Unknown Soldier

Overview
When Dio joined Black Sabbath from Rainbow in 1979, Black Sabbath must’ve thought that they were now in the realm of gods, as Dio’s breathtaking vocals combined with the sheer majesty of Tony Iommi’s riffs, were like something out of a headbangers wet dream! Dio of course was very much on the top of his game after the stunning Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll with Rainbow (see review) whereas Black Sabbath now minus Ozzy of course had been down in the doldrums for a number of years now. Their fall from greatness had of course started with their seventh album Technical Ecstasy basically a pile of drivel that will test anyone and after that album Ozzy had baled out of the band and was temporarily replaced by Savoy Brown’s Dave Walker. The band had then started their eighth album Never Say Die and it was on the recording of that album that Ozzy had decided to return to the band (he probably wished he hadn't) and if anybody knows that album, it was even worse than the previous Technical Ecstasy and culminated in around 40 minutes of absolute boredom. After the album Ozzy had gone off again to embark on a solo career and the band were able to wipe the slate clean once again and start from afresh with a powerhouse vocalist like Dio in their corner. But things were far from being straightforward as drummer Bill Ward was going through personal issues (every band seemed to have a member like so) in fact Bill Ward has stated that he has no real memory of recording the album, as he was that far out of it! Also bassist Geezer Butler was going through a divorce, which is why eventual keyboardist Geoff Nicholls of Quartz was brought in initially on bass and he would be a long term band collaborator before becoming an official member several years later. In fact the bass playing on the album would be such a controversial aspect, as besides Geoff Nicholls playing on bass in rehersals , Dio himself had tinkered around on bass as well, but the biggest contributor on bass surely had to be Dio’s old mucker Craig Gruber who claimed to have played bass on every song and also to have helped to write the album, this was later denied by the band but in Tony Iommi’s recent autobiography, it’s claimed that Craig Gruber did in fact have a huge contribution on the album. When Geezer Butler finally returned, he just recorded the bass parts again for the album. Instead of an in-house production once again, much travelled producer/engineer Martin Birch would produce the album and the album’s cover with its heaven and hell theme, is supposedly all about the highs and lows of being world famous rock musicians. Bill Ward’s personal problems would come to a high during the Heaven and Hell tour and he would suddenly leave the band and drummer Vinny Appice would be brought in and Vinny Appice would also be the band’s permanent drummer for 1981’s Mob Rules. The album was a commercial smash for the band and was their third highest selling album ever after the previous Paranoid and Master of Reality.

Verdict
Heaven and Hell is one the most famous metal albums of its time and also one of the boldest, as the introduction of Dio on vocals was a major stylistic change for the band, meaning that the band had to accommodate his vocal might and release something contemporary as well. So if Ozzy had represented the old Black Sabbath, then Dio was the beginning of a new era for the band. Just hearing the opening track the soaring “Neon Knights” one of the fastest on the album would be enough to solidify this new approach, as Dio pounds his way through 4 glorious minutes. This is then followed by the glorious acoustic opening of “Children of the Sea” before the song beefs itself up and showcases the power of Dio, a real connoiseurs delight to listen to and was the first song written for the album. Overall the majority of the tracks are heavy and mid-tempo like the personable “Lady Evil” the easy going “Walk Away” and the slightly pacier “Wishing Well” but the most iconic of these mid-tempo tracks is surely the title track “Heaven and Hell” the showpiece track of the album and quite simply the crème de la crème of the album, even though “Lonely is the Word” pushes it close. “Die Young” like “Neon Knights” is one of the faster tracks on the album and also one of the few tracks that seems to feature fleetingly used keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, which is probably why he’s down as an additional musician, but I guess there were financial considerations here as well. Not all the album is what one could call contemporary, as album closer “Lonely is the Word” sees its middle and latter sections hark back to the glory days of 1970’s hard rock, where Tony Iommi does a Jimmy Page on guitar across the song. Most of the tracks are straightforward guitar led metal tracks with Dio singing right across Tony Iommi’s riffs, instead of Ozzy’s approach which had been to follow the riffs of Tony Iommi. In fact the album’s real strength is actually its basic guitar led approaches, that wave adios to the technical and diverse nonsense attempted by the band on their previous two studio albums. I've always felt that Black Sabbath as a band were never really comfortable going too far outside their basic root sound, but when they were good on their first six albums they could get away with doing it, but when they weren’t they really sucked. Heaven and Hell therefore was quite simply a return to a more basic approach but with a facelift and the band were very much reborn, in fact the album could’ve easily been called ‘Born Again’ sadly they would use that very same title in a couple of years for their worst album ever, but that’s a story for another day. Without getting into Ozzy vs Dio debate here, let’s just say that Dio is the better vocalist, as frontmen it’s a matter of personal taste, but Ozzy was Black Sabbath and along with Tony Iommi the spiritual conductor of heavy metal. So the pros and cons of the two cancel each other out in my opinion and for that reason I love both eras of the band equally, it’s just a shame though that Dio didn’t stick around longer. All the songs on the album are band efforts with Dio supposedly just writing the lyrics, but to my ears nearly all the songs sound like Dio songs, but I guess that’s down to his dominant singing. The pure majesty of Dio quite simply makes Heaven and Hell a glorious album and most people that really dig Dio usually love this album, but if you’re not overly enamoured by Dio’s vocals then Heaven and Hell may not hold the same appeal. Heaven and Hell would be one of two very high profile albums in 1980 that had brand new vocalists, the other being Back in Black by AC/DC, the difference was that AC/DC went for the same shoe size again, whereas Black Sabbath went for a different shoe size altogether.

