HEAVEN AND HELL

For the very time of their existence, a member of the "Sabbath" original line-up was sacked (mainly for his drugs abuse). Dear Ozzy had to leave and Dio came in the place. I have mentioned already that even if Ozzy was not a great singer, he WAS "Sabbath" 's voice. All their emblematic songs were written while he was there and their later production won't be as fruitful.

"Heaven & Hell" is better than their last two studio albums "Technical Ecstasy" and "Never Say Die!" but it is not exciting. Dio does a good job but most of the songs are just average hard-rock. If you except "Neon Knights", the great opener (but we are used to this with "Sabbath") and "Children Of The Sea" which are both very good hard-rock songs; you won't find any anthems here.

Closing part of the title track "Heaven & Hell" features a great Iommi (once again) but it is a bit "short" to use the same (and only) artifice again. The poppier side shines on with "Wishing Well". An AOR good piece of rock. This album reminds some "Rainbow" ones. Average hard-rock with little inspiration and rather anonymous if it weren't the name of the band or leader. Songs as "Walk Away" is fully like this description. Ther closing number is better and can be regarded as a highlight mostly thanks to the great work of Iommi.

But it pleased the fans since it peaked at the ninth spot in the UK charts (Nr. 28 in the US). But I do not belong to them. Five out of ten, but this time, I will downgrade it to two stars.