478. Black Sabbath / Heaven and Hell. 1980. 5/5

By 1979, Black Sabbath had been playing, recording and touring for a decade, retaining the same foursome that created music that changed the world. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward had produced eight albums that not just defined but created and glorified a genre, the music genre of heavy metal. The first six albums were undeniably great and legendary. The last two... well... they were still Black Sabbath. But more importantly, the cracks in the band had become obvious and pronounced. An abuse and overabundance of drugs along with the deterioration of friendships and partnerships all began to take their toll on a band that continued to try and find a way to make it work. Ozzy had already left the band prior to the writing sessions for what became “Never Say Die!”, deciding to go out and form his own band. Iommi called in friend Dave Walker to replace him, and for a short time both bands looked as though they would record separate albums, until Osbourne realised that he was not ready to be done with Black Sabbath and returned to the fold. After another difficult time “Never Say Die!” was recorded and released, and the band again went off on tour to promote their album and their brand. Famously supported for part of this tour by Van Halen, it was suggested the young American upstarts showed up their more famous act on most nights, something that caused mor tension than would have already been in place.
Following the tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles and rented a house again as they had in the past and spent nearly a year working on new material for the next album. While all four members were dousing themselves with alcohol and drugs, it was agreed that Osbourne was on another level entirely. While band was still coming up with song ideas, Osbourne showed little interest and would actually refuse to sing them. With so much time being taken for almost no reward, the pressure from the record label and the frustrations with Osbourne's lack of input coming to a head, Iommi believed the only options available were to fire Osbourne or break the band up completely. In the end Tony made the decision to sack Ozzy in 1979. "At that time, Ozzy had come to an end", Iommi said in his autobiography. "We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time. We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like, 'Rehearse today? No, we'll do it tomorrow.' It really got so bad that we didn't do anything. It just fizzled out". Bill Ward, who was close with Osbourne, was chosen by Iommi to break the news to the singer on 27 April 1979.
Meanwhile, the band Rainbow, formed by Ritchie Blackmore on his exit from Deep Purple, had released three excellent albums and risen in popularity over their four years in existence. Led by Blackmore and the vocals of Ronnie James Dio, the band had sold out concerts throughout Europe and done well in America. However, following the tour to promote the “Long Live Rock and Roll” album, Blackmore was looking to take the band in a more commercial direction, hoping to make a big break in the US market in particular. To this end, he wanted to move away from the themes and imagery that the band had been highlighting in the lyrics Dio had been promoting and create songs with a more obvious message to gain commercial airplay. Dio was against this, believing that the success they were already achieving was reason enough to stay the course. Blackmore though was the band leader, and he was adamant that a change was necessary. This led to Dio leaving Rainbow and into an uncertain future.
What did the future hold for all of the characters in this story? Blackmore soon hired Graham Bonnet to fill Dio’s spot as lead singer of Rainbow, and set about writing for their next album which would become “Down to Earth”. Ozzy set about trying to put together a new band, one that was supposed to be called the Blizzard of Ozz, and set about composing what would eventually become the album of that name. Meanwhile, the chance meeting of Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio became a focal point in both men’s lives. An initial discussion between the two was about the possibility of them forming a new band together, without the ties of any other name. While there was no follow up on this first meeting, a chance encounter sometime after at The Rainbow in Los Angeles saw the discussion resume in earnest. ‘It must have been fate,’ Dio said later on, ‘because we connected so instantly.’
After a series of follow-up phone calls with Iommi, the pair agreed to meet up at Tony’s house in Los Angeles for a low-key, get-to-know-you jam. Fate stepped in again, as in that first session together, they wrote ‘Children of The Sea’, a song that blended their talents right away. ‘Tony had this great riff he played me but nothing to go with it,’ remembered Ronnie. ‘I said, ‘Gimme a minute’ and went into the corner and started writing down the words. Then we recorded it. When we played it back it was obvious to both of us, we really had something here.’ As Iommi recalled: ‘it was exciting and challenging because we were doing things that quite frankly would have been beyond us with Ozzy. He wasn’t that sort of singer.’ Indeed, Iommi in years since has said that he still has a recording of Ozzy singing an early version of a song featuring the same riff that Dio had just created the lyrics and vocals for what became “Children of the Sea”.
