Black Sabbath - Dio Years
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Free Music Notes for Dio Years
Free Music Review: Finally, we escape the shadow of the Ozzy era again! Very much worth it
Hit: 5 Stars
When I started listening to Black Sabbath in 1981, Ronnie James Dio was the current vocalist, and Mob Rules was the current album. So I'm familiar - very familiar - with the first 13 songs on this CD. When Black Sabbath got back together with Ozzy in 1997, I figured that was pretty much it, the Dio Years (and the others, too) would be gone forever. Well, fortunately in 2006, the word came down that there would be a compilation CD (this one) in 2007 based off of "The Dio Years" of Black Sabbath. Dio's two previous tenures in the band produced three studio albums, and one live album. This CD is a decent cross section of the tunes from those three albums.
Like any other compilation album, there's always someone's personal choices as to what they think should have been left off, and put on. I would have personally left off "I" and replaced it with "Computer God", which is a far better song. I also would have put the studio version of "Children of the Sea" on here, instead of the version from "Live Evil". Perhaps also replacing Lonely is the Word with "Time Machine". But that didn't happen. The 13 older songs here are all great (except for maybe the live version of Children of the Sea). You can't go wrong with this compilation.
But this isn't just a simple compilation. There's three new songs. They are "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall". During Interviews, Tony Iommi said of the three new songs "There's one for everybody - a medium one, a slow one, and a fast one". He's right. The songs are that distinctive to me. Ear is my favorite of the three, it evokes memories of "Neon Knights", one of the best Dio era tracks. Shadow of the Wind is your usual slow powerful Black Sabbath track, and "Devil Cried" is a good track as well musically. I'm not terribly fond of the lyrics, though. They cross the line into cheese for me, but the song behind them is quite good. It's a mixed bag, that one.
As a whole, this compilation is well worth it, especially for the remastered versions of the tracks. The three albums that the compilation draws from were from 1980, 1981, & 1992. The Dehumanizer stuff from 1992 doesn't sound a whole lot different to my ears, but the Heaven & Hell stuff from 1980 sounds miles clearer than the old print, and the Mob Rules stuff from 1981 is much cleaned up too. Then you add in the three new tracks, and it's a good compilation, not just a shovel job to fill out a CD.
In fact, if you couple this CD with two other Black Sabbath compilation CD's, you can get a very good cross section of the whole of the entire history of Black Sabbath. The other two would be "Symptom of the Universe", a 2 CD package that covers the 8 studio Ozzy albums from 1970-1978, and then "The Sabbath Stones", a 1996 compilation that mostly covers the Tony Martin Era from 1987-1995, but also touches the Ian Gillan album in 1983 (Born Again), and the Glenn Hughes album in 1986 (Seventh Star). Take the three of these together, and you will get an extremely good cross section of the 18 studio albums Black Sabbath has released over the years.
As an added final note to this hardcore Sabbath fan, I loved the fact that the drum kit on the tracks used to belong to Cozy Powell. Vinny Appice plays on the tracks, but the kit used belonged to Cozy - these were recorded in the studio in Tony Iommi's house. I liked that. A lot.
Free Music Review: Ah, Those Golden Dio Years.....
Hit: 5 Stars
Okay, I'm biased as anything. Black Sabbath is my favorite band of all time. I own every piece of Black Sabbath music out there, and I mean EVERYTHING! And when I say I'm a fan of Black Sabbath, I mean every single era/version of Black Sabbath, be it the classic era of Ozzy Osbourne, the one off shots with Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes, the rocky Tony Martin years, and most importantly the legendary periods with Ronnie James Dio.
You see, it was Ronnie James Dio's time in Sabbath that got me into them in the first place! 1981:Thirteen years old, sneaking into the R rated animated feature "Heavy Metal" and hearing that legendary opus "The Mob Rules" blasting through the screen like nothing my ears had ever heard before.
I've been hooked ever since.
