street”

The above lyric from Neon Knights perfectly encapsulates positive changes the now legendary Ronnie James Dio brought to Black Sabbath, in his own words, which with still send a tingle of excitement down my spine: “Circles and Rings, Dragons and Kings/Weaving a Charm and A Spell”. Where prior to Heaven and Hell, Sabbath had released poor albums like Technical Ecstasy (until the farcical joke that was Forbidden [which should have been forbidden to Sabbath fans, shame on you Toni Iommi, I’m still waiting for the hard-earned money I wasted on that travesty of an album). Ozzy was more interested in drinking himself into oblivion that focusing on Sabbath, and following the very so-so {and ironically titled] Never Say Die, was sacked from Sabbath, onto a successful and eventful solo career, culminating in the nadir of inflicting his incontinent dogs and spoilt brats on the world via his reality TV nadir.

Ronnie could not be more different to Ozzy. A serious musician and a hard worker, who knew money was hard won and didn’t piss away valuable studio time. Now following a very long career which began in the 1950s (so Ronnie dates back to the very formation of rock'n’roll). Ronnie (a talented bassist by the way) rose to be bass player and singer in Elf, before concentrating on the unique and heartfelt vocals (Note to all cookie monster vocalists out there, what is the fecking point of writing lyrics no one can understand?). Now Elf supported Deep Purple in their heyday (as opposed to the Karaoke version still going the rounds), and this coincided with the guitar maestro and comedian [not really. Ritchie smiles once a year whether needed or not], tiring of Purple (unjustly, all three post Gillan Purple albums are terrific, including the one post Ritchie’s departure). Ronnie was recruited for Ritchie’s post-Purple project Rainbow, bring most of Elf with him (though Ritchie sacked them all prior to the classic Rainbow Rising, beginning a bizarre game of musical chairs which would insanely see Ronnie himself sacked to be replaced by a pop singer!). Ronnie sang on three incredible Rainbow studio albums, all of which deserve articles in their own right, so that’s for another day. But suffice to say, Ronnie found himself looking for a band at the same time that Sabbath needed a sober vocalist, so it was a marriage made in heaven (and hell!). Ronnie took over the lyrics from Geezer, bringing a medieval romance to the lyrics, which is in its own way as relevant today as then. We only have to look at the news to see how horrible the world is, fantasy allows us to interpret reality and be all the stronger to withstand it. This resurgence in Sabbath’s fortunes coincided with a surge in popularity in metal in general, something we will see more of in future. People need escapism in time of recession more than ever.

As to the album itself, every track is a classic and whether you’re an old rivet head with a tattered jacket covered in ancient badges and patches, or a recent convert, Heaven and Hell is a must have, one of the best heavy metal albums ever recorded. I’ll leave the final words to the man himself, Ronnie James: “The world is full of kings and queens. Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams. It’s heaven and hell!”

Black Sabbath - Mob Rules

“If you listen to fools…the mob rules!”

And we’re all listening to fools right now! Black Sabbath’s tenth studio album continues to mine the same vein of musical gold as it’s predecessor, a crucial difference being the drumming on this album is provided by Vinny Appice, Bill Ward having been fired during the tour for previous album Heaven and Hell. Vinny had replaced Bill for the remaining live dates, so his recruitment was logical. He would also drum on the Dehumanizer album and is currently still drummer for his line-up, albeit under the moniker Heaven and Hell.

Mob Rules was produced by Martin Birch (a sign of quality if ever there was one, look at some of the albums he has produced), and recorded at The Record Plant in Los Angles. At just over 40 minutes, it’s much shorter than an album of today, but the quality is what counts (40 minutes was pretty much the limit of what you could fit on the two sides of a vinyl album).

The Live Evil album that broke the back of this line-up was recorded on this tour (basically it split Sabbath into two camps, Vinny and Ronnie on one, Tony and Geezer on the other, with each accusing the other of turning up their contribution to the album). Ronnie and Vinny went on to success in Dio, and Sabbath continued with Ian Gillan on vocals.

The creepy cover of this album was painted by famed artist Greg Hildebrandt. It was the subject of a rumour that it contains a disguised message of ‘kill Ozzy’. This is utter bullshit as the artwork was not created for Sabbath, but painted in the 70s and licensed to Sabbath to use.

Opening in fine style with Turn Up The Night, Voodoo is a storming Sabbath track, while the crushing The Sign Of The Southern Cross is total doom metal and one of the finest tracks any line-up of Sabbath has ever recorded. Country Girl is a beautiful piece of Dio whimsy, Slipping Away, Falling Off The Edge of the World, and Over and Over are all classics in their own right.

The title of E5150 is interesting. This became the opener for Sabbath’s concerts on the tour to support Heaven And Hell, (it replaced Supertzar, the incredible instrumental off Sabotage). It is still the opener for this line up top this day. The title means evil, as a rough translation from the Roman numeral, 5=V, 1=I, 50=L.

So now you know!

An alternative recording of the title track appeared in the animated film Heavy Metal, and is a heavy metal classic, (check out Benedictium’s fine cover of this song).

All in all, a fine album, from a fine line-up, and thankfully this Heaven and Hell-sent line up is back to weave more black magic!

Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer

In both the riff and lyric departments, it can be said without a doubt that this was Sabbath’s heaviest effort since 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (though Dehumanizer boasts none of the eccentric 70s diversity of that classic release). This is logical, as Dehumanizer was released at a time of great uncertainty and change in metal. The thrash explosion had faded, Metallica had released their most commercial effort yet, and only the biggest names of the thrash explosion would survive and fewer still would thrive. At the other end of the musical spectrum, we had the so-called grunge movement (which was as much a fashion as a musical movement, we had to suffer more lumberjack shirts than a Monty Python skit. It’s interesting that the best of the grunge bands, like Soundgarden, had in many way being producing better Sabbath album that that of the band Iommi was leading into the 90s. Now, Sabbath’s previous release Tyr, whilst it had it’s moments, not all of them were good, so it’s fair to say that the heavy elements of Dehumanizer came from the mighty Dio, the albums he released with his own band following the demise of the Dehumainzer line up would back up this. (“Jesus, Mary, And The Holy Ghost’ off the underrated Strange Highways is even heavier than anything on Dehumanizer.

So, Iommi had dismissed Tony Martin and Neil Murray from the Tyr line up. While one can have little sympathy for Murray, very much the hired hand, Martin had given a lot to Sabbath at a very low time in their career and cannot be said to have been treated fairly. It’s a rough business, and it’s ironic that for the fans who love it romanticise it so much, the reality, the skull beneath the skin as it were, is of a business that while it creates dreams, chews up the dreams of many of those that create the dreams.

The prospect of Dio onboard must have boded well for the future, and Iommi had intended to keep the services of The Octopus, the late great Cozy Powell, whose had previously played with Dio on Rainbow’s incredible Rising and Long Live Rock 'n’ Roll albums. But sadly Cozy broke his pelvis in a horse-riding accident. So Vinny Appice took over the drum stool and a classic Sabbath line-up was reunited.

As well as the tracks that make up Dehumanizer, two further songs were recorded, The Nightlife, which became Psychobia on the pointless post-Dehumanizer Sabbath album , Cross Purposes and Bad Blood. [These songs can apparently be found on the bootleg Complete Dehumanizer Sessions, along with the Geezer Butler Band’s Computer God, which can also be downloaded from the Geezer Butler website.

It’s a fantastic album, After All (The Dead) is incredible doom metal, Too Late is searing with it’s impassioned Dio vocal, and I just pulverises with a classic Iommi riff, a classic album. It made the top 40 in the UK and made number 44 on the Billboard 200 chart, which while it was in improvement on previous effort like Eternal Idol was a disappointing show against the Dio-led Sabbath heyday.

This line-up proved short lived when Iommi wanted the band to open for Ozzy’s supposed fair-well shows at Costa Mesta. Iommi must have know Dio would never open for a ‘singer’; who had constantly childishly mocked him for his size [he could mock Ronnie for his musical talent, he had only to look in them mirror to see a better target there]. I has been suggested that the whole fiasco was a prelude to a reunion with Ozzy, if so, Iommi ended up with egg on his face as he struggled through two more Sabbath albums without Ozzy (and eventually even Geezer) until the lure of the $ finally got the classic line together again.

But the wheel of fate turns ever onward, now the Dehumanizer line-up is back together as Heaven and Hell (and Ozzy is suing Iommi for part of the Sabbath name. Pull together lads! You’re hardly in danger of poverty!), and bar the setback of Ronnie’s cancer scare, hopefully Heaven and Hell have got much more good music and shows in them.

Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know

Back in October 2005, Ronnie James Dio gave a scoop to listeners of the Masters of Rock program on BBC Radio 2. He informed listeners that he was once again writing with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. The intention he said, was to record two songs for a Black Sabbath compilation entitled The Dio Years. The song-writing though, went so well that three songs were actually recorded. Bass of course was provided by the legendary Geezer Butler, while Bill Ward declined the drum stool in favour of Black Sabbath tour and album with Ozzy, though in all probability, world peace will break out before the Ozzy-era Sabbath record again, due to an ongoing dispute between Ozzy and Iommi over the Sabbath name. Drums being provided by Vinny Appice, no stranger to Dio or Sabbath.

Now, for the tour to support The Dio Years, Tony, Vinny, Ronnie, and Geezer, went out as Heaven And Hell, but everyone knew they were Sabbath. The tour was a great success and the band decided to record a very welcome new studio album, The Devil You Know, it’s title a reference to the fact that all the fans know this is Sabbath in all but name. I find it difficult to believe that it’s been so long since this line-up has recorded together, as it sounds so fresh, and seriously heavy. Opening with the anthemic Atom and Evil, Heaven and Hell have a freshness that belies any of Ozzy’s more recent solo-efforts. Fear is as much classic Dio as is classic Sabbath, which is as it should be. The most outstanding track of the album has to be the punishingly heavy Bible Black. Iommi is the Lord of the Riffs! He, more than any man, created heavy metal, and here we are over forty years later, and he can still outdo all the pretenders! We are not worthy. Double The Pain is very traditional, perhaps not up to the standards of its predecessors, but still a good song. Rock n’ Roll Angel is also old school hard-rock, but is a nice showcase for Ronnie’s fine vocals. The Turn of the Screw has a terrific uplifting groove. Eating The Cannibals is a speedy number reminiscent of Neon Knights or Mob Rules. Follow The Tears has a epic doomy quality, while Never Leave puts the foot on the accelerator, and funnily enough reminds me more of Rainbow than Sabbath. Finishing in fine style with Breaking Into Heaven, I feel that the next Heaven and Hell album will really see them get into their stride.

Incidentally, the album artwork is adapted from a painting by Per Haagensen entitled Satan, and also refers (through the numbers 25 and 41) to Bible verse Mathew 25:41, that deals with the Final Judgement, where ‘those who sit at the left side of God are cast into Hell”. None more Sabbath!

There is also an alternative cover that features the Black Sabbath devil logo prominently.

Finally, all of us here at Live4Metal would like to send out our best wishes to Ronnie James Dio, his wife Wendy, and family. A man like Ronnie, who has given so much to music and his fans, and a genuine nice chap to boot, deserves a happy outcome to his current misfortunes.