Dio and Tony soon agreed to team up, and although there was a sense for a time that this would be a different project, eventually Dio agreed to become Black Sabbath’s new singer. The drama surrounding the band was not yet ready to sign off however. Not long into the process of writing for the new album, Geezer Butler took a leave of absence, with no surety that he would return. He had taken time off to deal with his divorce from his first wife, and he was in no head space in which to contribute. The story of what occurred over the next period of time has had several versions over the years. Craig Gruber, former band mate of Dio in both Elf and Rainbow, came in to help play on demos of the album, a role that Geoff Nicholls also filled during this time. In a 2009 interview with journalist Malcolm Dome, Gruber claimed that not only had he co-written much of what became the new album, he also played bass on all tracks. He later stepped this back to suggest that he had only helped to compose the song “Die Young” and had reached a financial settlement with the band at the time for his contributions. In his autobiography a few years later, Iommi did concede that Gruber had recorded all of the bass parts on the album, but that on his return to the band in January 1980, Butler had re-recorded all of them as they appear on the album, and that Butler had never heard anything that Gruber had played prior to his re-recording of those parts. Nicholls, for his part, then moved to the keyboards, a role he would fill for the band for years to come.
One other addition suggested by Dio prior to the recording process also came to pass. It involved hiring Martin Birch to come on board as producer. Birch had been the producer of the two enormous Rainbow albums “Rising” and “Long Live Rock and Roll”, and as a fan of his work Dio suggested he should also come on board to produce this new album. On the back of this, Iommi was quoted as saying the following: ‘We recorded very fast. We’d been used to taking longer and longer with things getting out of hand, but this time it was a joy to be in the studio. We all knew that the album was something very special… Sure, there was a definite concern about the fans. But we had so much confidence in the strength of what we had, our belief was that we’d ride through any criticism.’
With a notably different vocal style from Osbourne's, Dio's addition to the band marked a change in Black Sabbath's sound. Iommi continued: "They were totally different altogether. Not only voice-wise, but attitude-wise. Ozzy was a great showman, but when Dio came in, it was a different attitude, a different voice and a different musical approach, as far as vocals. Dio would sing across the riff, whereas Ozzy would follow the riff, like in "Iron Man". Ronnie came in and gave us another angle on writing."
But the leap of faith that looks so easy to take in retrospect, was anything but. Dio and Sabbath were hardly an obvious fit, and the proof would only come out with the pudding. And so, on April 18, 1980, the world held a collective breath on the release of Black Sabbath’s ninth studio album, titled “Heaven and Hell”. The world was not to be disappointed.

What exactly did everyone expect to hear when they first put this album on their turntable? What did the two sides of the divide think would come out of the speakers after the needle hit the vinyl? History tells us that there were many fans who believed Black Sabbath should have folded after Ozzy’s departure which is a ridiculous notion that we will address later on. How much trepidation existed of course is by the by. Because the needle moves smoothly across the vinyl to the start of track one, and then the immediate introduction of the drum beat, bass run and guitar riff that marks the transition of the band into its new era. And then comes the first offering from the new vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who immediately soars into his work. “Oh no, here it comes again. Can't remember when we came so close to love before”. Tony and Geezer’s guitars thunder along underneath as Ronnie climbs above them, and the opening stanza brings two things to the surface immediately – yes this is a different Black Sabbath than has come before, and it also crushes from the very beginning. Everything that defines this new lineup comes at you in the first three minutes of the first song. Tony’s inspiring guitar riff is a great introduction, Geezer’s bass line complements it perfectly and Dio’s vocals floats above with the power he had brought to those great Rainbow songs. Dio lifts the tempo as he climbs into the bridge of “Bloodied angels fast descending, moving on a never bending light” before descending back to the call of Neon Knights... all right... and then Tony breaks into his solo, guided underneath by Geezer’s wonderful bassline that offsets it all beautifully. Apart from that solo break the music itself holds to its own most of the way through, still as important as ever, but it is Dio’s vocals that steal the show on the song, stamping his mark on the album from the outset.
