Tomorrow is the Heaven and Hell show at Radio City Music Hall. Heaven and Hell is the lineup of Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio singing. The name was changed to avoid "market confusion" or because Sharon Osbourne said there was no fucking way you can use the name, depending on who you ask.
The one thing that is for sure is this is the best lineup the band has ever had, even without Bill Ward on most of the records. This is about as heavy as Sabbath ever got, and they managed to add a weird psychedelic decadence to the mix as well. I love how in the late 70's and early 80's psychedelic music went less hippie and more creepy. Think Hawkwind, Chrome, The Wall, and you get the idea. Listen to The Sign of the Southern Cross on the Mob Rules record. The way the guitars naturally decay into just drums and a Moog synth is electrifying. Anyone who doesn't believe you can get more power out of minimalism needs to hear this song. I have no idea what the lyrics are about. Normal Dio shit about riding across the rainbow countryside on a magical tiger or whatever. But it doesn't matter, it is really creepy, in the same way old issues of Heavy Metal Magazine are creepy.
Ahhh yes, Heavy Metal. I was thinking about the first time I ever heard this lineup of Sabbath. I was just a wee lad, probably less than 10, watching the film Heavy Metal, an Ivan Reitman animated film based on the popular series of comics. In the film's last segment you see a peaceful "fantasy" world. As the distorted and delayed bass of Geezer Butler fires up on ES150 a volcano begins to erupt with green gooey lava. As this short instrumental builds the green gooey lava starts rolling down the volcano and submerging the village's peaceful inhabitants. But the people aren't killed. They are transformed into mutated killing beasts! As these monsters start rising from the depths of this goo, ES150 has transitioned to the hard blues riff of The Mob Rules. As Vinny Appice's drums kick in and the song is full on the monsters attack! Who do they attack? Everything! Themselves. Non-mutants. Dogs. Women. Trees. Goo. They are now mindless killers destroying everything in large packs while Dio is screaming "when you listen to fools, the Mob Rules!"
Maybe there are some tracks on Sabotage that come close to this level of awesome-ness, but to me, these are the sounds and the visuals a band called BLACK SABBATH should have. It should be dark, and goth, and creepy, and really heavy. And I will be seeing them tomorrow. Amen.