Dio- Vocals
Tony Iommi- Guitar
Geezer Butler- Bass
Bill Ward- Drums
Geoff Nicholls- Keyboards

Production- Martin Birch

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
I’ve often mentioned in contrast to a lot of reviews and opinions from this time period, how I’ve often thought that heavy metal around this time actually had very little in common with punk musically, which of course it was often compared to. But what punk did have in common with heavy metal (especially the NWOBHM) were two things. Firstly both had a D.I.Y ethos where bands just got on and done it with the limited resources that they had available. Secondly certain heavy metal bands relied on a punk attitude to build their fanbase and Iron Maiden were one such band that qualified on both criteria points. Iron Maiden were able to present their brand of heavy metal very much at street level a la punk, as opposed to the stadium rock approach that a lot of metal bands aspired to, oddly enough when Bruce Dickinson joined the band a few years later, the band would be the polar opposite of this early approach. In terms of attitude, Iron Maiden had started out as a pub band that played the East London circuit and you needed to be hard band to do that. All through this period band leader Steve Harris had held the band together, through numerous line-up changes and had a steadfast belief in what the band were doing. So with the vast majority of quality NWOBHM bands coming out of the Midlands and the North East, London was certainly due a major player and that player would come in the form of Iron Maiden and they along with Angel Witch were both early leaders of the London HM scene, but of course Iron Maiden would go on to quickly scale critical and commercial heights that few bands could’ve dreamed of. From the word go the band’s trump card was largely their aforementioned punk attitude which was perfectly delivered by vocalist Paul Di’Anno (who looked like a street tough) and this won the band a large number of punk inspired fans. The band were soon championed by then influential music newspaper ‘Sounds’ in fact ‘Sounds’ were amongst the most vociferous of all the UK music press when it came to the NWOBHM, especially since Maiden had already impressed with their 3-track demo of “Iron Maiden” “Invasion” and “Prowler” which of course would all appear on their debut album. These three tracks would then be released on the 1979 EP The Soundhouse Tapes, before the band signed up with EMI and then they appeared on the NWOBHM compilation Metal for Muthas in 1980. Most importantly they also had an influential manager in Rod Smallwood (just think Peter Grant for getting stuff done) and after some more line-up changes issued their eponymous debut album which would be recorded by producer Vic Malone. Most importantly though the the band achieved two vital marketing victories and that was the introduction of a band mascot called Eddie and even more importantly the band’s distinctive album artwork which would vital to the band and also to metal. The importance of album artwork can’t be stressed enough, as there was no MTV, videos were newish, so things like radio airplay, press coverage and album artwork were vital advertising tools, as the amount of people that would buy on the strength of an album cover, despite never having heard more than maybe a song by the band was quite staggering (I was one of those who would often buy on the strength of an album’s cover as well) The album would go onto to reach an impressive no.4 spot on the UK album chart and sell by the bucketload on mainland Europe and see the start of a new metal legend.

Verdict
The Iron Maiden debut would be an album that linked punk to the NWOBHM and for that reason alone it can be considered groundbreaking. But the album is so much more than just groundbreaking, as the album is a genuine metal heavyweight and one of the most vital of the whole decade. In Paul Di’Anno the band had a true growler for a vocalist and he both looked and sounded the part, and was especially good on the album’s more punkier numbers like the blinding album opener “Prowler” one of the most enduring tracks on the album, which quickly demonstrated the band’s stunning musical ability especially when it came to playing at speed. Other punkier tracks well suited to Paul Di’Anno included the percussion heavy “Running Free” and here the drums of Clive Burr pretty much dictate the track and then there is the rapid tempo of “Sanctuary” which just actually appeared initially on the US version of the album. Musically the band were beyond most of their contemporaries as in guitarists Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton, they had a pair of guitar wizards that were able to match K.K Downing and Glenn Tipton from Judas Priest when it came to playing at pure speed. Songs like the seven minute progressive rock inspired epic “Phantom of the Opera” would soon become quintessential Iron Maiden and would be the basis for the future direction of the band, especially when Bruce Dickinson jumped on board. This song is then handily followed by the instrumental “Transylvania” again another stunning exercise as the band flex-out. The iconic “Charlotte the Harlot” is another essential track and would be a recurring character featured by the band and finally there is the album closer the eponymous “Iron Maiden” which was the only song on the album not to feature Steve Harris on its writing credits, as it was written solely by Dave Murray and this remains another early band essential. The band even had time to put down some softer based tracks, like the gentle opening ballad “Remember Tomorrow” which does come early on the album, but about halfway through the whole track beefs itself up and the band do what they do best, and give us another display of breathtaking technicality which dominates the song. Then comes another ballad “Strange World” a song often seen as the weakest album on the album by many, but personally I really like it and think it’s perfectly suited and placed on the album. Certain critics would dismiss the album’s production, but again they probably haven’t taken into consideration the D.I.Y approach of the band. Also band leader, bassist and principal songwriter Steve Harris underpins the whole album with his galloping bass style. Overall as a band Iron Maiden had musical capabilities that even most 1970’s prog bands would’ve been happy to have had, as the band displayed their ability to stunningly change tempos and play extremely complex musical passages with relative ease. Most of the above characteristics would soon earn Iron Maiden the status of the new heavy metal giant on the block and even after just one album, they were seen as the British metal band most likely to follow in the footsteps of Judas Priest, which of course they not only did, but they would also surpass Judas Priest in terms of sheer impact and commercial achievements in just a few sheer short years. Upon listening to this album, the one thing that always stands out is the presence of that distinctive Iron Maiden sound from the word go and I guess metaldom largely has Steve Harris to thank for that.

Paul Di’Anno- Vocals
Dave Murray- Guitar
Dennis Stratton- Guitar
Steve Harris- Bass
Clive Burr- Drums

Production- Will Malone

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History