Now, Rhino Records has finally given this line-up it's proper due with "The Dio Years". Within this fully remastered compilation is 13 select cuts from Black Sabbath's four officially released albums with Dio: Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, and Dehumanizer. While to fully please any fan of this era, one disc doesn't fully cut it (where's The Sign Of The Southern Cross, Walk Away, or their biggest hit from the 90's Time Machine?!!?), it does give members of this new generation a great sample of what they may have missed while growing up in this Alternative/Rap/Nu-Metal world of today.
Most of the big ones are here: Neon Knights, Heaven And Hell, The Mob Rules, TV Crimes, and the live (and superior to the studio) version of Children Of The Sea. As well as deeper cuts like Lonely Is The Word, Voodoo, and others. Each track has been remastered with Warner Bros original first generation tapes and they have never, and I mean NEVER, sounded this good ever! No edits, no goofy remixes, just the classic Black Sabbath sound most of us grew up on, just louder and crisper than ever before. Just as how the Black Sabbath/Ozzy era release "The Black Box" received superior & proper remastering, "The Dio Years" seem to have been given the exact same attention. Thank you, thank you Rhino for that!
And if that wasn't enough, the original Mob Rules line-up (including Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and drummer Vinny Appice) recorded new songs! Not just one, or two, but THREE brand new tracks, making this Best Of to any Sabbath fan a must buy! The Devil Cried, Shadow Of The Wind, and Ear In The Wall, all written and recorded around late 2006 show that these guys still have alot of power left in them, sounding just like where they left off in 92's Dehumanizer. And they'll need that strength too, as most already know that they are currently on tour as "Heaven And Hell" to promote this release along with the 5000 only pressing of Rhino Handmade's "Live At The Hammersmith Odeon 1981" release due in early May. It's good to see this line-up finally get it's due, especially after a decade of overshadowing by the original Ozzy Osbourne version, which quite frankly, needed a break.
Oh and before I go, I dare anyone who thinks Black Sabbath is "only Ozzy" to purchase this, give it a listen, and you WILL see that The Dio Years WERE just as important! I couldn't imagine Black Sabbath without those classic Dio led albums.
No true Black Sabbath fan ever would.
Free Music Review: Sing me a song, you're a singer...
Hit: 5 Stars
Black Sabbath: The Dio Years is my favorite era of Sabbath. Sure, the Ozzy era is classic and is what started it all, but Ronnie James Dio's talent as a singer/songwriter is far greater in my opinion. This greatest hits package gives us 16 songs and is overall a near flawless compilation. Of course, as in all compilations, not everything could be included and some gems were left out. All three Dio-era albums are well covered and almost all the classics are here.
The biggest omission is certainly The Sign of the Southern Cross from The Mob Rules. Due to the song's length, at nearly eight minutes, it's understandable why they would choose to leave it out in favor of putting an extra song on there. The only song I'm not too happy to have on this disc is Lonely Is the Word. The Heaven and Hell album was already well represented with 6 out of its 8 songs; it's just not that memorable of a song as say Time Machine from Dehumanizer (a pretty good, often overlooked album) and could have been left out in order to give us the afore-mentioned 1992 gem. I was worried about the decision to include a live version of Children of the Sea, one of Sabbath's best songs ever, but the live version sounds crisp and Dio's vocals soar; it's just as good if not better than the studio version. I still would've gone for a Dio rendition of an Ozzy song if I were going to include something from Live Evil; a track like Iron Man or Children of the Grave. Last but not least, the three new songs aren't the best the band has written, but deserve their place here nonetheless. The Devil Cried is an acquired taste; give it a few spins, you'll see, it's a cool song that fits well with the other Sabbath songs on this disc. Shadow of the Wind is good, but the weakest of the three, in my humble opinion. The best one has to be Ear in the Wall; an energetic and catchy tune.
The final verdict is if you only have one of the Dio-era Sabbath albums or none at all, this album is perfect for you. The songs have been remastered and the sound quality is crisp and remarkable; another reason to update your catalog of Sabbath CDs with this disc. I saw Sabbath with Dio two weeks ago in Montreal, Canada when they stopped here for their tour (along with Down and Megadeth) and it was an evening I won't soon forget; the set list was awesome and the show was one of the best I'd seen in years. I'm hoping the boys will enjoy working together again enough to decide to release a new full-length album in the near future.
