Album review: BLACK SABBATH – Heaven And Hell/Mob Rules (2022 reissues)

BMG [Release date 25.11.22]

When we last reviewed these albums (in 2010) they were also reissues with bonus tracks.

And in May that year Ronnie James Dio lost his battle with stomach cancer ahead of a major headlining gig lined up at Bloodstock in the summer. Sadly his death makes any related reissues all the more poignant.

The immediate question is: how do they differ from 2010? The true novelty is that these albums are on vinyl but – in that format – with only a handful of bonuses. They are both described as 2021 remasters. They replicate the 2010 releases with live tracks recorded at Hammersmith Odeon 1981/1982 and – on ‘Heaven And Hell’ – four live tracks from Hartford, USA in August 1980.

The opportunity might have been taken to sort out the sequencing of the two releases by putting all the London tracks on ‘Heaven And Hell’ and by moving the USA tracks to ‘Mob Rules’.

Back in 1980 Dio was hotfooting it from Rainbow for his Sabbath debut Heaven And Hell. The album put the band back in the album charts although to many it was not really Sabbath, mainly because Dio was a different singer (and frontman) to Ozzy. With tracks like’Neon Knights’ and ‘Die Young’ it still sounds good. ***½

The history of the band is well documented, but drummer Bill Ward was replaced during the band’s first US tour and Vinny Appice (younger brother of Carmine) stepped in for the follow up album released in 1981, Mob Rules. At the time this album split the critics somewhat although the passage of time has proved more favourable with a more positive re-evaluation of such classics as ‘The Sign Of The Southern Cross’ and the title track.

Once again this new release duplicates 2010′s bonus tracks but includes a “new 2021 mix” of the track ‘Mob Rules’and two tracks and a second disc with the previously unreleased Portland gig in April 1982. ****

Of these two new reissues ‘Mob Rules’ is the stronger if only for the unreleased live recordings which will appeal to aficionados, who once again will be rebuying earlier recycling. We should remember too that ‘Live At Hammersmith Odeon’ was originally available as a limited edition in 2007!

For a time, at the turn of the 1970s, Ronnie James Dio rejuvenated Sabbath although perhaps dividing some critics and fans in the process. Although the Mob Rules line-up reformed for the ‘Dehumanizer’ album in 1992 the spectre of a returning Ozzy may have indirectly (or directly) scuppered this version’s chances of longer term success.

Fifteen years later Ozzy and Sabbath were again on hiatus so the next configuration saw Dio coming together again with Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice to record new tracks for the compilation ‘The Dio Years’ released in 2007. They then toured as “Heaven And Hell” and made their only album ‘The Devil You Know’ (2009) But it was to be a brief diversion. A year later Dio was dead and by 2012 Ozzy had returned.

Review by David Randall

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REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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