Customer Reviews

The Rules Of Hell

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Ozzy Osbourne parted ways with Black Sabbath (or got fired, depending on who you ask), his bandmates weren't ready to throw in the towel. Recruiting former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, the group continued to record. What resulted were some of the band's sessions. This set compiles the band's Dio-era efforts (the ones from 1980-1992, anyway.) Additionally, all tracks have been given remastering treatment.

Here's what you get in the box set:

-Heaven and Hell (1980)
The first Black Sabbath studio album to feature Ronnie James Dio, and the last to feature Bill Ward until his return to the band in 1983 for the Ian Gillan-fronted Born Again. This is Dio Sabbath at their finest, and arguably the best material included in this set. A number of classic cuts came from this release, including Neon Knights, Lady Evil, and the iconic title track.

-Mob Rules (1981)
First Black Sabbath album to feature Vinnie Appice on drums. The follow-up to Heaven and Hell isn't quite the classic that album was, but it's still got its share of excellent songs, including Turn Up the Night, The Sign of the Southern Cross, and the title track.

-Live Evil (1982)
This live album was recorded during the Mob Rules tour. In addition to featuring a plethora of excellent songs from the two aforementioned albums you get in this set, Dio puts his own spin on sone of the old tracks from the Ozzy era. It's a great live album, but disputes between band members led to Dio and Appice parting ways with Iommi and Butler (Dio went on to form his own group, which featured Appice on drums in its initial lineup.) The album has been released on CD over the years in various incarnations - mainly these consist of 2CD versions with the complete album as heard on vinyl, with Dio's between-song chatter and everything, a nd 1CD versions that eliminate the chatter so as to fit an abridged album on a single disc. This set (thankfully) contains the 2CD, full-length version.

-Dehumanizer (1992)
The Dio-era Sabbath lineup got back together in the early 90s and recorded this metal masterpiece, which certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded a whole decade after their 80s stuff. This is Dio Sabbath at their best, featuring tracks that include Computer God, TV Crimes, Master of Insanity, and Time Machine. This is the American version of the album, so you get the alternate version of Time Machine that appeared in Wayne's World as a bonus track.

-Additionally, if you purchase the set at Best Buy, you get a bonus disc of a few live tracks. So naturally I say get it there.

As excellent as this box set is, though, there are a few complain ts that must be made:

-DOES NOT include the 3 new songs from last year's Dio Years compilation.
Considering this set was supposed to be the quintessential review of Dio with Black Sabbath, I can't believe these tracks weren't included (note however, some music download stores DO include the tracks, but you won't get them in the actual, physical box.)

-DOES NOT include the Heaven and Hell Live at Radio City Music Hall live album.
Ditto. Another important release of Dio Sabbath material that is inexplicably omitted from the set. Dio Sabbath is still on fire, and this live album is proof.... So why don't we get it in this set?

-No DVD/video content.
I must say, I was especially surprised to see no video content in the set. Considering the Black and Blue DVD (which features Dio-era Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult) is out of print and hard to find now, I don't see why the Sabbath portion of that set couldn't be remastered and included here.

-No new songs/content/etc.
If you're a die-hard Dio fan, the remastering will be reason enough to upgrade to this set. But you may be disappointed to find that there aren't any unreleased tracks or bonuses.

Despite its flaws and omissions of more recent material, this is a great package of some of the best material Black Sabbath/Dio ever recorded. For all Sabbath/Dio/Metal fans, this set is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Length:: 2:42 Mins

I thought people might want to see exactly what's in this essential box set.

Contrary to popular belief, Black Sabbath didn't break-up when Osbourne was fired in 1979. They carried on with another 15 years' worth of albums -- longer than their first time with Ozzy -- and even saw an initial INCREASE in their sales and concert attendance compared to their slump in the late 70s. And the success of the Iommi/Butler/Dio/Appice reunion under the name "Heaven and Hell" has proven that plenty of fans still love the Dio years. So here comes the follow-up to the Ozzy years "Black Box" box set: "The Rules of Hell". As it damn well should, because the "Dio Years" single disc compilation just isn't enough! As bassist Geezer Butler explained in a recent interview, the title is simply a play on the first two albums, "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules".

