The run of Black Sabbath box-set brilliance draws to a close with the release of Breaking Out Of Heaven 2007–2009. Centred around Heaven & Hell and The Devil You Know, the final studio album with Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice, this release is poignant, as we know that, had the universe dictated otherwise and Ronnie had not passed in 2010, there would have been at least one more album to follow.
The Devil You Know would close this chapter of Black Sabbath. It is such a wonderful album, and it is prime Sabbath. “I think it was really sad,” Tony Iommi told MetalTalk on the red carpet at the world premiere of the DIO: Dreamers Never Die film. “We were really on a roll with The Devil You Know. We were touring, and we were really enjoying it. I remember talking to Ronnie when we were in Japan.”
Tony and Ronnie went for dinner one night. “We said, look, we’re not going to say we’re going to go for five years,” Tony says, “we will just try it and see where it goes. We were done with the tour, and we loved it. We enjoyed it. We were in this restaurant, and I said to Ronnie, ‘Do you fancy doing anything more?'”
Ronnie enthusiastically said yes. “We’ve got to do another album,” Ronnie told Tony.
“That was the plan,” Tony says. “That’s what we were going to do. Of course, you know, Ronnie didn’t make it. But it was going so well, and we had a great time being together. We loved working together. I loved working with Ronnie, go on the stage, and you know what he is going to do. He loved his audience and loved his fans, you know. Real genuine.”
From the opening drums of Appice, Atom And Evil delivers the slower doom sound that littered The Devil You Know. Dio’s layered vocals are powerful and pour out of the speakers with beautiful menace. Iommi is in riff heaven, and Butler and Appice underpin the song with the flair that know and love.
It is the opening to Bible Black that gives a lump in the throat. Dio’s emotion over the acoustic guitar is so definitive of the pairing, and when the band kicks in, the power from Ronnie is so tellingly unique.
The boxset has two Heaven & Hell live shows. The 2007 show from Radio City Music Hall has The Devil Cried and Shadow Of The Wind from The Devil You Know. It is the studio version of the former track, which is a massive standout.
Killer riffing from Tony Iommi seeps across the track, with Geezer’s unique bass style throbbing underneath, and Appice delivers the punch behind pace.
Listening back now, there is almost a Born Again album style to the guitar as the track powers to its close. There are no Lazy Sunday Afternoon vibes here. The music and lyrics are bleak in the style that Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell do, but it still, to this day, brings a smile to my face.
The Radio City show is awesome. After All (The Dead) menaces after the standard E5150 intro, before blasting into The Mob Rules. Ronnie’s voice was still amazingly powerful after all those years, and there is something of a celebration of the era in my ears as the launch into The Mob Rules.
The way Geezer’s bass rolls through the solo, Vinny Appice filling the drum patterns as Tony Iommi delivers a blistering solo, thrills in a way that few can match.
Throw in the live versions of Children Of The Sea and especially Lady Evil, and those ’80s memories return. The ’90s get a visit too, with Computer God sounding great. Now that was a great album and fantastic tour.
Radio City closes on Lonely Is The Word and Neon Nights. I can still remember the excitement back then, when I realised that the Heaven And Hell album closer was in the set. You had to go back to 1980 to hear that live.
Neon Nights, complete with Heaven And Hell refrain, completes the 2007 show and the closing applause, over two and a half minutes of it, and it has to be faded, reminds you that this was such a massive show.
The Devil You Know tracks Bible Black, Fear and Follow Tears make the Heaven & Hell set at Wacken Open Air Festival in 2009. Opening with The Mob Rules, the band were in great form, and Ronnie James Dio looked stylish with that wonderful wide-cuffed shirt.
Top of their game is an often-used phrase, but this set shows just how awesome the band were. This is certainly a wish I was there moment, as the 11-track set is a thing of audio beauty.
That both the Wacken and Radio City shows are included in the box set as a DVD is the icing on the cake. The bonus content, 30th Anniversary interviews and particularly the tribute to Ronnie James Dio, is emotional as it would only be a matter of months before his passing.
As with all the Sabbath boxsets, the accompanying reading material is impressive. The illustrated book with new liner notes by Hugh Gilmour, along with a replica tour book and poster, is fit for poring over with a glass of wine.
Breaking Out Of Heaven 2007–2009 matches the quality of all the Sabbath boxset reissues. It is a testament to the enduring legacy that Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice left.
That it was not planned to be their final hurrah does leave a certain sadness.
Does Tony think Ronnie is the greatest Heavy Metal vocalist of all time?
“I do,” Tony told MetalTalk. “He was great, and a lot of other Metal vocalists will say that as well. It was just so powerful. When I first heard him, I couldn’t believe that voice coming out. It was such an incredible voice.”
Breaking Out Of Heaven 2007–2009 is out now via BMG. The Heaven & Hell retrospective celebrates Dio’s third act with members of Black Sabbath over 4CD/Blu-ray and 7LP boxed sets. Each can be ordered via heavenandhell.lnk.to/breakingoutPR.
