Heaven & Hell - MEN Arena - 9/11/07 by James Ellaby

What's in a name? Judging by the rather sparse attendance at the MEN Arena for Heaven & Hell's visit, quite a lot. The same goes for every time your reviewer told someone who he was going to see, as no-one had ever heard of Heaven & Hell, so no-one could understand how they could be headling at the Arena. Had I said I was going to see Black Sabbath, things would have been much less confusing, and had they called themselves Black Sabbath, I'm sure they would at least have filled all of the first tier of seating, even if it isn't the classic Ozzy line-up.

As it was, while the standing area was pretty full by 9pm, the upper tier of seats was all closed off and covered up, as was the lower tier at the back, which is a bit disappointing for a band who are to all intents and purposes one of the biggest heavy rock acts of all time. They may have taken their name from the first album they recorded together after Ozzy left the band, but this was still Black Sabbath, playing Black Sabbath songs and with arguably the greatest and most iconic heavy metal singer of all time fronting them once again.

Ronnie James Dio was a great replacement for Ozzy back in the day and this Sabbath line-up was easily the 'best of the rest', so it's fantastic to have them back touring again even with a different name. Tony Iommi decided to do this because the current Sabs line-up is technically the classic one, but they are on extended hiatus at the moment. None of the fans at the Arena cared about that though, and it's doubtful many of them would have swapped Dio for Ozzy at any stage either, because the little wizened rock elf was in storming form, with the power of his trademark vocals certainly undimmed by age, nor his enthusiasm.

With Iommi and Geezer Butler providing the classic bludgeoning Sabbath sound on guitar and bass, while Vinny Appice hammered away at his drums, it was pretty unrelenting stuff for the eardrums, not least as the sound system seemed to be turned up just a little too high even for these ears, long since ruined by rock music. With a suitably gothic and melodramatic stage set (the inside of some kind of church) and Dio waving his devil horn hands at the crowd at every opportunity, this was heavy metal without any sense of irony and all the better for it. No-one wants to go back to the days of The Darkness do they?

Kicking off with the riotous The Mob Rules after the doomy intro music of E5150, Heaven & Hell were quickly into their stride, as you'd expect from a bunch of rock veterans, but the other noticeable thing was that they are a very tight unit for a bunch who had, until the start of this year, not played together since the early 90s. There was certainly no sign of the tensions that initially caused Dio to quit Sabbath back in the 80s in a row over the volume levels of a live album (he claimed Iommi was turning his vocals down in the mix, Iommi claimed Dio had been turning them up) and they all seem to be having as much as you can look to be having whilst playing such dark music.

The set is taken entirely from the Dio years, leaving out some of the more famous Sabs tracks, which could partly explain (along with the name) why there's not as many fans there as you might expect. But that's a good thing, it's an opportunity to hear songs like Children Of The Sea, Neon Knights, I and the awesome Sign Of The Southern Cross live, something that you wouldn't necessarily get from the classic line-up. It's a shame that more people didn't turn up, because they missed out on one of the best rock gigs of the year from a band who would have been legendary in their own right if it wasn't for what went before them.