While Ozzy Osbourne may have recently reiterated the lack of anything new being forthcoming from Black Sabbath in terms of creative output, the reissues package is forging ahead at full steam, this time with two releases in quick succession in the shape of ‘Heaven And Hell’ and ‘Mob Rules’. The usual question of what exactly is new or a bonus to previous versions of releases crops up quickly, though, so I dove into both vinyl reissues to see what was in store. Let’s take them in chronological order, then…
So, ‘Heaven And Hell’, the first album post Ozzy, with Ronnie James Dio taking to vocals. As much as many diehards see this as quite the turning point in Sabbath’s career, going from their previous output into the more storied “dragons and kings” alluded to in album opener ‘Neon Knights’. The remastered output is, as you would expect, adding even further clarity to the furthest ends of the sound, giving those vinyl lovers such as myself even more reason to listen out for the edges of your hearing and listen out for what we had missed in the previous masterings.
So then, the “new” stuff in the ‘Heaven And Hell’ package? Seven tracks, covering both sides of a second vinyl disc. The majority are live tracks, with the first two tracks being versions of ‘Children Of The Sea’ (the live B-side of ‘Neon Knights’) and ‘Heaven And Hell’ itself, which took pride of place as the B-side to ‘Die Young. A 7″ mono edit of ‘Lady Evil’ is the only not-live addition on this release – in fact, it’s previously unreleased on CD in its entirety – before our last four tracks are all live versions taken from the 1980 tour.
Onto, then, our second re-release in the form of ‘Mob Rules’.
Sabbath delved further into the Dio world of wizards and mythology in the mental imagery, becoming even more of a different beast than their early days. While there is no doubting that the vocal talents of Dio were perhaps the strongest in terms of musical talent, the wail of Ozzy was an extra instrument for the band to use in their previous releases and this was the time when Dio got to fully contribute to the writing from the band.
The bonus additions are actually quite different on the vinyl compared to the cd in this re-release, with the CD version getting eight bonus tracks on CD 1, consisting of two different versions of ‘The Mob Rules’, in the form of the ‘Heavy Metal’ soundtrack version and a new mix of the track, as well as a live b-side take of ‘Die Young’.
Four live tracks follow, taken from the Hammersmith Odeon set in late 1981/early 1982 and two tracks from the beginning of the live show in Portland, Oregon in April 1982. A second disc continues the rest of the set from this show. The vinyl version of this has the three initial extras, plus a reprise of ‘Sign Of The Southern Cross/Heaven And Hell’, as well as the Hammersmith Odeon live tracks.
As an overall concept, the extras in the CD versions outweigh those of the vinyl, certainly in the ‘Mob Rules’ re-release, but the-mastering on both is of a high standard, which is the bare minimum you would expect with a heavyweight of the likes of Black Sabbath. The extra live tracks on both CD versions would be good to hear (which I did not, given my coverage of the vinyl versions) and the only sad part about it is the lack of the extra live tracks for the the vinyl versions, though I daresay the issues with sourcing and printing the vinyl, as well as the cost which would have to be added for the extra couple of vinyl discs that would be needed, are the reasons behind this. They are still worthwhile additions to the Sabbath collectors’ inventory.
- ‘Heaven And Hell’/’Mob Rules’ are both out now. You can get your copies HERE.
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