Following this comes the aforementioned “Children of the Sea”, a game changer when it comes to the band and the new path they were building for themselves. Imagine being in that room when Tony first played the riff to this song, and then Ronnie going away for five minutes to write some lyrics, and then putting them both together to experience this for the first time. They obviously knew then that they had something together, and when you hear this song on this album you can understand why they felt there was magic from the beginning, because this is what this song glows with all the way through. That opening guitar passage from Tony and Geezer literally makes you feel and see the ocean and the mist all around, and Dio’s vocals gently explaining “In the misty morning, on the edge of time, We've lost the rising sun, a final sign, As the misty morning rolls away to die, Reaching for the stars, we blind the sky”... as Dio’s vocals and the music all rise in conjunction as the song bursts into the heavier headbanging riff that brings the song to its next level. The vocals rise in power to match the progression of the music, and the rise and fall throughout the track is beautifully conceived and performed, the genuinely emotional solo that flows back into the opening riff again, which builds again to the end of the track – all of it is the best example of the maturing and morphing of the band into something that retains the old and welcomes the new. Moving on from the neon knights and the children of the sea we have the magical mystical woman from witches valley, “Lady Evil”. Those that beholden a grudge on Dio and the direction the band takes on this album hold this song up as the example of why it doesn’t work and why it shouldn’t be called Black Sabbath. The lyrical content, the lack of any doom with either the music or the lyrical content, is used as the stake that is driven through the Heaven and Hell heart. It is true also that some of those that are champions of this album also hold this song in lesser esteem than the other tracks on the album. It does sit in between two of the better tracks on this album. But it is an upbeat track with Iommi’s guitar stylising the song as Ronnie tells his tale of a woman he seems to know quite well.
The success or otherwise of the second coming of Black Sabbath probably always hinged on the band being able to create a song that would capture the imagination of its fan base and beyond, to anchor this album as the go-to song to which fans could insist that you listen to this album because of this song. And without a doubt the band did that with the title track of the album, “Heaven and Hell”. A song that has spanned the generations and continues to act as a beacon to the world of music. An epic track from the outset, the genuinely brilliant but simple riff from Iommi that is tied together with Geezer’s atmospheric tones that both match Iommi’s riff but also take on their own life beyond that, and arguably make the track as wonderful as it is. Ward and Butler hold their own as Ronnie sings the opening verse, highlighting his amazing voice as he talks about singing songs as a singer, doing wrongs as a bringer of evil, into the second verse as Tony’s guitar comes back to full life and drives into the chorused backing vocals over Dio’s cries, and then the song descends into the heavy middle section with all instruments on hand and Dio asking if it seems real then it is illusion, for every moment of truth there’s confusion in life. And we are on and on and on and on... and we flow into the solo section as Bill and Geezer tow the line while Tony almost gently takes us to the breakdown, where Bill’s drum pattern and Geezer’s rollicking bassline cascades into Tony’s disposition and Dio charging to the front of the stage, imploring with passion and steel “They say that life’s a carousel, spinning fast you've got to ride it well, the world is full of kings and queens, who blind your eyes and steal your dreams, it’s heaven and hell”. Nothing in music comes across as powerful as the final two minutes of this song. This is the moment when the detractors are finally defeated, that Black Sabbath can exist without Osbourne’s vocals and Geezer’s lyrics. Everything else about this album also proves this point, but the finality of the title track is like Harry Potter exclaiming “expecto patronum” and casting out the dementors. This song has always been a classic since the release of this album. Personally, I believe this is the finest song ever written.
Side 2 opens on a high with the terrifically uptempo “Wishing Well”, dominated by Geezer’s fantastic bassline that moves up and down the fretboard, showcasing all of the traits that have made his bass playing over the years so crucial to the band’s sound. All three of the other members of the band are also excellent on this song, but it is Geezer’s work here that makes this such an absorbing track. Take a listen again and you’ll be amazed at how dominant he is here. The fact that he wrote this bass track AFTER the song had been completed is perhaps the most remarkable part of it all. This song also contains some of my favourite Dio lyrics, such as “Throw me a penny and I’ll make you a dream, you’ll find that life’s not always as it seems” and “Love isn’t money, it’s not something you buy, so let me fill myself with tears you cry” and the lead of the song with “I’ll give you a star, so you’ll know just where you are, someday someway you’ll feel the things I say, dream for a while of the things that make you smile, don’t you know, don’t you know, oh you know that I’m your wishing well”. But there are two lines in this song that, pretty much from the moment that I first heard them back in 1986, that I have written on birthday cards and wedding cards, and posted on social media and absorbed into part of my mantra, so much do they mean to me. And those simple lines are “Time is a never ending journey, love is a never ending smile”. They are two simple lines in a song that only those who listen to this album even know, and yet they have become two of the most important lines in my life. I have pretty much lived my life by them. And I still feel a great lifting every time I listen to this song and hear Ronnie singing them back to me.
