Artist-Black Sabbath
Title-The Dio Years
Year of Release-2007
Label-Rhino
Genre-Rock/Metal
Having owned all 3 Sabbath/Dio records for awhile, I have been waiting for this
line up to get it's due, with with some much needed re-mastering. These Dio
fronted tracks get overlooked by the Ozzy faithful, but with songs like; Heaven
and Hell, Lady Evil, The Mob Rules, Ozzy is an afterthought. T. Iommi's playing
is excellent, as he gets to stretch out, and get away from that slow, trudging
grind it out earlier Sabbath offerings. If your into hard charging rock, with
one of the great voices to ever grab a mike and one of rocks great guitarist
check it out.
:music:

Heaven and Hell is a great album IMO. Mob rules not as good. You might be better off to get the Dio anthology he put out a while back as it has some good stuff from the Sabbath years, Elf, Rainbow, and his solo career.

The Dio Anthology is definately a great set. The remastering did wonders for the Sabbath material! I have floor tickets for the Cincinnatti show in May...Can't Wait!!!:banana:

Heaven and Hell was the very first Sabbath album I ever bought on 8-track no doubt, and still have it. Although I heard the earlier albums before that H&H kicked my a$$ big time. I thought Iommi really shined on that one. Mob Rules is great too. Not sure if Dio pushed the band to that level or what?

I was just listening to, "RAINBOW IN THE DARK".
Now you can too:smoke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMumdnQUrE

As an old Sabbath fan, I'll chime in: I liked Mob Rules a lot. The others I could take or leave, to each their own, of course.

He apologied for redoing the old tunes, in my mind he should've! But then I guess I'm an old timer.

I saw him solo, with Twisted Sister opening lol. My headbanger friends were unhappy that he kept his keyboardist off the stage. He did well though imo.

Pete

Dio has rocked for a long, long time,
Now it's time for him to pass the torch.
He has songs of wildebeests and angels,
He has soared on the wings of a demon.

It's time to pass the torch,
You're too old to rock, no more rockin' for you.
We're takin' you to a home,
But we will sing a song about you.

And we will make sure that you're very well taken care of.
You'll tell us secrets that you've learned. Raow!
Your sauce will mix with ours,
And we'll make a good goulash baby.
Dio, time to go!
You must give your cape and scepter to me.
And a smaller one for KG.
Go! Go! Dio! Dio!

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b57/esiefkes/MISC/tenaciousD_and_dio.jpg

Seriously, Dio is awesome. He invented the "devil" heavy metal hand sign for cryin' out loud! Apparently, the "devil" sign is an old Sicilian hand gesture that either wards off, or gives the 'evil eye' to a person. Dio's Sicilian grandmother used to flash the gesture to him when he was a little kid to scold him for not making up his bed. She couldn't speak any english so she just glared at him really mean and flashed the sign at him.

His voice could shatter glass. Started listening to him after he played 'Holy Diver' at the elementary school dance on South Park. Rhino handmade just released a 5000 copy limited edition of Black Sabbath - Live at Hammersmith Odeon with Dio rockin' the mic. I am going to grab a copy. I'll let yall know how it sounds - I am positive it will rock.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b57/esiefkes/MISC/7735.jpg

The version of Sabbath with Dio was the best version in my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I love the Ozzy years too, but Dio writes great lyrics. They were heavier in a different kind of way with DIO.

The Tony Martin years were great too. Love Cross Purposes!!

Since I have all this stuff, I won't be buying this. I usually don't buy stuff that is remastered unless they include some rare bonus stuff I don't have.

I have everything DIO sang pretty much. :D

Ronnie James "Padavona" Dio has indeed been rockin for a very long time. I have a picture of him and his first band, "The Prophets" from 1960 hanging in my office.
Ronnie used to live about 5 miles from me. I just helped him move his Dad in a nursing home this past summer and empty out his old home here in Cortland, NY. We had a chance to talk about the Heaven and Hell tour. I saw the show in Binghamtom NY in Sept.07 with backstage passes. Great show with Alice and Queensryche opening.

There is a whole lot I an say here but I'm sure this isn't the place. maybe in a different section of the forum. I did just want to say that Ronnie is today as he was when he still lived here a very gracious man and always a gentelman. He never forgot where he came from or the folks he worked with. For that I thank him.

Have been a Dio fan since Elf. Carolina country ball is my favorite.

Have been a Dio fan since Elf. Carolina country ball is my favorite.

The very first album with Hoochi Coochie Lady is a much better, more rock album. LA 59 is the LP you're talking about.For some reason the title got confused and people from some areas called it Carolina County Ball. I just took it of the TT. More blusey. Trying to urn The Sun was a little more rock then the LA 59 LP but they also went back to a more blues sound. Shortly after that, most of the band went with Blackmore to record a single, "Black Sheep Of The Family" Blackmore liked the turn out of that song so much he decided to make an LP and then leave the comfort of Purple.

The rest of the ELF band, sans Ronnie, returned to NY and reformed ELF. Shortly after, The drummer, My closest friend in the entire world, Gary Driscoll, was found murdered in his apartment in Ithaca NY.

Just a little Trivia/History for ya there. I kind of grew up with all those guys and did some road work with ELF, Rainbow way back then. Even did some drumming with Ian Paice on the 74 Purple tour when they had some of their gear stored here in Cortland NY. Thier Road manager is also from here. Quite a little county we got or had going on for a while back in the day. I bet I can even show you where the original Rainbow that was used during the Rainbow Rising tour is stored.