This set contains the four Black Sabbath albums fronted by Ronnie James Dio: Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), Live Evil (1982) and Dehumanizer (1992). All have been remastered and include new liner notes. "Heaven and Hell" includes some great art work that I've never seen. It was also in the biggest need of mastering, and the new disc sounds great. "Live Evil", which Castle Records edited down from 2 discs to 1 disc at some point (taking out the audience cheers and band talk in between tracks etc.), is now back in its 2 disc entirety. I won't go into detail about these four classic albums themselves. You can find plenty of reviews on them on Amazon.

Some quick history: Dio left Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in the late 70s, and joined Black Sabbath to make "Heaven and Hell", produced by famous metal album producer Martin Birch. Original drummer Bill Ward left mid-tour and was replaced by Vinny Appice (younger brother of Carmine). They then recorded "Mob Rules". Around this time "Live at Last", a bootleg from 1973, was released without knowledge nor approval from the band. This prompted them to record "Live Evil". Dio and Appice then left to form the band "Dio". They reunited with Black Sabbath in 1992 to make "Dehumanizer" and toured once more before Dio and Appice left the fold once again. All 4 finally reunited 15 years later as the touring band Heaven and Hell.

Now...as much as I love the music, I still think this could have been handled a lot better. This box set does NOT contain:

- LYRICS. "Black Box" not only included all of the lyrics, but AUTHORIZED lyrics! Black Sabbath has a notorious history of not including the lyrics on most of their albums. That means just about all the Black Sabbath lyrics you find on-line or in sheet music books are just GUESSES. They're just by-the-ear transcriptions from some listener. This has led to a lot of ridiculous mistranslations (my favorite is "if an echo darts in dancer" instead of the much more likely "if an echo doesn't answer"). It would have been great if they took the time to do the same here. Some lines have been stumping me for over 20 years!

- B-SIDES. There were a couple of B-sides and extra album tracks released at some point, not to be found here: alternate versions out there of "Mob Rules" (from the movie Heavy Metal), "Time Machine" (from the movie Wayne's World), and "Letters from Earth" that were released separately from the album.

- DEMO & UNRELEASED SONGS. These do exist on the bootleg circuit. However, Black Sabbath has always been extremely picky about releasing such things in general. They didn't release any on "Black Box", and I wasn't expecting them to be here either.

- VIDEO. A little DVD, even if it was just 2 songs, would have been nice. They made a few promo videos back in the day and there's also some live footage out there. But alas, nothing here.

- TRINKETS, PHOTOS, STICKERS, etc. It's just the four jewel cases (one a double disc case) in a flimsy box. That's all. The tracks for the jewel cases are black though, which look nice.

Still, I have to say that it's great to see the Dio years finally being recognized. If you don't have any of these on CD, this is certainly a great deal for 4 albums / 5 discs. I don't know if there are plans on rereleasing the remaining 7 albums in the Sabbath catalog, but we'll see.

I'm glad Warner/Rhino is continuing what they did in 2004 with the Black Box. Here's hoping they don't stop here and go all the way with the Gillan/Hughes/Martin era stuff next. If not, at least scrap up the old masters and get those elusive albums back into print!

I admit that I'm more an Ozzy fan than a Dio fan. Dio had the voice, but the band were simply at their songwriting peak with Ozzy (who went on to prove a thing or two of his own when he went solo). But that doesn't mean this material comes up short. After two disappointing albums, Ozzy left Sabbath and they recruited Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio to help them soldier on. The resulting debut of this new line-up, Heaven & Hell, turned out to be their best album since Sabotage. It rocks in a more straight-forward almost bone-headed way than the earlier material, but there's nothing wrong with that. The band got their fire back. The title track is the epic standout, but there isn't a bad song in the bunch. A five star album that shut a lot of naysayers up at the time. It remains this line-up's best.

The follow-up, Mob Rules, is only a notch or two below. Sabbath repeated the Heaven & Hell formula and wound up delivering another great record. Not much else to say, really. If you like one, the odds are you'll like the other.

Live Evil is where the fans get divided. Personally, I think it's fun to hear someone else try to tackle old warhorses we've heard a million times the same way. And when you've got a voice as good as Dio's, the odds are in your favor. He delivers here. Obviously doesn't sound like the Ozzy versions we all know and love, but, again, I appreciate the fresh take. It goes without saying the band does the newer material great justice. Sabbath's first OFFICIAL live album and the last they'd do with Dio until 1992.

