Black Sabbath put out so many monumental albums
before Ozzy Osbourne's 1979 sacking that the band could've folded there and
still remained metal's most influential force ever. As it happens, Sabbath
persisted for 29 post-Ozzy years with a bevy of new singers (not counting the
occasional Osbourne reunion) and drummers, but only one of those replacement
frontmen—Ronnie James Dio—had the range, vision, and sheer presence
to eclipse Ozzy's work. Though Dio rejoined the band (now doing business as
Heaven & Hell) in 2006, The Rules Of Hell collects all Sabbath's
earlier Dio-era work—1980's Heaven And Hell, 1981's Mob Rules, 1982's Live Evil, and this incarnation's
own 1992 reunion disc, Dehumanizer—in a long-overdue domestic remastering. The
first two albums, which find Dio's voice powering Sabbath's riff-saturated
thunder into epic new vistas, are reason enough to fork over for the box. Live
Evil,
though a well-executed concert recording/hits package, ironically just shows
how poorly suited Ozzy's monotone lines are for the multi-octave Dio. And Dehumanizer, in spite of its reported
million-dollar recording budget, just sounds lifeless and forced, with nary a
memorable riff to be found. Still, even a mediocre Dio-helmed album crushes
anything Sabbath did after and without the man.
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