Heaven & Hell - Black Sabbath

Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice are Heaven & Hell - Black Sabbath -the Dio years, and they will be playing one Auckland show only this August!

No matter how you say it, there's something sacred about the name Black Sabbath. They are after all the undisputed kings of heavy metal, who single-handedly defined a riff-fired genre and created a sound that has rabidly influenced generations. Little wonder that they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by a suitably humbled Metallica in 2006.

After Ozzy Osbourne left the band in 1979, it seemed that was the end - until Ronnie James Dio, the leather-lunged singer from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, stepped up to the plate. The magic was immediate and the first fruit of the union was 1980's classic album, Heaven and Hell. The recording gave Sabbath - Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) - a whole new lease on life after several years of decline, and provided them with their best showing on the charts in both the UK and US in many years. The mighty Sabbath - remade and remodelled - were reborn with more volume, drama and mystique than ever before.

Sadly, during the tour that followed, drummer Bill Ward, road-weary and in poor health, left the band. His replacement was Vinny Appice, brother of Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and Beck, Bogert and Appice fame.

Empowered by the success of Heaven and Hell, the Mob Rules album followed in 1981, the band's first with Appice and second with Dio. But by the release of 1983's Live Evil album, which was recorded at concerts on the Mob Rules tour in Seattle, San Antonio and Dallas, Dio and Appice had left the band. It would be a decade before they again regrouped with Iommi and Butler for 1992's under-rated Dehumanizer album.

Fast forward to October 2005. Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio met up and threw around some ideas. Knowing that great chemistry ­- or in Sabbath's case, great alchemy - was a timeless commodity, it was decided to record some new material for a proposed compilation album titled Black Sabbath - The Dio Years which was released internationally in April this year. The three new songs - ­ The Devil Cried, Shadow of The Wind and Ear in The Wall ­- proved without question that this particular line-up of the Sabbath dragon still had plenty of fire.

It was decided to take the next step and reform the band for a world tour. But rather than use the hallowed Sabbath moniker it was decided to underscore the Dio-led era of the band and regroup under the banner of Heaven and Hell. Initially, the line-up was to include original drummer, Bill Ward, but when he made the decision not to take part, Vinny Appice was the go-to guy.

The reaction to the reunion which focuses on the Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and Dehumanizer albums has been nothing short of phenomenal, with tickets for the band's comeback show at Radio City Music Hall in New York on 30 March 2007 snapped up in minutes. The historic performance is captured on CD and DVD as Heaven and Hell - Live From Radio City Music Hall.

Now, in what will be the metal tour of the year by the metal band of all time, Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath - The Dio Years (Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice) are headed for Auckland for one show only.

Special guests are Down featuring Pantera's Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown along with Pepper Kennan of Corrosion of Conformity fame, and local support World War Four.

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