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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, we escape the shadow of the Ozzy era again! Very much worth it, May 5, 2007
When I started listening to Black Sabbath in 1981, Ronnie James Dio was the current vocalist, and Mob Rules was the current album. So I'm familiar - very familiar - with the first 13 songs on this CD. When Black Sabbath got back together with Ozzy in 1997, I figured that was pretty much it, the Dio Years (and the others, too) would be gone forever. Well, fortunately in 2006, the word came down that there would be a compilation CD (this one) in 2007 based off of "The Dio Years" of Black Sabbath. Dio's two previous tenures in the band produced three studio albums, and one live album. This CD is a decent cross section of the tunes from those three albums.
Like any other compilation album, there's always someone's personal choices as to what they think should have been left off, and put on. I would have personally left off "I" and replaced it with "Computer God", which is a far better song. I also would have put the studio version of "Children of the Sea" on here, instead of the version from "Live Evil". Perhaps also replacing Lonely is the Word with "Time Machine". But that didn't happen. The 13 older songs here are all great (except for maybe the live version of Children of the Sea). You can't go wrong with this compilation.
But this isn't just a simple compilation. There's three new songs. They are "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall". During Interviews, Tony Iommi said of the three new songs "There's one for everybody - a medium one, a slow one, and a fast one". He's right. The songs are that distinctive to me. Ear is my favorite of the three, it evokes memories of "Neon Knights", one of the best Dio era tracks. Shadow of the Wind is your usual slow powerful Black Sabbath track, and "Devil Cried" is a good track as well musically. I'm not terribly fond of the lyrics, though. They cross the line into cheese for me, but the song behind them is quite good. It's a mixed bag, that one.
As a whole, this compilation is well worth it, especially for the remastered versions of the tracks. The three albums that the compilation draws from were from 1980, 1981, & 1992. The Dehumanizer stuff from 1992 doesn't sound a whole lot different to my ears, but the Heaven & Hell stuff from 1980 sounds miles clearer than the old print, and the Mob Rules stuff from 1981 is much cleaned up too. Then you add in the three new tracks, and it's a good compilation, not just a shovel job to fill out a CD.
In fact, if you couple this CD with two other Black Sabbath compilation CD's, you can get a very good cross section of the whole of the entire history of Black Sabbath. The other two would be "Symptom of the Universe", a 2 CD package that covers the 8 studio Ozzy albums from 1970-1978, and then "The Sabbath Stones", a 1996 compilation that mostly covers the Tony Martin Era from 1987-1995, but also touches the Ian Gillan album in 1983 (Born Again), and the Glenn Hughes album in 1986 (Seventh Star). Take the three of these together, and you will get an extremely good cross section of the 18 studio albums Black Sabbath has released over the years.
As an added final note to this hardcore Sabbath fan, I loved the fact that the drum kit on the tracks used to belong to Cozy Powell. Vinny Appice plays on the tracks, but the kit used belonged to Cozy - these were recorded in the studio in Tony Iommi's house. I liked that. A lot.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Holy Dio, it's Black Sabbath, May 14, 2007
Personally, I have never been a fan of the Dio-led Black Sabbath. I'm sorry, but I've always considered Sabbath without Ozzy to not be Sabbath at all, and considering I've never been much of a Dio fan either (solo or Rainbow) that didn't really help any. However, once upon a time, I gave Dio and Sabbath a chance, and ended up converting. "The Dio Years" compiles some of the best material to come from Dio's time with Sabbath after Ozzy's departure, including favorites and no brainers like "Neon Knights", "Heaven & Hell", "Die Young", "The Mob Rules", and a live rendition of "Children of the Sea". There are also three new tracks that are worth the price of admission alone: "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall". This is one of those oh so rare cases when a compilation album is released with some new material, and the new material is actually pretty good. While one could argue that a few other tracks would have been more than welcome here (like "Time Machine"), "The Dio Years" is a pleasently surprising, well assembled compilation disc that fans of Dio or Sabbath, new and old alike, should definitely check out.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ah, Those Golden Dio Years....., April 3, 2007
Okay, I'm biased as anything. Black Sabbath is my favorite band of all time. I own every piece of Black Sabbath music out there, and I mean EVERYTHING! And when I say I'm a fan of Black Sabbath, I mean every single era/version of Black Sabbath, be it the classic era of Ozzy Osbourne, the one off shots with Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes, the rocky Tony Martin years, and most importantly the legendary periods with Ronnie James Dio.
You see, it was Ronnie James Dio's time in Sabbath that got me into them in the first place! 1981:Thirteen years old, sneaking into the R rated animated feature "Heavy Metal" and hearing that legendary opus "The Mob Rules" blasting through the screen like nothing my ears had ever heard before.
I've been hooked ever since.
Now, Rhino Records has finally given this line-up it's proper due with "The Dio Years". Within this fully remastered compilation is 13 select cuts from Black Sabbath's four officially released albums with Dio: Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, and Dehumanizer. While to fully please any fan of this era, one disc doesn't fully cut it (where's The Sign Of The Southern Cross, Walk Away, or their biggest hit from the 90's Time Machine?!!?), it does give members of this new generation a great sample of what they may have missed while growing up in this Alternative/Rap/Nu-Metal world of today.
Most of the big ones are here: Neon Knights, Heaven And Hell, The Mob Rules, TV Crimes, and the live (and superior to the studio) version of Children Of The Sea. As well as deeper cuts like Lonely Is The Word, Voodoo, and others. Each track has been remastered with Warner Bros original first generation tapes and they have never, and I mean NEVER, sounded this good ever! No edits, no goofy remixes, just the classic Black Sabbath sound most of us grew up on, just louder and crisper than ever before. Just as how the Black Sabbath/Ozzy era release "The Black Box" received superior & proper remastering, "The Dio Years" seem to have been given the exact same attention. Thank you, thank you Rhino for that!
And if that wasn't enough, the original Mob Rules line-up (including Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and drummer Vinny Appice) recorded new songs! Not just one, or two, but THREE brand new tracks, making this Best Of to any Sabbath fan a must buy! The Devil Cried, Shadow Of The Wind, and Ear In The Wall, all written and recorded around late 2006 show that these guys still have alot of power left in them, sounding just like where they left off in 92's Dehumanizer. And they'll need that strength too, as most already know that they are currently on tour as "Heaven And Hell" to promote this release along with the 5000 only pressing of Rhino Handmade's "Live At The Hammersmith Odeon 1981" release due in early May. It's good to see this line-up finally get it's due, especially after a decade of overshadowing by the original Ozzy Osbourne version, which quite frankly, needed a break.
Oh and before I go, I dare anyone who thinks Black Sabbath is "only Ozzy" to purchase this, give it a listen, and you WILL see that The Dio Years WERE just as important! I couldn't imagine Black Sabbath without those classic Dio led albums.
No true Black Sabbath fan ever would.
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