Heaven and Hell was the very first Sabbath album I ever bought on 8-track no doubt, and still have it. Although I heard the earlier albums before that H&H kicked my a$$ big time. I thought Iommi really shined on that one. Mob Rules is great too. Not sure if Dio pushed the band to that level or what?

When Heaven and Hell hit the streets I was amazed that Black Sabbath sounded as good as they did- I was a fan already; the fact that they got away with replacing Ozzy was amazing in my eyes. Just before H&H came out they had started putting out some less than stellar material as far as I was concerned; Technical Ecstacy and Never Say Die aren't classic Sabbath albums you hear any ravings about, after all. I wasn't impressed with anything that came after that until the Ozzy-Sabbath Reunion album, but thats just my humble opinion.

I think its fantastic that Dio and the guys are back together (as I last heard anyway) and touring and recording together again.

The version of Sabbath with Dio was the best version in my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I love the Ozzy years too, but Dio writes great lyrics. They were heavier in a different kind of way with DIO.

The Tony Martin years were great too. Love Cross Purposes!!

Since I have all this stuff, I won't be buying this. I usually don't buy stuff that is remastered unless they include some rare bonus stuff I don't have.

I have everything DIO sang pretty much. :D

I agree with you about Tony Martin. Headless Cross is a great album. As well as TYR. I do like all of the Tony Martin era but thought I'd throw in the first 2 he did with Sabbath. I'd like to have seen a live concert. Too bad a DVD isn't available. I did see one but it was in PAL format and there were only a few of Tony Martin songs in the set list. I think it was called Cross Purposes Live.

When Heaven and Hell hit the streets I was amazed that Black Sabbath sounded as good as they did- I was a fan already; the fact that they got away with replacing Ozzy was amazing in my eyes. Just before H&H came out they had started putting out some less than stellar material as far as I was concerned; Technical Ecstacy and Never Say Die aren't classic Sabbath albums you hear any ravings about, after all. I wasn't impressed with anything that came after that until the Ozzy-Sabbath Reunion album, but thats just my humble opinion.

I think its fantastic that Dio and the guys are back together (as I last heard anyway) and touring and recording together again.

Although they did record 3 new songs for the Dio Years, I understand there is no intention for them to do a new full lenght studio LP. The last I heard was the original tour was due to end Dec 2007. They did decide to go out as an opener for JP on the Nostradanus tour. I also think they did some of the Major open air shows in Europe in 2008.

It would be nice to see what they could do to follow up Dehumanizer. Who knows Maybe?? I did hear that Dio still had commitments to the band Dio so maybe he had to put that on hold for now, as his Fathers health has been declining lately, he has been spending quite a bit of time here in Cortland when he can get away from the road.

I was just listening to, "RAINBOW IN THE DARK".
Now you can too:smoke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMumdnQUrE

Love the song, and would say thanks, but now it will be playing in my head all day long like a broken record player that only repeats.... damn!:no:

I spoke with Ronnies cousin last night. Actually, my wife and I had dinner at his resturaunt here in Cortland called the Hollywood. Maybe some of you heard of the band "The Rods" The Guitartist/Vocalist, David "Rock" Feinstein is Ronnies cousin, who by the way also owns the Hollywood Restaurant. He had talked to Ronnie as early as last week. Ronnie told him that He and the rest of the guys in Heaven and Hell are indeed working on a new LP.

So I guess there will be new music sometime in the near future but it is still not clear if this will be called a Black Sabbath or Heaven and Hell LP.

Oh, by the way, this is supposed to be hush hush for now....

And if anyone is also interested, there is also a new Rods LP that is supposed to be out any time now now.

I recently turned my wife onto Dio when we got to see him with Judas Priest this year. Damn can he still belt them out, and my wife was just head over heals for his voice. He gets played around the house every now and then because of that...

I'm a big Black Sabbath fan, but I think after Never Say Die, their sound just went down hill for me as far as their basic, but hard hitting dark sound. It became a lot more complicated, especially after Dio came along.

Not that I don't like where they went after Ozzy, but it's just not the old Sabbath sound I really like. It's not near as dark... I prefer Dio's voice, but I like much better what Ozzy lent to the band darkness and simplicity...

I recently turned my wife onto Dio when we got to see him with Judas Priest this year. Damn can he still belt them out, and my wife was just head over heals for his voice. He gets played around the house every now and then because of that...

I'm a big Black Sabbath fan, but I think after Never Say Die, their sound just went down hill for me as far as their basic, but hard hitting dark sound. It became a lot more complicated, especially after Dio came along.

Not that I don't like where they went after Ozzy, but it's just not the old Sabbath sound I really like. It's not near as dark... I prefer Dio's voice, but I like much better what Ozzy lent to the band darkness and simplicity...

The Dio Lp's are much more up-tempo, Which I prefer. Iommi's guitars also are much more interesting. I think Ozzy is much better with his solo stuff, Than he every was with BS. Just my opinion of course.

The Dio Lp's are much more up-tempo, Which I prefer. Iommi's guitars also are much more interesting. I think Ozzy is much better with his solo stuff, Than he every was with BS. Just my opinion of course.
I agree. I think Ozzy is much better on his own and I think the sabbath stuff is better with Dio. It seems that Dio brings out the best in Iommi. I also think that Dio just keeps getting better and better. Having listened to Ronnie since he was playing bars in the 60's, his voice, somehow just keeps getting stronger. Now the he is a tad over 66, he still sound better then he did at 46. I don't know how he does it.

And this is without any node surgery like some of his fellow vocalists have done. It's just amazing. He truly is one gifted singer.