Part II: At the end of the rainbow
Heaven and Hell --- Black Sabbath --- 1980 (Vertigo)
The next port of call was Black Sabbath, who had parted company with Ozzy Osbourne and with whom Ronnie recorded one of their most successful albums, “Heaven and Hell”, which again pulled in his love of classical, mythological and medieval themes to create a heavy prog-rock/metal album which still stands today as the favourite of many Sabbath fans. From the opening powerdrive of “Neon nights”, you can hear Ronnie in fine voice and sounding happier than he's been for a while. He wrote the lyrics to all the songs on this album --- of which there are only eight --- collaborating on the music with the rest of the band. There are some real classics on the album, including the title track, “Die young” and “Children of the sea”, the latter being one of two ballads on the album, not complete rarities for Sabbath but certainly not the norm. Ronnie's influence helped pull them away from the overtly dark tag they had struggled with over their career to then, although the lyrics still mention gods, devils, Heaven and of course Hell, but they're treated in a more abstract, less literal way, almost more as concepts than reality.
One of Dio's strengths seems to have been that he could subtly change the sound of any band he joined, without actually ruining the image or the ethos of the band. He slotted in well to Black Sabbath, and is still many people's choice of vocalist for that band. Less screechy than Ozzy, more disciplined both in his voice and his work, and with a considerably smaller ego to feed than Ian Gillan, it's a shame really that he only lasted the two albums with them. But then of course if he had stayed, perhaps he would never have started his own band. Ronnie also brought the sense of the epic to Sabbath that had characterised his work with Rainbow with tracks like “Stargazer” and “Gates of Babylon”; Sabbath had not exactly been averse to the odd long song prior to his arrival, but Ronnie definitely brought a more prog-rock feel to the band.
Mob rules --- Black Sabbath --- 1981 (Vertigo)
Released only a year after the successful “rebirth” of Black Sabbath, “Mob rules” would be the last studio album on which Ronnie would feature, for now. It's a faster, snappier album than “Heaven and Hell”, with much shorter songs, even though it does contain the epic “Sign of the southern cross”, almost eight minutes long, and two five-minute closers in the fast and powerful “Falling off the edge of the world”, and “Over and over”, a grinding, slowburning rock cruncher. You can see on this album, and the previous, how Dio was honing and perfecting both his writing talent and his vocal ability, something that would serve him well when he finally decided to strike out on his own.
Live evil --- Black Sabbath --- 1982 (Vertigo)
The last actual Black Sabbath album to feature Ronnie (until his brief return in 1992), this was a recording of the “Mob rules” tour, and features, among others, a twelve-minute version of “Heaven and Hell”, as well as other Ozzy-era standards, like “War pigs” and “Iron man”, and of course their signature tune. It's interesting to see how Ronnie handles these, the different nuances and colours his performance give songs which, up until then, had been seen exclusively as lying within the Osbourne pervue.
After the album was recorded and was being mixed, differences which had become insurmountable finally led to Ronnie leaving Black Sabbath. He would not return until eleven years later, and then only to record the one album before returning to his solo material. We will look at that in due course, as this section is intended to run chronologically.