Doubling down after that is “Die Young”, another supremely uptempo fast track opened again by the dreamy keys and Iommi guitar melody. Two songs on the album open this way, and neither loses any of its power or integrity by doing so. This then blasts into the band crashing back into action, and the song is away. Like “Children of the Sea” it has its changes from soft to heavy and back again, but the intensity throughout is retained. This is probably the heaviest song on the album, a great rhythm drum and bass anchoring the song, which allows Tony to throw riff after solo riff over the top and Ronnie to bring his high energised vocals into the mix as well. This takes us to the breakdown in the middle of the song, a time of reflection to contemplate what has come, and then what is to follow. Geoff Nicholls keys lead into the heavy guitar and drum contribution, and then we cascade again down the rapids into the pits of hell, Tony’s riff building and rising in power and ------ as Dio again takes centre stage as he cries from his pedestal “Gather the wind, though the wind won’t help you fly at allllllll... your backs to the wall” before calling the class to end by reminding everyone to “live for today, for tomorrow never comes”. It’s another altogether magnificent song on an album that is filled with brilliance.
“Walk Away” is another song where Geezer Butler is the dominant force throughout. His bassline throughout this song is not only front and centre in the mix, it is the driving force of the song. Most of the time when I listen to the song, I’m not singing the words, I’m humming the bassline instead, that is how prominent it is. Even during Tony’s guitar solo, Geezer’s bass is what makes it work. This song is one of the many that you can mention when it comes to that tired argument of ‘who’ is Black Sabbath. Some say Sabbath without Ozzy isn’t Sabbath. Some say Iommi is the sound of Sabbath. I think it is more accurate to say that Sabbath without Geezer just isn’t the same. You can call it Sabbath, but it is a different sound entirely when Geezer isn’t in the band.
The closing track on “Heaven and Hell” is “Lonely is the Word”, the slowest tempo song on the album, the most introspective and moody track on the album, with a very bluesy sound to the song as it winds its way from start to finish. The second half of the song is almost entirely down to the three instrumentalists. Bill Ward’s drumming is superb, not the bombastic and hard hitting style that he originally brought to the band, but his feel for the track and the way he plays emphasises pieces and places in the perfect manner. That leaves Geezer and Tony to create an amazing section over the top, Geezer again wandering all over the fretboard in a way that brings his moody translation onto the song, and then allows Tony to just solo over the top to bring an emotional flow to the fading conclusion of the song and the album. Some show no enthusiasm for this song. For me it is a true rollercoaster of passionate overflow that not only showcases yet another part of this new foursomes amazing style but also their genius.

I need to start off this personal overview of this album here by making this statement. If you have not listened to the podcast in podcastland titled ‘And Volume For All’, to both the episodes on which it covers the first eight Black Sabbath albums, and then the 11 episodes dedicated to the career of Ronnie James Dio, AND IN PARTICULAR the episode dedicated to the album “Heaven and Hell”, then you really must do it. Quinn hosts the very best heavy metal podcast on the planet, and his efforts outshine anything I have done here by a very large percentage. So please, when you are finished here go and check it out. I promise you that you will not be disappointed.
Though I was not old enough to be aware of the commotion as I was ten years old at the time, it must have been a dire time when Ozzy was finally moved on from Black Sabbath, and when Dio had left Rainbow. Two bands and two lead singers had so much riding on their next moves, and amazingly out of all of that turmoil, all four entities would go on and continue their careers for some time. Each had their challenges and risks, but it feels as though Iommi and Sabbath probably had the most to lose.
