Album review: Heaven & Hell – Breaking Out Of Heaven 2007 – 2009

In 1980, both Ozzy and Sabbath needed a fresh start. The frontman, who was sacked following 1978’s Never Say Die! for being too wild on the drink and drugs (not the only guilty party in the band), was setting up for a stab at a solo career, having been rescued from planned oblivion in an LA hotel room by future wife and manager Sharon.

The rest of Sabbath, meanwhile, were preparing for their own new chapter with Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio. A man with the lungs of a whale and the epic pen of a poet, he was certainly a different proposition to his predecessor, but that’s what they wanted. With Dio’s mighty voice and sense of the theatrical, it unlocked something new, bigger, more dramatic, that rejuvenated the flagging band, and set them up to remain key players in a new decade.

His tenure with Sabbs was short and stop-start, making 1980’s Heaven And Hell and the following year’s Mob Rules, before leaving for his own solo career, and returning for 1992’s brilliant Dehumanizer then exiting again. But it was still a partnership in just as much need of celebration as the original line-up when they reunited in the late ’90s. In 2006, the band who made Mob Rules and Dehumanizer (Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and drummer Vinnie Appice) stepped out as Heaven & Hell. Business-y stuff may have necessitated a name other than Sabbath, but it marked them out as a separate beast, just as when Dio first took the mic.

Here, the work they did before Dio’s death in 2010 is gathered in a truly epic salute to just what a great band they were. Alongside a vinyl repress of 2009’s sole album The Devil You Know, there’s live recordings of their gigs at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and Germany’s Wacken Festival, with Blu-ray video and a brilliant book telling the story of it all.

The Devil You Know isn’t perfect, but it is a record with moments of absolute perfection. The enormous epic doom of Bible Black is equal to anything at the top end of all involved’s catalogue, showing just what magic could come from Iommi and Dio in full flight. The point where it shifts from the intro to full-roar riff, or when the chorus comes in and the singer demands that 'I must have The Bible Black', are still the sort of things you fell in you pulling at your heart when metal is at its very best.

Rock And Roll Angel remains an awkward dud despite leading with a satisfying Smashing Pumpkins-ish riff, but album starter Atom And Evil, Fear and Double The Pain are all knockouts of riffy brawn and Dio’s vocals that switch between soft silk and creaking leather on a sixpence.

The live stuff demonstrates this to an even higher degree. The gig at Radio City showed that, years after they wrote them and last played them, absolute bangers like Neon Knights, Mob Rules and The Sign Of The Southern Cross sounded box-fresh, electrified. Dio’s gentle singing at the start of the mysterious Children Of The Sea, or the way he captures the vastness of the band’s signature song, is simply one of the greatest rock singers to ever live at the top of his game. Lesser-known tunes, meanwhile, like I, Computer God and the ultra-doom of After All (The Dead) – which they opened with – sound incredible.

It's a similar story for the Wacken recordings, also featuring Bible Black and Fear from The Devil You Know. Not that you’d ever need reminding, but the wonder of what Dio could do could still bring grown men to tears.

For Sabb-heads, this is all obviously completely essential. But if you’re unfamiliar with this era of The Greatest Band That Ever Lived, it collects a load of their best songs together, and presents them brilliantly, performed with all the life, excitement and romance they deserve.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Iron Maiden, Candlemass, Judas Priest

Breaking Out Of Heaven 2007 – 2009 is out now via BMG