Black Sabbath. 1980-1983 - Dio & Ian Gillan Years. 4 Albums

Many had left Black Sabbath for dead at the dawn of the '80s, and with good reason – the band's last few albums were not even close to their early classics, and original singer Ozzy Osbourne had just split from the band. But the Sabs had found a worthy replacement in former Elf and Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, and bounced back to issue their finest album since the early '70s, 1980's Heaven and Hell. The band sounds reborn and re-energized throughout. Several tracks easily rank among Sabbath's all-time best, such as the vicious album opener, "Neon Knights," the moody, mid-paced epic "Children of the Sea," and the title track, which features one of Tony Iommi 's best guitar riffs. With Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath were obviously back in business. Unfortunately, the Dio-led version of the band would only record one more studio album before splitting up (although Dio would return briefly in the early '90s). One of Sabbath's finest records.

~ by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic.com

CD1 Tracklist:

1. Neon Knights - 3:54
2. Children Of The Sea - 5:35
3. Lady Evil - 4:26
4. Heaven And Hell - 6:58
5. Wishing Well - 4:08
6. Die Young - 4:45
7. Walk Away - 4:26
8. Lonely Is The Word - 5:50


CD2 Tracklist:

1. Children Of The Sea (Live, Single B-Side) - 6:26
2. Heaven And Hell (Live, Single B-Side) - 7:20
3. Lady Evil (Mono Edit, 7' Single) - 3:58
4. Neon Knights (Live 1980) - 4:50
5. Children Of The Sea (Live 1980) - 5:58
6. Heaven And Hell (Live 1980) - 12:35
7. Die Young (Live 1980) - 4:37


• Tony Iommi - lead guitar
• Geezer Butler - bass guitar
• Ronnie James Dio - vocals
• Bill Ward - drums

Original album credits:
Produced and engineered by Martin Birch.
Music written and arranged by Butler/Dio/Iommi/Ward. Lyrics by Ronnie James Dio.
All songs published by Westminster Music Ltd.
All keyboards played by Geoff Nicholls.

2010 Re-issue credits:
Project co-ordinated for Sacntuary Records Ltd./Universal Music Catalogue by Steve Hammonds
Product management by Jon Richards. Re-mastered by Andy Pearce.
Sleevenotes by Dave Ling, courtesy of Rhino Entertainment/Warner Bros. Records.
Disc Two (tracks 3-7) recorded live in Hartford, CN, USA, 1980.

1981's Mob Rules was the second Black Sabbath album to feature vertically challenged singer Ronnie James Dio, whose powerful pipes and Dungeons and Dragons lyrics initially seemed like the perfect replacement for the recently departed and wildly popular Ozzy Osbourne. In fact, all the ingredients which had made their first outing, Heaven and Hell, so successful are re-utilized on this album, including legendary metal producer Martin Birch (Deep Purple, Whitesnake, etc.) and supporting keyboard player Geoff Nichols. And while it lacks some of its predecessor's inspired songwriting, Mob Rules was given a much punchier, in-your-face mix by Birch, who seemed re-energized after his work on New Wave of British Heavy Metal upstarts Iron Maiden's Killers album. Essentially, Mob Rules is a magnificent record, with the only serious problem being the sequencing of the material, which mirrors Heaven and Hell's almost to a tee. In that light, one can't help but compare otherwise compelling tracks like "Turn Up the Night" and "Voodoo" to their more impressive Heaven and Hell counterparts, "Neon Knights" and "Children of the Sea." This unhappy streak is finally snapped by the unconventional "E5150," a synthesizer-driven instrumental. Then, the unbelievably heavy, seven-minute epic "The Sign of the Southern Cross" delivers one of the album's best moments before unleashing the roaring title track. Side two is less consistent, hiding the awesome "Falling off the Edge of the World" (perhaps the most overlooked secret gem to come from the Dio lineup) amongst rather average tracks like "Slipping Away" and "Over and Over." Over the next year, the sh*t would hit the fan for Black Sabbath, and Dio's exit would mark Mob Rules as the last widely respected studio release of the band's storied career.

