Heaven & Hell – Live Radio City Music Hall 2007

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SPV
Produced by Barry Ehrmann

March this year finally brought one of the most eagerly anticipated reunions in heavy metal. Heaven & Hell brings together the third, and many would argue best, line-up of Black Sabbath together again, and this is the live recording of their special one-night-only show at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

A brief history lesson: Ozzy Osbourne was fired from Sabbath in 1979, and replaced by Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, joining original members Tony Iommi (guitar), Bill Ward (drums) and Geezer Butler (bass). After their first album together, Heaven And Hell, Ward left to be replaced by Vinnie Appice. This line-up recorded Mob Rules and the live album Live Evil before breaking up. They reunited for the 1992 album Dehumanizer and split up again later that year when Dio refused to play two shows in Costa Mesa supporting Ozzy Osbourne on his farewell tour.

In 2005 Rhino Records wanted to put out a box set of Sabbath material with Dio. The idea came about to record some new songs as a means of giving fans something better than a few extra unreleased live tracks or demos. The box set ended up being stripped down to the single disc release The Dio Years, featuring three brand new songs written by Iommi and Dio. Rumours abound that the band would reunite were answered when the Heaven And Hell tour was announced. Although not Black Sabbath, which it’s claimed is still Butler-Iommi-Osbourne-Ward, it has excited fans far more than another greatest hits tour with the Ozzy line-up.

The tour kicked off with 11 shows in Canada before the one-off New York show for this recording. High-definition picture, crystal clear sound and excellent editing have gone into this package to make it a near perfect document of that night. Generally speaking, two things can ruin any live DVD regardless of the quality of the band and their performance. One is bad editing, or “MTV style” editing as it is often referred to. This is generally where the shots change so quickly it’s nearly impossible to see what’s going on because the camera doesn’t stay in any one place long enough. Steve Harris of Iron Maiden is often accused of butchering their live DVDs in this way.

The second is mixing interview, backstage and other footage into the live concert. Although this is usually done between songs, so no music is lost, it disrupts the flow of the show and interrupts the very thing the fans have bought the DVD to see. DVDs are often marketed on the fact that they contain live performances, but then the producers interrupt the live performances with other things.

Both of these major pitfalls have been avoided with Live Radio City Music Hall 2007. So all that’s left is the final piece, the performance. Ronnie doesn’t do a particularly good job with opener After All (The Dead). He sounds like he’s trying too hard to be aggressive with the song and it doesn’t suit either his voice or the track itself. This carries over into The Mob Rules too, where he delivers the first scream I’ve ever heard from him. After taking these couple of songs to really get warmed up, everything is absolutely flawless from Children of The Sea onwards.

In particular new song Shadow of The Wind, The Sign of The Southern Cross, Computer God, I, Lady Evil and the monumental 14-minute version of Heaven And Hell are outstanding renditions. The usual solo spots are present as well, with Vinnie Appice’s drum solo tucked away at the end of The Devil Cried and Tony Iommi’s guitar solo coming at the beginning of Die Young.

The extras are your standard behind-the-scenes split second soundbites from various cast and crew (including Dio keyboard player Scott Warren) in the “Heaven And Hell Road Movie”, more soundbites of the same people saying how great Heaven & Hell are in “Hail The Gods of Metal”, random and largely pointless comments from amassed fans outside the Radio City Music Hall in “Meet The Mob” and lots of details about the hall itself in “Radio City”. The first and last of these are interesting, the middle two are not. It’s as simple as that really. Certainly nothing to distract from the concert feature.

There was never any question that the reuniting of arguably the greatest metal band of all time’s greatest line-up would be successful. But DVD editors and producers can never be relied upon to do any band justice. Thankfully producer Barry Ehrmann, director Milton Lage and editor Marc Schrobligen have held up their end of the bargain impeccably, and Heaven & Hell have replied in kind with a performance more than worthy of the oft-used title “Gods of Metal”.

“ outstanding renditions ”

Tracklist: E5150/After All (The Dead) / The Mob Rules / Children of The Sea / Lady Evil / I / The Sign of The Southern Cross / Voodoo / The Devil Cried / Computer God / Falling Off The Edge of The World / Shadow of The Wind / Die Young / Heaven And Hell / Lonely Is The Word / Neon Knights
DVD Extras: Heaven And Hell Road Movie / Hail The Gods of Metal / Meet The Mob / Radio City
(CD 2 begins with Computer God)

Photo(s): Mark Weiss | www.markweiss.com

Written by Andy Lye
More: Heavy Metal, Live Albums, Live DVDs, Heaven & Hell