{mosimage}In 1979,
Black Sabbath fired Ozzy Osbourne and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio. As
the history has proved, this turned to be a very fortunate incident. Ozzy
started a tremendously successful solo career and Black Sabbath revitalized
itself, updating its sound and recording with Dio two studio albums (Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules) that would put the band in the front line of heavy metal
in the eighties.
{sidebar id=30}This year,
this second version of Black Sabbath reunited for the first time in more than
15 years. The Black Sabbath name was put side and Tony Iommi, Dio, Geezer
Butler and Vinny Appice have toured the world under the name of Heaven &
Hell. To testify this tour, the band has released a double cd and a dvd
recorded live in New York earlier this year.
As the
matter of fact, what we found in Heaven & Hell: Live at the Radio City
Music Hall 2007 is a good representation of the two concerts that the band
offered in Finland some months ago in Tampere at the Sauna Open Air and in
Helsinki. The setlist and show are very similar. They bring the best of the
Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules albums, as well as a few songs from the album
Dehumanizer, released in 1992 during the first reunion of this line-up.
As they
showed in Finland, the band is in a good shape and its members they wouldn’t
show its age if not for the images in the dvd. Dio, 63, still has a powerful
voice and is a great frontman. Iommi is an impressive guitar player. Usually
underrated in the lists of guitar heroes, he delivers riff after riff, strong
and heavy. So does bassist Geezer Butler. They are two masters.
The band
plays all the hits of this era of Black Sabbath: Die Young, Children of the
Sea, The Mob Rules, Neon Knights… Excellent, indeed. Although, this new live
album might not bring anything new, it is a great change to revamp these great
songs and show them in a well done dvd. They are old, but they still rock.
Rating: 4/5
Photos by Eduardo Alonso