~ by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic.com

CD1 Tracklist:

1. Turn Up The Night - 3:43
2. Voodoo - 4:32
3. The Sign Of The Southern Cross - 7:48
4. E5150 - 2:51
5. The Mob Rules - 3:17
6. Country Girl - 4:03
7. Slipping Away - 3:46
8. Falling Off The Edge Of The World - 5:04
9. Over And Over - 5:32
10. Die Young (Live, 12' Single B-Side of Mob Rules) (Bonus Track) - 4:04
11. The Mob Rules (Heavy Metal Soundtrack Version) (Bonus Track) - 3:14


CD2 Tracklist (Live):

1. E5150 - 1:18
2. Neon Knights - 4:38
3. N.I.B. - 5:16
4. Children Of The Sea - 6:08
5. Country Girl - 3:53
6. Black Sabbath - 8:25
7. War Pigs - 7:40
8. Slipping Away - 3:19
9. Iron Man - 7:04
10. The Mob Rules - 3:35
11. Heaven And Hell - 14:25
12. Paranoid - 3:22
13. Voodoo - 5:45
14. Children Of The Grave - 5:05


• Ronnie James Dio - vocals
• Tony Iommi - lead guitar
• Terrance "Geezer" Butler - bass guitar
• Vinny Appice - drums
• Geoff Nicholls - keyboards

Original album credits:
All songs written and arranged by Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi.
Lyrics by Ronnie James Dio.
Produced and engineered by Martin Birch.
Recorded with The Recrods Plant L.A.

2010 Re-issue credits:
Project co-ordinated for Sacntuary Records Ltd./Universal Music Catalogue by Steve Hammonds
Product management by Jon Richards. Re-mastered by Andy Pearce.
Sleevenotes by Bryan Reesman, courtesy of Rhino Entertainment/WB Records.
Disc Two recorded live at Hammersmith Odeon, London, 31st December 1981 ~ January 2nd 1982

Black Sabbath's first attempt at an official live album, 1982's Live Evil was also the straw that broke the camel's back – or rather, split the legendary group's second lineup right down the middle. Band tensions were already at an all-time high leading into the album's mixing sessions, but when founding members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler accused singer Ronnie James Dio of sneaking into the studio to raise the volume on his vocal tracks, the pint-sized warbler decided he'd had enough and, guilty or not, departed to pursue a solo career, taking drummer Vinny Appice with him. Fateful accusations aside, Live Evil does benefit from a crystal clear, in-your-face sound, and by showcasing even amounts of both Ozzy and Dio material, effectively documents Black Sabbath's renascent tours of the early '80s. Ronnie certainly has the vocal chops, if not the same everyman charm, to handle the Osbourne classics, but his incessant banter between (and during!) songs sometimes verges on the unbearable. And even though the album's only truly transcendent moments may be the vicious introductory pairing of "E5150"/"Neon Knights" and the extended "Heaven and Hell"/"Sign of the Southern Cross" suite, there's also nothing really amiss with solid interpretations of such all-time metal classics as "Children of the Sea," "Black Sabbath," "War Pigs," and "Children of the Grave" either. And considering the as yet unknown travails awaiting Black Sabbath in the post-Dio era, Live Evil's troubled gestation has come to seem positively idyllic in retrospect.

~ by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic.com

CD1 Tracklist:

1. E5150 - 2:22
2. Neon Knights - 4:37
3. N.I.B. - 5:14
4. Children Of The Sea - 6:13
5. Voodoo - 5:52
6. Black Sabbath - 8:39
7. War Pigs - 9:20
8. Iron Man - 7:37


CD2 Tracklist:

1. The Mob Rules - 4:13
2. Heaven And Hell - 12:10
3. The Sign Of The Southern Cross/Heaven And Hell (Continued) - 7:16
4. Paranoid - 3:47
5. Children Of The Grave - 5:50
6. Fluff - 1:00


• Ronnie James Dio - vocals
• Tony Iommi - lead guitar
• Terrance "Geezer" Butler - bass guitar
• Vinny Appice - drums
• Geoff Nicholls - keyboards

Original album credits:
Produced by Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler.
Recorded live in Seattle, San Antonio and Dallas.
Recorded with The Recrods Plant Mobile, Los Angeles
Engineered by Lee De Carlo and Bill Freseh.

