Raise your mead-horns and drinking-skulls high, my brothers! On April 25, 1980—two-score years ago—Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell was released. This is my personal celebration of the anniversary of a classic heavy metal album.

When Heaven and Hell was released, I was a young lad just figuring out that I much preferred hard rock/metal to what I was hearing on Top 40 radio. The only cool station in my area played new rock albums in their entirety on Sunday nights. On Sunday night, April 27, 1980, I first heard Heaven and Hell blasting out of my speakers and it rocked me hard. I had only encountered three Sabbath songs up to that point, all off Paranoid. I knew that Ozzy had been replaced by a new singer I'd never heard of, Ronnie James Dio. I had no idea what to expect.

The first track, "Neon Knights", launched the album in style. It featured a more slamming, breakneck pace than almost anything heard in Black Sabbath's previous efforts. This was the new Sabbath and they meant business. I later learned "Neon Knights" was the last tune they recorded for the album, with the newly-returned Geezer Butler helping out on the composition.

Next up was "Children of the Sea", which was a more traditional type of Sabbath song, riff-wise, but with Dio's lyrics and vocals making it something quite different than anything the band had done with Ozzy. Speaking of Ronnie's lyrics, I have a theory I might go into at some point regarding his possible inspiration for this song.

The title track, "Heaven and Hell" had that classic, doomful Black Sabbath groove. Despite Tony Iommi's excellent guitar work on this song--along with great performances by Geezer and Bill Ward--Dio's lyrics are what makes "Heaven and Hell" one of my all-time favorite metal tunes. I'd never heard anything quite like them up to that point.

"Lady Evil" doesn't get that much love amongst metalheads nowadays, but I distinctly remember it receiving some good airplay on rock radio in the early '80s. Me, I think it's a cool track. It definitely seems to be more in the Deep Purple/Rainbow vein than music Tony had previously written, but that's fine. It still rocks.

The tracks on Side Two tend to be a little more subdued, but they're solid. "Die Young" and "Lonely Is the Word", especially, are excellent.

The back cover of Heaven and Hell. From left to right: Ward, Iommi, Butler, Dio. — The back cover of *Heaven and Hell*. From left to right: Ward, Iommi, Butler, Dio.

Listening that night in my bedroom, I had no idea Black Sabbath had been floundering for five years, awash in a swirl of booze and drugs. Dio joining the band reinvigorated Tony and gave him new focus. Conversely, joining Sabbath raised Ronnie's profile from where it'd been while singing for Blackmore's Rainbow. Black Sabbath was where I first heard RJD's lyrics and vocals, and I know for a fact that it was the same for many US metal fans my age. I had to go back and search out Dio's work for Rainbow and Elf.

Side One of Heaven and Hell established a template never before seen on a metal album. There was a tangible atmosphere of fantasy running through all four of those tracks. From the "Circles and rings, dragons and kings" of "Neon Knights" to the "place just south of Witches' Valley" in "Lady Evil", this was top-grade epic metal which would inspire bands from then 'til now.

Sure, you had occasional tracks like "Immigrant Song" or "God of Thunder" on albums from hard rock/metal bands before that. You had Dio's own work with Rainbow--especially Rising--but even then, there wasn't the concentration and crystallization of this type of metal until Side One of Heaven and Hell. Ronnie might've done this sort of thing before, but he hadn't done it quite so well. It's no coincidence that, when they had to choose a track to perform for the RJD tribute album, Magic: A Tribute to Ronnie James Dio, Manowar picked "Heaven and Hell".

So, as I said, sword-brothers, raise a glass in honor of Heaven and Hell. Its thunderous echoes can still be heard, even now, forty years later.