Black Sabbath: The Dio Years

Black Sabbath: The Dio Years is a 2007 compilation CD of material recorded by Black Sabbath during vocalist Ronnie James Dio's tenure in the band. The CD contains remastered tracks taken from the studio albums Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), and Dehumanizer (1992), as well as a live version of the song "Children of the Sea" taken from the live album Live Evil (1982). It also contains three new recorded songs: "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall".

Black Sabbath: The Dio Years
Compilation album by Black Sabbath
Released	3 April 2007
Recorded	1979–1982, 1992, 2007
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	79:27
Label	Rhino Warner Bros.
Producer	Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath compilations chronology
Greatest Hits 1970–1978 (2006) Black Sabbath: The Dio Years (2007) The Rules of Hell (2008)
Ronnie James Dio chronology
Holy Diver – Live (2006) Black Sabbath: The Dio Years (2007) Live from Radio City Music Hall (2007)
Tour Edition cover
The UK Tour Edition cover.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Billboard	(favorable)[2]
Blabbermouth.net	[3]
Jukebox:Metal	[4]
Okayplayer	(89/100)[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]

It was reported that the collection was first conceived of as a box set, in the vein of Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970–1978), containing all of the group's albums released from their Ozzy Osbourne period, starting from Heaven and Hell to The Eternal Idol. This idea was eventually scrapped, and another box set was planned only to feature the four albums recorded from the Dio era of the band. This second idea was put aside, eventually emerging as The Rules of Hell box set released in the summer of 2008.

In an interview conducted by Martin Popoff, Tony Iommi revealed that in fact three tracks were recorded:[7] "Shadow of the Wind" (a slow tune), "The Devil Cried" (a mid-tempo rocker) and "Ear in the Wall" (a fast song), therefore changing the original plan for two new songs to accommodate all three tracks in the compilation. "The Devil Cried" was released as a single on 13 March 2007.[8]

On 23 February 2007, both Eddie Trunk and Sirius Satellite Radio unveiled the song "The Devil Cried" from the upcoming album. Rhino Records subsequently made the track available (for preview only) on 26 February 2007. On the week of 13 March 2007, it became available for download at all digital outlets.

After the recording was completed the members decided to tour under the moniker Heaven & Hell.[9] Dio and Iommi decided that the working partnership they had achieved in recording the 3 new songs would not be wasted, so they recorded The Devil You Know.

UK Tour Edition

Before the Heaven & Hell tour of the UK in November 2007, a special edition release of The Dio Years was released on 5 November, Black Sabbath: The Dio Years Tour Edition, to commemorate the tour. This CD, only to be in print for a limited time, features four songs from the Live at Hammersmith Odeon limited edition live album recently released by Black Sabbath. The four songs, recorded live in 1981 during Black Sabbath's "Mob Rules Tour" are "Neon Knights", "The Mob Rules", "Children of the Grave", and "Voodoo".

Track listing

All songs were written by Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, except where noted.

No.	Title	Original release	Length
1.	"Neon Knights" (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Bill Ward)	Heaven and Hell (1980)	3:52
2.	"Lady Evil" (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward)	Heaven and Hell	4:24
3.	"Heaven and Hell" (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward)	Heaven and Hell	6:58
4.	"Die Young" (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward)	Heaven and Hell	4:44
5.	"Lonely Is the Word" (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward)	Heaven and Hell	5:51
6.	"The Mob Rules"	Mob Rules (1981)	3:16
7.	"Turn Up the Night"	Mob Rules	3:42
8.	"Voodoo"	Mob Rules	4:34
9.	"Falling Off the Edge of the World"	Mob Rules	5:04
10.	"After All (The Dead)"	Dehumanizer (1992)	5:42
11.	"TV Crimes"	Dehumanizer	4:02
12.	"I"	Dehumanizer	5:13
13.	"Children of the Sea (live)" (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward)	Live Evil (1982)	6:14
14.	"The Devil Cried" (Dio, Iommi)	New song for this compilation	6:01
15.	"Shadow of the Wind" (Dio, Iommi)	New song for this compilation	5:40
16.	"Ear in the Wall" (Dio, Iommi)	New song for this compilation	4:04

Bonus Track Version

No.	Title	Length
17.	"The Devil Cried" (Radio Edit)	4:22

UK Tour Edition bonus CD (recorded live at The Hammersmith Odeon in 1981)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Neon Knights"	4:37
2.	"The Mob Rules"	3:33
3.	"Children of the Grave" (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward)	5:03
4.	"Voodoo"	5:44

Personnel

• Ronnie James Dio – vocals
• Tony Iommi – guitar
• Geezer Butler – bass
• Bill Ward – drums (on tracks 1–5)
• Vinny Appice – drums (on tracks 6–16)[10]
• Geoff Nicholls – keyboards (on tracks 1–13)
• Mike Exeter - Engineering and mixing

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2007	The Billboard 200	54[11]

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2007	"The Devil Cried"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	38[12]

See also

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
2. Graff, Gary (7 April 2007). "The Billboard Reviews". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media: 38. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
3. Alisoglu, Scott. "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years". Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
4. Lye, Andy (2007). "Black Sabbath – The Dio Years". jukeboxmetal.com. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
5. "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years". okayplayer.com. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
6. "Black Sabbath: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
7. Popoff, Martin (14 December 2006). "Tony Iommi Reveals The New BLACK SABBATH Tracks!". bravewords.com. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
8. Siegler, Joe (22 February 2007). "The Devil Cried Single". black-sabbath.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
9. Wiederhorn, Jon (15 December 2006). "Half Of Black Sabbath Reunite With Dio; Tour Begins In March". MTV. Retrieved 20 March 2003.
10. Saulnier, Jason (24 March 2012). "Vinny Appice Interview". Music Legends. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
11. "The Dio Years: Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums" at AllMusic. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
12. "The Dio Years: Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles" at AllMusic. Retrieved 14 September 2011.