This is not a traditional Black Sabbath album, in the mould of what had come before “Heaven and Hell”. While the basics of the music remain in the riffs and drum beat, there is no doubt that the arrival of Dio in the band pushed them into a new dimension lyrically as well as musically. Dio had a different style melodically than Black Sabbath had utilised previously, and while the guitars and bass and drums are still in ‘Sabbath mode’ there is little doubt that Dio had some influence in where they went melodically. And lyrically... it was the best thing that could happen for this album. Geezer has admitted that he was burned out after years of being lent on to provide the lyrics for the band and that he had little left to offer, and then Dio came on board and took over that role. It gave Geezer the chance to step back and that was a good thing for him, certainly given the headspace he had been in at the time this album was being written and recorded. And it is one of the major ways this album differs from what had come before it, because the lyrics writer has changed, and thus the content of the songs goes in a different direction what it had been in the past.
Arguments still exist over the legitimacy of the band Black Sabbath in the years since, because the lead singer had changed. Do you really want to argue over that, and the music along with it? Has there ever been an instance that suggests Iron Maiden should have changed their name with the introduction of Bruce Dickinson, or Blaze Bayley? How about Deep Purple when Rod Evans left and Ian Gillan arrived? Or then when Ian Gillan left and David Coverdale came on board? Are “Burn” and “Stormbringer” not Deep Purple albums because they went in a bluesier and funkier fashion than previously? Fans can argue all they want about the so-called legitimacy of Black Sabbath the band following 1978. The simple truth is, the band is still Black Sabbath, even with the substitution of one member. It happens in music all the time, and Black Sabbath is not just Ozzy Osbourne. You can proclaim your love of the years of the original foursome all you like, and you won’t get any argument from me because I too love those years. But trying to suggest Black Sabbath ended in 1978 is still one of the most ridiculous statements in music history.
This album is a true masterpiece. My most immediate early memories of listening to the album are in high school in 1986, after my heavy metal awakening had occurred and I was trying to find as many bands and albums as I could to experience. I had discovered Dio the band through the arrival of an American exchange student called Steve who had come for a couple of months in those early weeks of Year 11, and from that it had led me to the albums “Heaven and Hell” and “Mob Rues” with Dio on lead vocals, with which my heavy metal music dealer kindly furnished me with copies on the cassettes I provided him. These two albums were in fact my real introduction to Black Sabbath, though I knew songs from the earlier albums I didn’t hear any of those albums in full until after this period. We had sport on a Wednesday afternoon, amusingly titled “Double Games”, and we had to walk from school to the local leisure centre to get out fix of basketball and badminton and whatever other sports they allowed us to play in those days. The walk would take about 20 minutes, and along the way I would bring my portable tape deck and play music. Eventually my friend group would forego the sport and sit on the top balcony of the gym and listen to music, and this album was one of the most played in those mid-months of 1986. We would crank it and sing along, and they were great times. It still brings back memories of those times whenever I listen to the album today.
As you could imagine, I have had this album out on heavy rotation for the last couple of weeks. To be fair, it is rarely very long before it comes out for a listen anyway, but here and now it has been getting a lot of airplay. It has been bloody marvellous. A couple of days ago I put it on in the Metal Cavern, and my 17 year old son Josh walked, sat down and listened to it with me, and we both sang every word. When it finished, he got up, said “thanks Dad, that was awesome”, and went about his day. Dad goals achieved.
As I wrote and composed this particular part of the episode that I am saying now, I was on my 27th listen to the album in the last two weeks. And I could quite happily put it back on now and listen to it again.
No review that I could do, not even one that has gone on as long as this one has, could ever possibly fully explain to you how much I love this album. This has everything for me. It offers me joy, it offers me tears, it draws from me emotion that even today I can’t explain as to why it does this. Ronnie James Dio and his music has been my talisman for almost 40 years. And this album has lyrics and music that I truly live my life by. It is a lifeforce for me. These songs all have something that ties them to me. If I ever had to choose one album that is all I could listen to for the rest of my life, it would most probably be this one. The magic that these four created on this album is almost unmatched. It has resided in my five favourite albums of all time... practically forever. And when I sat with three of my best friends at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre on August 7, 2007 to see Heaven and Hell play live, and hear these songs and the others from “Mob Rules” and “Dehumanizer” performed by Butler, Iommi and Dio, it was one of the greatest nights of my life.