Which brings us to that 1992 album, Dehumanizer. It's not awful, but it's not great. Twenty two years into their recording career, I gotta appreciate the effort they put into it, but it doesn't match the early stuff. It happens with most bands who've stuck around for as long as Sabbath has. I throw it on from time to time so that must count for something, I guess. If I had to rate it, I'd give it a solid three out of five.

So, how does this box set sound? Phenominal. A big boost in the vein of what they did with the original eight albums four years ago that, thankfully, avoids the over-compression nonsense that record companies seem to love so much these days. The old masters sound tinny by comparison. Dynamics count for a lot with a band like Black Sabbath and the guys who remastered these albums kept them intact. Well done, guys.

What I'd love next (aside from a continuation of these Sabbath remasters) is for Dio's early solo catalogue to get the remaster treatment. His band is the only "classic" metal one I can think of that's still riding on the old 80s masters. Listen to the Holy Diver CD and you just KNOW it could sound better. Anyway...

Highly recommended. If you like this particular version of Black Sabbath, this set is essential.

The first thing I noticed with this box set was that the albums were packed in jewel cases rather than digipaks the way that the Black Box was. This causes an ugly look and feel presentation wise if you take all the remasters out of their respective boxes and line them up. However, all the CD's have the same all black tops on them that the Black Box did so there was some attempt at continuity here.

The first thing I noticed with the albums when I listened to them was that Heaven and Hell was the most obvious of the remasters as Bill Ward's drums and Geezer Butler's bass are so up front that it hurts (in a good way). Mob Rules has finally gotten past the muddy sound that has been a major hindrance to this album in the past. The sound is clear and crisp and much better than the 1996 Castle Remasters.

Dehumanizer is the least obvious of the remasters unless you go back and listen to the original Reprise release. Then, and only then, does it become obvious that the album was remastered at all.

Then there's Live Evil.

The sound overall on Live Evil is better than the original Warner release but it's Live Evil (which is nothing special to begin with). If you have the limited edition Hammersmith Odeon CD from last year than you really don't need Live Evil (unless you have a raging hard on for the two minute version of Sign of the Southern Cross on Live Evil).

Overall it's a good buy and the first two CD's are mixed much better than the 1996 Castle Remasters.

I'm not going to go into the Ozzy versus Ronnie versus Tony Martin versus Ian Gillan etc debut. The simple fact is that each singer brought their own vibe to the band and all of them are great singers in they're own right. However Ronnie seems to fit the Sabbath sound perfectly. His strong vocals and the way he presents them just seem to take the band to new levels.

This little Box Set will give you the listener a new way to enjoy some of Sabbath's best stuff. Heaven and Hell sounds awesome as does Mob Rules. Live Evil is once again uncut and the way it should be and Dehumanize is really good as well. All the disc get a new look which is cool and liner notes and pics throughout. You wont find the three newer tunes on hear which is a bit of a drag and you wont find any hidden gems that have been released for the first time. It's just the original albums remastered to a T and what's wrong with that?

As the others have said, if you've never heard these gems?, you have to pick them up. For those of us who know them well and already have these in our collection, it's still pretty much a must have. Heaven and Hell alone is worth it as it just sounds fantastic!

Good stuff all around here. Now all we need is a Box Set from the Tony Martin years.

The brand new Black Sabbath box set entitled The Rules of Hell is a must own for all Dio and/or Black Sabbath fans.
When Ozzy Osbourne got fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, many people had written the band off as nothing without the lead singer. However, the surviving band members (guitarist Tony Iommi, bass player Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward) and many of the band's fans weren't ready to count Sabbath's innings yet. They forged on by recruiting one time Elf and Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow lead singer Ronnie James Dio and continued to record. What resulted were some of the band's best work in years. This box set compiles all four of the band's Dio-era efforts. Plus, all of the tracks have been given proper remastering as opposed to the Castle remasters from 1996 which all sounded terrible.
The box contains the band's 1980 effort Heaven and Hell which was their first album with Dio and was their last with Ward until his brief return to the band in 1983 for the Ian Gillan-fronted Born Again. This album is arguably the best material the band recorded with Dio in the band. Standouts on the album were "Neon Knights", "Children of the Sea" and the famous title track.
The second disc is 1981's Mob Rules which was the band's first album to feature drummer Vinny Appice on drums. Many saw Heaven and Hell's follow-up an inferior product as opposed to its predecessor but is just as strong of an effort as Heaven and Hell. It had many excellent tracks like "Turn Up the Night", "The Sign of the Southern Cross", "Falling Off The Edge Of The World" and the title track.
The double live album from 1982 Live Evil was recorded during the Mob Rules tour. In addition to featuring key tracks from the two aforementioned albums you get in this set (all performed well (see my review)), Dio gets to put his own stamp on some of the classic tracks from the Ozzy era like "Black Sabbath", "Iron Man" and "Children of the Grave". It's a great live album, but disputes between band members led to Dio and Appice parting ways with Iommi and Butler (Dio went on to form his own group, which featured Appice on drums in its initial lineup). This particular album has been on CD over the years in various editions. There was the Warner Bros 2-CD version with the complete album as heard on vinyl (with Dio's stage bantering and everything), and there were 1-CD versions that eliminated either the bantering or "War Pigs" so it would fit an abridged album on a single CD. This set (thankfully) contains the 2-CD version superbly remastered.
Lastly, there is the lineup's last hurrah until their 2007 reunion called Dehumanizer from 1992. They reunited in 1991 and recorded this great album which didn't sound like it was recorded a whole decade after their initial split. Standouts on this album were "Computer God", "TV Crimes", "Master of Insanity" and "Time Machine". You get the American version of the album, so you do have get the Wayne's World take of Time Machine which appeared on the Wayne's World Soundtrack that appeared on the Dehumanizer CD as a bonus track.
Also, each disc restores their original vinyl LP art plus new interviews with the band in each album's booklets.
Sadly, you don't get any bonuses if you purchase this set bought at regular stores. However, if you purchase the set at Best Buy, you get a bonus disc of five live tracks from the rare limited Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1981/82 CD released last year (which, among the bonuses, has a killer live version of "Country Girl"). If you buy the digital download version, you get the three tracks they recorded for 2007's The Dio Years compilation.
This set is recommended for those who either want an upgrade of Dio era catalog or don't own any of the albums yet or the cool remastering.
RECOMMENDED!

This box set is absolutely awesome! I love Ozzy-Sabbath, don't get me wrong, but much of what is in this set is among Sabbath's best. Unlike most Dio-Sabbath fans, I don't think 'Heaven and Hell' is the best of them...I prefer 'Mob Rules.' Wow! That album is stellar from beginning to end and features one of the great rock songs ever made with "Sign of the Southern Cross." Not to say 'Heaven and Hell' is a bad album, it's not. "Children of the Sea" from this album is also among Sabbath's best. Both 'Heaven and Hell' and 'Mob Rules' stand up with any of Sabbath's top Ozzy fronted albums.

'Live Evil' is okay, but the Ozzy songs sound a little akward with Dio singing them. Not that he sings them poorly, it's just that Ozzy's voice is so unique it's hard to replicate it. 'Dehumanizer' is the final disc on here and it is a heavy, very Sabbath sounding album, but the songwriting is not a good as on 'Heaven and Hell' and 'Mob Rules', imo. "TV Crimes" and "I" are standout tunes on that one, though. In fact, for anyone familiar with Dio's solo career, 'Dehumanizer' has a very similar sound to Dio's 'Strange Highways' CD which came out around the same time. Very heavy.

It is unfortunate that the three new songs from 'Black Sabbath - the Dio Years' did not make it in here, as all three of them were very good, especially 'The Devil Cried' which is outstanding. It's also unfortunate that the Heaven and Hell (band name) discs did not make it in here, as both the live one (actually two, now) and the studio album 'The Devil You Know' are fantastic discs. I think it had to do with the legal issues related to the name 'Black Sabbath' which Ozzy now partly owns.

At any rate, if you like Sabbath and/or Dio and don't have these discs...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Get out there and buy them! They rock and will be a welcome addition to your collection.

Let's face it, if you're thinking about buying this you are already a fan of the Dio years so I don't need to tell you how great this era of Black Sabbath was...
These remastered cd's sound great!! The reverb on Dio's voice on Heaven and Hell when he sings over the bass and drums is so darn great sounding. The music sounds warm and deep...
There are no extras here but personally I don't like when extra tracks are added to discs that I already love...still as others have said...a dvd would have been nice...especially the Sabbath performances from the Black and Blue film.
The packaging is simple and beautiful but that is where my only complaint lies...The cd's sit right next to each other in the box with no dividers...so the jewel cases will probably get scratched over time.

