Rules of Hell [Deluxe 5cd Slipcase Boxed Set] [Original recording remastered, Import, Box set]

When Ozzy Osbourne parted ways with Black Sabbath (or got fired, depending on who you ask), his bandmates weren't ready to throw in the towel. Recruiting former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, the group continued to record. What resulted were some of the band's sessions. This set compiles the band's Dio-era efforts (the ones from 1980-1992, anyway.) Additionally, all tracks have been given remastering treatment.

Here's what you get in the box set:

-Heaven and Hell (1980)
The first Black Sabbath studio album to feature Ronnie James Dio, and the last to feature Bill Ward until his return to the band in 1983 for the Ian Gillan-fronted Born Again. This is Dio Sabbath at their finest, and arguably the best material included in this set. A number of classic cuts came from this release, including Neon Knights, Lady Evil, and the iconic title track.

-Mob Rules (1981)
First Black Sabbath album to feature Vinnie Appice on drums. The follow-up to Heaven and Hell isn't quite the classic that album was, but it's still got its share of excellent songs, including Turn Up the Night, The Sign of the Southern Cross, and the title track.

-Live Evil (1982)
This live album was recorded during the Mob Rules tour. In addition to featuring a plethora of excellent songs from the two aforementioned albums you get in this set, Dio puts his own spin on sone of the old tracks from the Ozzy era. It's a great live album, but disputes between band members led to Dio and Appice parting ways with Iommi and Butler (Dio went on to form his own group, which featured Appice on drums in its initial lineup.) The album has been released on CD over the years in various incarnations - mainly these consist of 2CD versions with the complete album as heard on vinyl, with Dio's between-song chatter and everything, a nd 1CD versions that eliminate the chatter so as to fit an abridged album on a single disc. This set (thankfully) contains the 2CD, full-length version.

-Dehumanizer (1992)
The Dio-era Sabbath lineup got back together in the early 90s and recorded this metal masterpiece, which certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded a whole decade after their 80s stuff. This is Dio Sabbath at their best, featuring tracks that include Computer God, TV Crimes, Master of Insanity, and Time Machine. This is the American version of the album, so you get the alternate version of Time Machine that appeared in Wayne's World as a bonus track.

-Additionally, if you purchase the set at Best Buy, you get a bonus disc of a few live tracks. So naturally I say get it there.

As excellent as this box set is, though, there are a few complain ts that must be made:

-DOES NOT include the 3 new songs from last year's Dio Years compilation.
Considering this set was supposed to be the quintessential review of Dio with Black Sabbath, I can't believe these tracks weren't included (note however, some music download stores DO include the tracks, but you won't get them in the actual, physical box.)

-DOES NOT include the Heaven and Hell Live at Radio City Music Hall live album.
Ditto. Another important release of Dio Sabbath material that is inexplicably omitted from the set. Dio Sabbath is still on fire, and this live album is proof.... So why don't we get it in this set?

-No DVD/video content.
I must say, I was especially surprised to see no video content in the set. Considering the Black and Blue DVD (which features Dio-era Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult) is out of print and hard to find now, I don't see why the Sabbath portion of that set couldn't be remastered and included here.

-No new songs/content/etc.
If you're a die-hard Dio fan, the remastering will be reason enough to upgrade to this set. But you may be disappointed to find that there aren't any unreleased tracks or bonuses.

Despite its flaws and omissions of more recent material, this is a great package of some of the best material Black Sabbath/Dio ever recorded. For all Sabbath/Dio/Metal fans, this set is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I thought people might want to see exactly what's in this essential box set.

Contrary to popular belief, Black Sabbath didn't break-up when Osbourne was fired in 1979. They carried on with another 15 years' worth of albums -- longer than their first time with Ozzy -- and even saw an initial INCREASE in their sales and concert attendance compared to their slump in the late 70s. And the success of the Iommi/Butler/Dio/Appice reunion under the name "Heaven and Hell" has proven that plenty of fans still love the Dio years. So here comes the follow-up to the Ozzy years "Black Box" box set: "The Rules of Hell". As it damn well should, because the "Dio Years" single disc compilation just isn't enough! As bassist Geezer Butler explained in a recent interview, the title is simply a play on the first two albums, "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules".

This set contains the four Black Sabbath albums fronted by Ronnie James Dio: Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), Live Evil (1982) and Dehumanizer (1992). All have been remastered and include new liner notes. "Heaven and Hell" includes some great art work that I've never seen. It was also in the biggest need of mastering, and the new disc sounds great. "Live Evil", which Castle Records edited down from 2 discs to 1 disc at some point (taking out the audience cheers and band talk in between tracks etc.), is now back in its 2 disc entirety. I won't go into detail about these four classic albums themselves. You can find plenty of reviews on them on Amazon.

Some quick history: Dio left Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in the late 70s, and joined Black Sabbath to make "Heaven and Hell", produced by famous metal album producer Martin Birch. Original drummer Bill Ward left mid-tour and was replaced by Vinny Appice (younger brother of Carmine). They then recorded "Mob Rules". Around this time "Live at Last", a bootleg from 1973, was released without knowledge nor approval from the band. This prompted them to record "Live Evil". Dio and Appice then left to form the band "Dio". They reunited with Black Sabbath in 1992 to make "Dehumanizer" and toured once more before Dio and Appice left the fold once again. All 4 finally reunited 15 years later as the touring band Heaven and Hell.

Now...as much as I love the music, I still think this could have been handled a lot better. This box set does NOT contain:

- LYRICS. "Black Box" not only included all of the lyrics, but AUTHORIZED lyrics! Black Sabbath has a notorious history of not including the lyrics on most of their albums. That means just about all the Black Sabbath lyrics you find on-line or in sheet music books are just GUESSES. They're just by-the-ear transcriptions from some listener. This has led to a lot of ridiculous mistranslations (my favorite is "if an echo darts in dancer" instead of the much more likely "if an echo doesn't answer"). It would have been great if they took the time to do the same here. Some lines have been stumping me for over 20 years!

- B-SIDES. There were a couple of B-sides and extra album tracks released at some point, not to be found here: alternate versions out there of "Mob Rules" (from the movie Heavy Metal), "Time Machine" (from the movie Wayne's World), and "Letters from Earth" that were released separately from the album.

- DEMO & UNRELEASED SONGS. These do exist on the bootleg circuit. However, Black Sabbath has always been extremely picky about releasing such things in general. They didn't release any on "Black Box", and I wasn't expecting them to be here either.

- VIDEO. A little DVD, even if it was just 2 songs, would have been nice. They made a few promo videos back in the day and there's also some live footage out there. But alas, nothing here.

- TRINKETS, PHOTOS, STICKERS, etc. It's just the four jewel cases (one a double disc case) in a flimsy box. That's all. The tracks for the jewel cases are black though, which look nice.

Still, I have to say that it's great to see the Dio years finally being recognized. If you don't have any of these on CD, this is certainly a great deal for 4 albums / 5 discs. I don't know if there are plans on rereleasing the remaining 7 albums in the Sabbath catalog, but we'll see.