Reviews

In the late 1970’s when Black Sabbath ground to a halt, Ronnie James Dio stepped in to Ozzy’s shoes and put his high-pitched screeching in place of Osbourne’s gravely, soulful tones.

Heaven And Hell is a revival of that time, named after the first album this Sabbath incarnation recorded together and lining up with Dio on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, the brilliantly monikered Geezer Butler on bass and Vinny Apice thumping the tubs. Together for the first time since Ronnie’s brief return to Sabbath in 1992, their set tonight consisted only of Dio fronted songs, so no War Pigs, Iron Man or Paranoid then…

Instead, Heaven And Hell kicked off with a mighty take on the title track of the second Dio album, The Mob Rules, and soon the simple pleasure of seeing this little, almost mythological, rock entity live on stage felt like both a joke and a dream (the truth is I could barely see Ronnie, making him seem even more like a little evil wizard).

That said, the musicianship of the band was fantastic. Tony Iommi’s guitar technique and creativity was incredible, Geezer Butler didn’t miss a note on the bass and it was an honour to see him play and behind them, Vinny Apice hit hard and accurate throughout the set and even had chance to shine with a drum solo - the rest taking this chance to leave the stage for their hourly shot of adrenaline.

It was all very enjoyable, though at times, you could see the problem with the Dio-fronted years. Everything was either a fast rock song or a slow rock song with not much in between.

In reality, the main problem though was the choice to play to a half closed off Arena, rather than a sold out Apollo. It made them seem like rockers clinging onto fame and that alone showed better than anything that Sabbath, while having their moments without him, will always be Ozzy’s band.