Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

Nineteen-eighty saw a rebirth, an unusual phenomenon given the old adage that “you only go around once.” Ozzy Osbourne was ceremoniously relieved of his vocal duties with Black Sabbath either by his own volition or with help, we’ll never really know the true story and now it’s moot at best. Coming off one of the most epic failures in metal history, a forty-five minute mess called Never Say Die, Black Sabbath was floundering at best during this period. Being blown off every stage from the NSD tour by a local band called Van Halen didn’t help matters, and the proverbial writing was sandblasted on the wall.

And what is it that’s said about treasure at the bottom of a rainbow? This treasure came in the form of vocalist Ronnie James Dio, fresh from his stint as Rainbow’s vocalist for three albums. The result was Heaven and Hell, easily one of the most important rock records of all time. Gone was the jazzy, criminally-thin tunes void of any real emotion and in their place was the heavy riffing long gone since 1972’s Volume 4.  From the opening chords of “Neon Knights” you knew you were in for something truly epic. Then once that powerful “Man on the Silver Mountain” range blew through the room you immediately forgot about the peace sign-waving loon and embraced those famous horns. The tide had changed, and for the better. 

With the heaviest production to date, Heaven and Hell was an immediate classic, utterly drenched in power chords from hell, vocals from purgatory and a second chance from the heavens! “Children of the Sea,” arguably one of the best RJD vocal performances period, showed a side of the Sabs we had never seen with Ozzy: the ability to carry an honest, emotional vocal that was both ethereal and multi-dimensional. Sure, Ozzy had the “Megalomania” and “Spiral Architect” tracks to boost his stock, but they were never carried off live to any degree, hence “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” never being performed live to my findings. When Mr. Dio arrived, the songwriting took on a new flavor, sparing Geezer Butler from draining his personal well any further. With songwriting that took the dark, evil themes and replaced them with Mr. Dio’s fantastical journeys into castles and ancient times, the chest compressions on the Sabbath body showed signs of life.

With tracks like “Lady Evil,” “Die Young,” and the Herculean title track, the Heaven and Hell album rang in the Dio-era with such perfection and style that such a drastic change in personnel was both forgiven and welcomed. Tony Iommi found new life in Mr. Dio (as did Bill Ward and Butler), who suffered too long with the stagnancy of Ozzy Osbourne’s erratic and increasingly inept performances, both in the studio and live. What Heaven and Hell did was say goodbye to the 70’s, a virtual graveyard for Sabbath and rock in general, and force open the door to the 80’s in reckless, yet polished style. Even the lesser-known tracks like “Lonely is the Word” and “Walk Away” callously trump “Swinging the Chain” or the sadly pedestrian title track from the last Ozzy offering.              

If you’ve never heard this album, please leave the site and run, don’t walk, to the nearest record store and, by all things holy, discover the magic!

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As a kid who was nine-years of age back in 1980, I was musically aware enough to know that my favorite band had lost its enigmatic singer. I still have the original Circus magazine from 1980 detailing the Sabbath split. I recall vividly going to Kroozin’ Music where I discovered most of my metal growing up in Chicago and seeing that record album sitting there on the broken-down wood display for a whopping six bucks. The cover looked…okay, I guessed, but I was holding out in my untrained, uniformed mind. Getting that ten dollar bill out of my hand, hard-earned through mowing the lawn and cleaning the basement for two weeks was not an easy task, and I certainly wasn’t ready to blow it in haste. After all, the guy from Rainbow, who I was not tuned into at that time, replaced my singer! What I do recall is buying the album upon insistence from Gary (bless you wherever you are now, sir!) who never treated me like a goofy kid. He said I think you’ll like it, and he helped me along the road I’m on today.

Heaven and Hell represents my youth of course. I was a kid when it came out, possessing the understanding of a kid who could barely see past the evil lyrics and low guitar sound. As I grew and discovered the Venoms and Slayers of the world, Heaven and Hell remained a constant in my listening arsenal for all of these years. The album outlasts many of its contemporaries, ingraining itself into your psyche like no other album of the time could. More importantly, it’s as important now as it was then, maybe even more so. With the recent passing of Mr. Dio my heart is heavy, my eyes are welling up again, and my CD collection is enhanced by such a wondrous album being part of my personal history and metal history.

We owe the 1980s to this album, if you think about it. Hell, we owe modern metal to this album! Sabbath was the forefathers, the godfathers, and by 1976 they were drifting on steam and slowing down fast. Without the resurgence of the originators, the masses saw that even the granddaddies weren’t giving up, so the Metallicas and NWOBHM were given added life. I have been a Sabbath fan for most of my life, and Heaven and Hell is one of the greatest albums I’ve ever heard. I believed that then, I believe it now.

What we have here is a moment in time that even cancer and the afterworld can never take from us - we have a story of triumph over tragedy, ascension over adversity. We have one of the greatest metal records ever made, and we have our genre as strong as it is today because some green nine-year-old way back when decided that life and music must go on. Thankfully, I had a lot of help in that decision!

Who says the metal masses aren’t in tandem?     

Release Date: April 1, 1980
Label: Warner Brothers

TRACK LISTING

1.  Neon Knights
2.  Children of the Sea
3.  Lady Evil
4.  Heaven and Hell
5.  Wishing Well
6.  Die Young
7.  Walk Away
8.  Lonely is the Word

Total playing time:  39:30

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Classic Review

May 25, 2010

Reviewer: Chris