There's nothing like getting goose-bumps the second time around while you are watching a DVD of a show you attending and had an absolute blast at. The Dio era of Black Sabbath, out on this tour as Heaven & Hell, tore up New York's Radio City Music Hall in March of 2007 for a sold out show of epic and historical proportions. It was the first time this line-up of Sabbath had toured in some 15 years, and it is obvious from the performance (and the interviews with the band located in the Special Features section) that the band was really digging playing these great songs once again. Iommi & Butler in particular, no doubt bored to tears with the endless task of trudging through "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" every night over the last decade on the Ozzfest tours (classic songs, but well overplayed), seem reinvigorated joining up again with Ronnio & Vinny and ripping through such gargantuan tracks like "Falling Off the Edge of the World", "Neon Knights", "Children of the Sea", "The Mob Rules", and of course, "Heaven and Hell", among many others featured on the albums Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, and Dehumanizer. Geezer's fingers are in constant rumbling motion throughout (the man is easily the most underrated bass player in metal history), Vinny crashes with reckless abandon, Tony's riffs thunderous and leads sizzling, and Ronnie, well, what can you say about this 65+ year old leather lunged legendary heavy metal singer that hasn't already been said. The guy is a musical treasure, who can still outsing and outperform vocalists half his age. Dio seems to be really touched at how much the 8000+ are into the show, especially during "Heaven and Hell" where the crowd continually chants the oh, oh oh oh....oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh!" throughout the song. I was there....we rarely stopped. It was magic.
The sound on this DVD is excellent, as is the camera work. Being in the audience that night, I was amazed at how well crafted the stage was set up, and you can get all the insight into the creation of the stage for this tour on the bonus features part of the DVD. There's also some fun footage & quick interviews of the fans waiting outside Radio City before the show (including a quick shot of my old buddy Bill-have you seen yourself dude?), all who seemed to be so stoked at the anticpation of seeing this legendary band again after so many years.
An essential document of an extraordinary evening, captured forever on DVD. Let's hope that this is not a one-off for this foursome, and that more new music and tours are in the offering in years to come.
Track Listing
1) E5150/After All (The Dead)
2) The Mob Rules
3) Children of the Sea
4) Lady Evil
5) I
6) The Sign of the Southern Cross
7) Voodoo
8) The Devil Cried
9) Computer God
10) Falling off the Edge of the World
11) Shadow of the Wind
12) Die Young
13) Heaven & Hell
14) Lonely is the Word
15) Neon Knights
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
