Heaven & Hell (band)
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Heaven and Hell is a music collaboration featuring current Black Sabbath members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler along with former members Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice. Founding member Iommi decided to name the group Heaven and Hell as the original lineup of Black Sabbath (featuring Butler, Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne) is still active but on hiatus.
The possibility of a reunion of the lineup which created the Black Sabbath album Heaven and Hell in 1980 was first announced on the Spanish site Rafabasa on September 28, 2006. [1]
Previously (August 16), Ronnie James Dio also announced that he and Tony Iommi had written a new track for the Black Sabbath box set consisting of music from the two eras in which he was present in the band.
Rumours of such a reunion were officialy confirmed by the following announcement on Tony Iommi's official website:
- The highly anticipated reunion of Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward appears to be shaping up and taking a new form. After various promoters have approached their respective management; the guys have started taking all of this very seriously, as they have wanted to reunite for some time now. It looks as if the new shape may be that of Heaven and Hell - that's the moniker that the band is likely to use on their new venture.
- If all goes well, Heaven and Hell should be hitting the road in early 2007. [2]
The same announcement also appeared on that of Ronnie James Dio's and Geezer Butler's official web sites, although the announcement on Butler's website also contains a warning citing unresolved issues as a potential problem for the reunion.
The final piece of confirmation arrived when an announcement appeared on Ozzy Osbourne's website wishing Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio luck with their projects in the future. It also clearly states that there is only one Black Sabbath which consists of Ozzy himself, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward, also that they will be touring at the end of next year with a new album by Black Sabbath. [3]
On November 23, 2006, the un-official Black Sabbath fan run web site reported that Bill Ward would no longer be taking part in the union, and he has officially been replaced by former Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice. [4] Appice first replaced Ward in 1980 on the original tour to support the Heaven and Hell album and later appeared on the 1981 album The Mob Rules and its live companion, Live Evil. Appice also replaced Cozy Powell in Sabbath for the short-lived 1992 reunion of the four when they released Dehumanizer. He later replaced Ward in 1998 (with Osbourne on vocals) for a brief European tour before Ward's return in 1999.
Most recently on the 15th of December Tony Iommi discussed the new tracks on, 'Brave World & Bloody Knuckles'. [5] It appears that three new tracks will be released on the new 'Dio Years' best of Black Sabbath, which has gone from a box set to a single-CD release. [6].
The three new tracks are: 'Shadow Of The Wind', 'The Devil Cries' and 'Ear In The Wall'. The three tracks are all very heavy according to an interview with Vinnie Appice which was shown on the un-official Black Sabbath fan Website [7]. 'Shadow Of The Wind', is supposed to be a very slow and similar to the original Sabbath style and the idea was first presented by Dio, and things went from there. The second track, 'The Devil Cries', which is a more midtempo song according to Iommi who describes the song as, 'quite powerful', and he also compliments Dio's lyrics and melodies. The final track 'Ear In The Wall' is the 'fast track' of the bunch and little else is known about it. Black Sabbath: The Dio Years (1980-1982; 1992) has been also confirmed for an April 3rd release through Rhino Records. None of the new tracks feature keyboards but it is clear that when the band tours next year they will require a keyboardist, which was confirmed by Ronnie James Dio and Geezer Butler to be Scott Warren from Dio during a phone call interview on Eddie Trunk's radio show on January 19 2007. Iommi also stated that the band will do a world tour this year with a 'one off' show in New York sometime in March. The tour will begin March 11 in Vancouver, Canada, and at least 7 shows will take place across Canada, and then the tour will proceed around the rest of the world (likely stops include South America, Japan, Korea, Australia and Europe) before returning to the United States around August for a full tour. [8] The band has also been confirmed for the Sweden Rock Festival, which will take place August 6-9. [9] There are also rumours that Heaven And Hell will also play the Download Festival which runs from June 8-10, as well as the Montreux Jazz Festival, which starts on July 6. [10]
On the first official press release from the Heaven and Hell camp, made on January 22 2007, Megadeth and Down were confirmed to be the opening acts of the canadian dates.
A page has also been added to the un-official Black Sabbath fan run website tours page that will later become a list of venues when they are announced in the future. [11] On December 22nd, 2006, Ronnie James Dio spoke in depth about the track "Shadow of the Wind" from the upcoming "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years" release. It also goes into detail about the recording of the new tracks, stating that Vinny Appice recorded the drum tracks in Tony Iommi's studio using a drum set previously owned by another former drummer of Black Sabbath, the late Cozy Powell.[[12]]
In January it was announced that the band would only play Dio era Black Sabbath tracks alongside the three new songs. It was also announced that Scott Warren from Dio would be handling the keyboards for the tour, even though there aren't any on the new tracks.
On January 25th, a tour list was released. It begins in March in Western Canada with supporting acts Megadeth and Down.
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