Free Music Review: Turn up the Volume, turn up the 5 Stars
Thunderous riffage and the roaring "TUR-R-R-N UP THE introduced me to Dio era of Black Sabbath. This Sabbath had it all: superb musicians, a frontman with unbelievable technical ability and charismatic presence, an in-your-face "chemistry" that kicked your ass right from the first notes... They had the balls-to- the-wall approach that was lacking on last releases with Ozzy. Never before have I heard all the instruments including the bass and drums so clearly presented as on the Heaven and Hell and the Mob Rules. For the first time there were actual ballads on Sabbath records - with epic vibe and beautiful singing. While Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules were built from similar ingredients they are actually quite different. The first album of Dio-fronted Sabbath crashed on the fans like sharp and clear-cut explosion. Mob Rules was a heavier and gloomier attempt. When accomplished the Mob Rules tour documented in the Live Evil album, the band had split.The uniqueness of the Dio-Iommi-Butler-Appice combination inspired the recording of the Dehumanizer album. This one was the heaviest of Sabbath releases with Dio (if not in all Sabbath history). However, in the following tour the egos clashed once more and the band split again. Last of the official Sabbath albums arrived, (the Forbidden) after which the reunion with Ozzy ended the revolving line-up policy. Although the fans enthusiastically met this, the reunion did not renew the band but led to series of reunion tours with Greatest Hits set. Completely understandable are the repeated attempts of Tony Iommi to launch solo career (also with the former bandmate Glenn Hughes). An unexpected turn however was the arrival of Dio-era Best Of compilation and tour of reunited Mob Rules line-up to promote the release.
The compilation aims to highlight the best in Dio-era Sabbath releases and while the list is slightly different for every fan, three aims are marked as achievements in my book:
i). There are three new songs proving this line-up is able to produce new music;
ii) The band is actually touring (although I personally most likely won't see them);
iii) This hopefully will kick Ozzy and $haron's a$$e$.
(...)
Free Music Review: I WILL NOT USE HEAVEN AND HELL AS MY REVIEW TITLE....
Hit: 5 Stars
Ok, personally, I think this is cool. Dio was a great frontman for Sabbath, and I don't see why there shouldn't be a greatest hits compilation of his years with the band. Cooler is the fact that the 1992 line-up of Dio Sabbath (thats Vinny Appice on drums not Bill Ward) are back on reunion, and have included three new tracks to the mix. I like all three (slow one, medium one, and a fast one... quoted)...
I was once an Ozzy-Sabbath purist, but that was years ago. Dio Sabbath is a whole different sound for the most part (some of the songs sound very Ozzy-era from Mob Rules, band wise, I think... any time you hear a version of say War Pigs though, with Dio on vocals, run away...) ....but, it's a different style of music. Dio has a completely different charisma than old school Ozzy did, so if you are strictly an Ozzy years type of person, you may not like this stuff.
Dio has altered his style a little over the years (that little Troll has been performing since the mid sixties, he must be 120 years old by now, but thats only like 30 maybe in Hobbit years) and you can see the difference between the sound from the '81 incarnation, to the '92 one and to the one presented here. But they all rock out in their own ways ('92 stuff is really solid- the Dehuminizer album was a blast! Maybe my favorite of them all) Dio is a little corny at times, but I think he always fit right in with Sabbath.
One Issue. There were only three Dio fronted Sab albums, and then the live one from '82, which was garbage in my ears. And of course, one of those tracks had to be awkwardly placed into this collection. Easily another great track could have been taken from any one of the other three albums (like, even the studio version of Children Of The Sea... however Time Machine would have been the best bet, it was in Waynes World for christ sake) Still an excellent sampler of the less popular Dio fronted Sabbath. Ozz purists, maybe give it a spin, before you judge... Sabbath really turned up the volume when Ozzy left.