Black Sabbath — Heaven and Hell (2021 Deluxe Edition)
Qobuz reissue review (March 2021)
As far as rock ’n’ roll comeback stories go, the story of Black Sabbath’s resurrection after the departure of Ozzy Osbourne is among the most satisfying. After a tear through the early ’70s that found the Ozzy-led band codifying contemporary heavy metal over a series of five increasingly impressive albums, Sabbath began to show signs of wear and tear by the time of Sabotage in 1975. Osbourne’s prodigious alcohol and drug intake was absolutely part of the problem, but the rest of the band held their own when it came to addictive behaviors and egomania. Compound those issues with extensive legal and financial woes and sheer creative and physical exhaustion, and the band literally stumbled through the end of the decade with two albums — Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! — that did little to burnish their legacy and did much to hasten the end of the Ozzy era. Osbourne played his last show with Sabbath in December 1978, and although he would join the group briefly and sporadically for some early Heaven and Hell recording sessions, those sessions were ultimately scrapped when he left the band in mid-1979, leaving Tony Iommi and the rest of the band to regroup with new singer Ronnie James Dio, who joined the band thanks to an introduction made by, of all people, Ozzy’s wife Sharon. Recording for the album took place over just a couple of months in Criteria Studios in Miami, and the Florida sunshine, the approach of producer Martin Birch (Dio-era Rainbow, Deep Purple, Whitesnake), and the compositional and arrangement possibilities opened up by Dio’s vocal approach combined to make Heaven and Hell an altogether different kind of Sabbath album. Faster, heavier, and more direct than anything the band had done since Vol. 4, the album was also more spacious and adventurous, evoking a fantastic interpretation of the dark, doomy evil in which the band had long trafficked. Not only does the album provide a clean break with the shambolic clumsiness of the tail-end of the Ozzy era, but neatly positioned Sabbath for a new, forward-looking approach into the ’80s.
While certainly not sleek or polished, the sound of Heaven and Hell is definitely more focused and impactful. From the speedy chugging riff of “Neon Knights” that opens the set, it’s clear that Sabbath had shifted into a different gear, and while there’s considerable dynamism to the songs here, from the kaleidoscopic and semi-balladic “Children of the Sea” and the introspective “Lonely is the Word” to the brusque and strutting “Lady Evil”, the band finds many different ways to recast the meaning of “a Black Sabbath song” — the connective tissue is the interplay between Iommi’s riffs (which are as thick and meaty as ever) and Dio’s soaring vocal presence and lyrical imagery. It’s an entirely new approach and one that completely revitalized the band, both in terms of their creativity and their cultural relevance. This new edition delivers a new remastering of the 2010 UK deluxe edition, dialing up the warmth and dynamics from earlier reissues, resulting in a recording with ample room to breathe, and, in some cases (like “Die Young,” for instance) a presence that’s so refreshing it almost sounds like a remix. This edition also tacks on four live bonus tracks recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon that didn’t appear on the previous version. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz
