In the mid-late 00's the classic The Mob Rules line-up of Black Sabbath consisting of Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass, and Vinny Appice on drum safter nearly two decades since the last time they played together finally buried the hatchet for good and reunited to not only perform solely the stuff they wrote during their time together, but to write new material as well. Before putting out their full length album The Devil You Know in 2009 however the band did some touring to show people they still had that same old magic and to promote the new songs they put on the The Dio Years box set. A recording was done of one of the shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York in 2007 and was released as a double album.
The band sounds absolutely GREAT in this show. You can tell they are giving it 110%. You can tell that by this point Dio's voice had REALLY aged and not necessarily for the best. He could no longer do those semi-operatic pitches and timbres that made him famous. Despite that however, his energy and passion more than make up for what time had taken from him. Plus, that grit and bite that old age gave him made the songs scarier and more evil. All in all, you feel like you're back in the early 80's listening to Dio lead Black Sabbath just pounding the crap out of your ears with the darkest songs of fantasy.
Heaven and Hell's performance of The Mob Rules has a crap ton of energy to it. The way they kick into it is just so....YES. That scream let out by Ronnie and the way that high energy guitar riff kicks in just makes you want to get up out of your seat and head bang in a pit. Makes you wish more than anything in the entire universe that you could have been at that show yourself. This performance just captures the spirit of the song so well; just as well as the old days in the early 80's when the song was new. It just goes to show you that you don't have to be young to be full of energy and passion.
The performance of the band's most well known track Heaven and Hell is nothing less than spectacular. It shows that even in old age they didn't want to just be a legacy act, but to keep being creative as well even with their classic material (with in my opinion one of the most iconic guitar riffs to ever bless heavy metal). It clocks in at over 15 minutes (like the old days) and features an added verse (with some frightening vocal effects) as well as some of Iommi's best guitar work. Not only is he the king of the heavy riff, but he can solo like no other as well. Not only can he shred, but he can create some of the most awe striking evil sounds as well with a guitar.
If you're a fan of the Dio era of Black Sabbath, this album is DEFINITELY for you if you don't have it already. Even if you're not a fan, it's still worth at least giving a listen to because they didn't let old age slow them down and condense the songs to their studio length. They still got creative and jammed the hell out of them, making them the extended odysseys they were always meant to be in a live setting. As I've been saying though, the main thing you can get from Live From Radio City Music Hall is that rock n' roll/heavy metal is by no stretch of the imagination solely a young man's game.
Live From Radio City Music Hall, by Heaven and Hell receives 4 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
Disc One:
1. E5150/After All (The Dead)
2. The Mob Rules
3. Children of the Sea
4. Lady Evil
5. I
6. The Sign of the Southern Cross
7. Voodoo
8. The Devil Cried
Disc Two:
1. Computer God
2. Falling Off the Edge of the World
3. Shadow of the Wind
4. Die Young
5. Heaven and Hell
6. Lonely is the Word
7. Neon Knights
Buy the album on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Live-Radio-City-Music-Hall/dp/B0014JBKU0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487317229&sr=8-2&keywords=Live+From+Radio+City+Music+Hall+Heaven+and+Hell
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