1980: Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell Review

BAND: Black Sabbath

ALBUM: Heaven And Hell

Members: Ronnie Jame Dio (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Geezer Buttler (Bass), Bill Ward (Drums), Geoff Nicholls (Keyboards)

SONGS: Neon Knights, Children Of The Sea, Lady Evil, Heaven And Hell, Wishing Well, Die Young, Walk Away, Lonely Is The Word

REVIEW:
The year nineteen-eighty was a good year for music. You had Ozzy Osbourne’s first solo album “Blizzard of Ozz”, AC/DC “Back In Black”, Judas Priest with “British Steel”, and this little number from Black Sabbath (or Heaven And Hell, depending on what you want to call them)’s first non-Ozzy album: Heaven And Hell. When Ozzy was fired from Black Sabbath on December 11, 1979,who really knew that Sabbath would go and reinvent itself into this sound?
The first track is a pure in your face opener called “Neon Knights”. Like a good majority of any song Ronnie James Dio (the new leader singer, formally from Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW), there is a mystic, epic, and story of good and evil thrown in. The Story behind “Neon Knights” is that there is a battle being fought between angels and demons with the angels being called Neon Knights. As an opener, this is fast, furious, and above all else, pure heavy.
The start of this album was pure fast, high voltage. Now with Children Of The Sea, it feels as if someone stomped on the breaks. This song has an entirely different feel with Dio singing higher than the previous and with more feeling as he sings a tale of children who have nothing left, that has lost the sun and are now Children of the Sea. This song’s strong point is hearing the vocal range of Dio.
I’m going to start off saying that the high point of this album Bass wise is the intro to this little number. I mean, when you hear it, you know that this album just became fast and heavy again. Lady Evil tells the story of Lady that is pure evil, darkness loves her, and will bring ruin unto your world. As I sadi, the part of this album that makes this song worth listening to is Geezer Butler’s Bass thundering out that bass-line. there are few songs in metal that show love for the four stringed instrument, and this song show pure love for the overlooked guitar.
Then, the gates of the living and the underworld have been opened when the opening notes and beats of the epic song that is Heaven And Hell begins. The first half of this song is, without a doubt, a wonderful mid tempo song that would have worked fine as a stand alone (Heaven And Hell Part One) with the last part being a heavy, furious piece of genius (Heaven And Hell Part Two). The entire song tells of the good and bad sides of humanity and the instrumental aspects of the song do a damn good job at showcasing this point. One just needs to listen to the iconic guitar riff by the legendary Tony Iommi to fully takes over this song. One last thing to point out is the drum intro into the heavy second part. The last minute, a soft guitar solo that leads out of the song, is truly a fitting exit of this track. To the average listener, the length of this song maybe a problem, but if you can get past by that, this song is equal to a religious experience.
Wishing Well, to me at least, feels like a filler that was just thrown to make the album longer. Despite that, it is a fun little song. This song is pretty much average with nothing that really stands out. If anything was to, it would have to be the high notes that Iommi makes on his guitar. Other than that, this is a song, thou good, could be overlooked if you are wanting only the best from this album.
Imagine being inside purgatory with the only sounds is a weeping guitar and all around you, that is all you here. You want to love the sound, and then it is joined by the drums and bass with the feeling of being whirled around. That is how the song Die Young feels like at the start. The song, about the positives of die young (thou Dio said he does not want this happening to us), is fast most of the time, slow, has a wonderful weeping guitar at times, a mystic quality, and Dio’s high notes. This song is an improvement over Wishing Well in terms of greatness. This song is original on the album in comparison to the other songs and above all else, is a wonderful listening experience.
More pop oriented than the rest of the songs, Walk Away feels like another filler song, but it is better than Wishing Well. The song talks about walking away from a girl that has a look of freedom and is wild. The guitar work is wonderful along with the bass (thou not quite as good as Lady Evil). It has more of a creative feel towards it that I think it is good for this song, but it has a distinct pop-metal feel to it that if they released this as a single, it would have been on pop stations.
With Lonely Is The Word, this albums ends with another fantastic song. In terms of lyrics, I believe that this song talks about being on top of the world and then losing it all and thus being lonely (hmm. Sounds like a certain Ozzy Osbourne). The guitar and bass create a semi-sad sounding presence that fit’s the lyrics of the song. If you listen, there is that mystic sound quality again that was in Die Young that is like a cherry on top of the song. Then, you have the drums which are, in my opinion, one of the better songs on the album in terms of drums.
With this being the first Dio-Sabbath album, I feel that it was a fantastic home run of pure greatness. This shows how great they would have been together. Almost every song could have been a single (Wishing Well and Walk away being the acceptations) and they would have done well. The only real complaint I have on this album is that it is a short album (only forty minutes in length) and I wish that more songs were added, but all of that is made up for by the everlasting roar of power that is, was, and forever will be Ronnie James Dio.