I had received an Amazon gift card and was kind of stuck on what to buy with it.

Back in 1980, I was first exposed to Black Sabbath by my older cousins and older brother. I was barely old enough to even reach the record player. The power that came from the single channel speaker was unlike anything I had ever heard. It's funny how fast things change. The Sabbath I knew had this really ominous song called Black Sabbath and there was this other one that had what a 5-7 year old kid heard as an evil, robotic voice called Iron Man.

The mid-80s approached, I was still not a huge music fan. I was still under 10 and didn't have my own money to buy albums with. I mainly listened to whatever my brother did. He was the prototype or stereotype, depending on your angle, metal head. He had an older Camaro and always played Ozzy solo, the original Sabbath line-up, AC/DC and Judas Priest. Somewhere in the mid-80s, I'm assuming probably 1985, I took on a few lawn mowing jobs in the summer, to buy myself a Nintendo. I bought the Nintendo, but I also bought a few albums too. One was Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast and the other was Black Sabbath Mob Rules.

It was like metal blasphemy! My brother and cousins all looked at me as if I had betrayed the sacred book of metal. Admittedly, the cover art for the Iron Maiden album got my attention and just the name, Black Sabbath, was still fresh in my head. Well, my brother refused to listen to Mob Rules. In all of his coolness, he was being a punk and I don't mean anarchy punk. "If it's not Ozzy, it ain't Sabbath". I still aggravate him about that though he is well into his 40s now.

He eventually "accidentally" heard my Mob Rules album playing back in 1985. He kind of liked it. He shrouded his head and bought the Heaven and Hell album. Over time maturation set in and he decided to tell our cousins about how good Dio-era Sabbath is. Of course, they kicked his butt.

Fast forward to today. I'm still a pretty big Sabbath fan and had bought the Black Box when it came out. I also, on a regular basis, still listen to Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. I'm willing to put those two against any back to back releases in the Sabbath catalog. I've even tried remastering them myself. I need to hear those drums better and the bass too.

In a way, I was sad to see this, The Rules of Hell, set. Not because of the content, but because I've been so far out of the new releases in music that I had no idea it had been released. The last Sabbath release I had noticed was the Dio Years and was planning on buying it when I happened to see this The Rules of Hell set and grabbed it instead.

I'm not into music for collection purposes so I went for the mp3 version. I just wanted the new remastered versions of the Dio-fronted Sabbath.

The package includes all of the songs from the Heaven and Hell album, all from Mob Rules, all from the 2 album Live Evil and all songs from Dehumanizer, which was a terribly underrated album.

For those that are wondering those Live Evil songs are Dio singing Ozzy/Sabbath songs. Not all, but the old standards from the original line-up. I won't go as far as saying the Dio versions are better, but they aren't bad at all.

These cds represent a different Sabbath than most people know. On Heaven and Hell alone, I would call these songs some of Sabbath's best of any era.

Heaven and Hell standouts - Heaven and Hell, Neon Knights, Children of the Sea, Lady Evil, Wishing Well and Lonely is the Word. That leaves 2 songs that I only thought were okay.

Mob Rules standouts - Turn Up the Night, Voodoo, The Sign of the Southern Cross, Country Girl and Falling of the Edge of the World.

Though Heaven and Hell had more standout tracks; I'm not for sure there is as epic of a song as The Sign of the Southern Cross, maybe Children of the Sea...maybe.

So, give it a few listens on the samples. This isn't your older but eternally immature brother's Sabbath. Ronnie James Dio in all his quirkiness as a solo artist, is one of the top 3 heavy metal vocalists of all-time. The sound quality is much improved. At times, specifically on Neon Knights, you do get the feeling it could have been remastered a bit better, but it still blows the original releases away. With the price of buying just the mp3s this deal is a great value for anyone like me who is into the music just for the music. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting the booklets and pictures. Cover art, as said above, helped me find Iron Maiden as a kid so I know it is important. The amount only averages out to about five dollars a disc and let the fact that I'm still listening to these nearly 30 years after their release tell how well this music has held up over time.