Heaven and Hell is the ninth studio album by Black Sabbath, released in 1980. This is their first album featuring Ronnie James Dio, and first with producer Martin Birch.


Album information

Heaven and Hell became one of Black Sabbath's best-selling albums, revitalising Sabbath's fortunes after what many saw as the death of the group following original lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's departure. The album was rereleased in the Black Sabbath box set The Rules of Hell.


Lineup changes

This was the first album after singer Ozzy Osbourne was fired from the band and replaced with Ronnie James Dio. Geoff Nicholls of Quartz also joined the band as a possible replacement for Geezer Butler who had not been around through most of the writing sessions and was going through a divorce at the time. When Butler decided to stay with the group, Nicholls switched to keyboards. Nicholls remained as Black Sabbath's keyboard player for over twenty years, usually playing live shows from off-stage.

Former Elf and Rainbow bassist Craig Gruber also rehearsed with the band. Gruber's involvement appears to be a point of debate. In a 1996 interview, Tony Iommi mentions that Gruber played with the band for "a bit".[3] Gruber has stated that his time with the band was much more substantial and that he only left the group once Butler decided to return.

Drummer Bill Ward completed this album, but drinking and other personal factors would eventually lead him to drop out of the subsequent tour. His mid-tour replacement Vinny Appice would become an official member.


Writing and composition

The exact origins of much of this album's material is still a topic of debate. Osbourne apparently attempted to record some of what would become "Heaven and Hell" before being fired; all of this material was scrapped. Sabbath had in fact begun demoing material with singer Ronnie James Dio before Osbourne was formally fired.

The song "Children of the Sea" was written by Dio and Iommi during their very first session. When Butler returned to the recording studio, all but one track ("Neon Knights") had already been written for the album. Craig Gruber claims that it is his bass playing that appears on the album.[4][5] Gruber also claims that it was he who brought in the music for "Die Young", although he is not credited for it.[4]

Bill Ward says he has "no memory" of making the album, due in part to his alcoholism.[6] It is unclear how much of the album, if any, was actually written by bassist Geezer Butler or drummer Bill Ward.


Artwork

The album's cover art was taken from a painting by artist Lynn Curlee, entitled "Smoking Angels". Curlee was also commissioned to do an album cover for Blue Öyster Cult by Sandy Pearlman who was at the time manager of both Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult. The same idea of this artwork is seen four years later in Van Halen's album 1984. This artwork features an angel with a cigarette in his hand, and two packs of cigarettes beside him.
[edit] Reception

The album was successful, becoming their highest charting album (#9 UK, #28 USA[7]) since 1975's Sabotage and the third highest selling album of Black Sabbath.

In the UK, it became the third Black Sabbath studio-album to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in November 1980. It subsequently attained Gold certification (100,000 units sold) in April 1982, the only Black Sabbath studio album to be thus certified.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 28. May 2010, 15:32

Black Sabbath / Heaven And Hell [Deluxe Edition, CD1]

Used drive : SONY DVD RW AW-G170A Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
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1 | 0:00.00 | 3:54.29 | 0 | 17578
2 | 3:54.29 | 5:34.52 | 17579 | 42680
3 | 9:29.06 | 4:26.12 | 42681 | 62642
4 | 13:55.18 | 6:58.12 | 62643 | 94004
5 | 20:53.30 | 4:07.62 | 94005 | 112591
6 | 25:01.17 | 4:45.27 | 112592 | 133993
7 | 29:46.44 | 4:25.47 | 133994 | 153915
8 | 34:12.16 | 5:50.21 | 153916 | 180186


Range status and errors

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Filename D:\Music\Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell [Deluxe Edition, CD1].wav

Peak level 95.9 %
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 70BE884E
Copy CRC 70BE884E
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [01C5CE21]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [CFCB2BC5]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [311C5699]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [4325DA62]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A25FFA02]
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [84F99CDE]
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [A6A2FCBE]
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [D9566B62]

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 28. May 2010, 15:59

Black Sabbath / Heaven And Hell [Deluxe Edition, CD2]

Used drive : SONY DVD RW AW-G170A Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:25.56 | 0 | 28930
2 | 6:25.56 | 7:20.01 | 28931 | 61931
3 | 13:45.57 | 3:58.11 | 61932 | 79792
4 | 17:43.68 | 4:49.61 | 79793 | 101528
5 | 22:33.54 | 5:58.36 | 101529 | 128414
6 | 28:32.15 | 12:34.69 | 128415 | 185033
7 | 41:07.09 | 4:36.72 | 185034 | 205805


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\Music\Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell [Deluxe Edition, CD2].wav

Peak level 91.2 %
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 90E29D1F
Copy CRC 90E29D1F
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [D780664E]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [CF75F278]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [28DD5ED0]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [2FBE5AFA]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [7D445879]
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [05B8F342]
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 4) [50C499B1]

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report