2010 Re-issue credits:
Project co-ordinated for Sacntuary Records Ltd./Universal Music Catalogue by Steve Hammonds
Product management by Jon Richards
Sleevenotes by Steffan Chirazi, coutesy of Rhino Entertainment
Re-mastered by Andy Pearce

The idea sure looked good on paper, but when former Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan joined Black Sabbath for 1983's dreadful Born Again album, the grim reality was that Gillan's bluesy vocal style and oftentimes humorous lyrics were completely incompatible with the lords of doom and gloom. Widely deemed the band's creative nadir (although a few later efforts like Cross Purposes and Forbidden give it a run for its money), Born Again also featured one of the worst album covers ever (it's been voted!), and the subsequent world tour was so troubled and tragicomic that the band's Stonehenge stage set wound up serving as inspiration for the ultimate rock & roll spoof movie, This Is Spinal Tap, when it was discovered to be too large to fit inside most venues! Born Again's equally atrocious "production" leaves one with the distinct impression that, in a misguided attempt to record the heaviest album ever, Black Sabbath came away with the muddiest instead. Among the smoking ruins that pass for its songs, one might find it possible to appreciate Gillan's trademarked double entendres on "Disturbing the Priest," pick out a decent melody within the messy title track, and get down to some mercifully straightforward headbanging with "Digital Bitch" and the album's lone classic, "Trashed." But the remaining detritus, composed of embarrassing numbers like "Zero the Hero," "Hot Line," and "Keep It Warm" and pointless sound effect interludes "Stonehenge" and "The Dark," is simply beyond painful. By comparison, even the barely-recognizable-as-Sabbath material found on 1986's belated comeback, Seventh Star – originally planned as a Tony Iommi solo effort, to be fair – sounds pretty damn good. But by then, Black Sabbath's greatly anticipated association with Ian Gillan had gone down as one of heavy metal's all-time greatest disappointments, and nearly killed the genre's founding fathers in the process.

~ by Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic.com

CD1 - Original Album:

1. Trashed - 4:18
2. Stonehenge - 1:58
3. Disturbing The Priest - 5:52
4. The Dark - 0:45
5. Zero The Hero - 7:38
6. Digital Bitch - 3:40
7. Born Again - 6:37
8. Hot Line - 4:53
9. Keep It Warm - 5:38


CD2 - Bonus Tracks:

1. The Fallen (Album Session Outtake) - 4:30
2. Stonehenge (Extended Version) - 4:47
3. Hot Line (Live) - 4:55
4. War Pigs (Live) - 7:25
5. Black Sabbath (Live) - 7:11
6. The Dark (Live) - 1:05
7. Zero The Hero (Live) - 6:55
8. Digital Bitch (Live) - 3:34
9. Iron Man (Live) - 7:41
0. Smoke On The Water (Live) - 4:56
11. Paranoid (Live) - 4:18


• Ian Gillan - vocals
• Tony Iommi - guitars
• Terrance "Geezer" Butler - bass
• Bill Ward - drums
• Geoff Nicholls - keyboards
• Bev Bevan - drums (Disc 2, tracks 3-11)

Original album credits:
Recorded at The Manor Studio, Shipton on Cherwell Oxfordshire, England.
Produced by Robin Black and Black Sabbath.
Engineered by Robin Black.

2011 Re-issue credits:
Project co-ordinated by Steve Hammonds for Sacntuary Records Ltd.
Product management by Jon Richards, sleevenotes by Alex Milas and Steve 'Krusher' Toule.
Re-mastered by Andy Pearce and Matt Worthan.
Tracks 3-11 recorded live at the Reading Festival, August 27th 1983.