''Black Sabbath: The Dio Years'' is a 2007 compilation CD of material recorded by

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

during vocalist

Ronnie James Dio Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010), known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted and founded numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and H ...

's tenure in the band. The CD contains remastered tracks taken from the studio albums '' Heaven and Hell'' (1980), '' Mob Rules'' (1981), and ''

Dehumanizer ''Dehumanizer'' is the sixteenth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released on June 22, 1992. It was Sabbath's first studio album in over a decade to feature vocalist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinny Appice, and their first ...

'' (1992), as well as a live version of the song " Children of the Sea" taken from the live album '' Live Evil'' (1982). It also contains three songs that were recorded in 2007: "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall". It was reported that the collection was first conceived of as a box set including all albums from '' Heaven and Hell'' to ''

The Eternal Idol ''The Eternal Idol'' is the thirteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released on 23 November 1987 (UK) and 8 December 1987 (US). It is the first Black Sabbath album to feature vocalist Tony Martin. It spent six week ...

''. This idea was eventually scrapped, and instead a box set was planned to feature just the four albums recorded from the Dio era of the band. This second idea was put aside, though would eventually be revisited as '' The Rules of Hell'', a box set released in the summer of 2008. In an interview conducted by

Martin Popoff Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionally ...

Tony Iommi Anthony Frank Iommi () (born 19 February 1948) is a British musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. I ...

revealed that originally two new tracks were planned, but after recording three new songs the original plan was changed to accommodate all three tracks in the compilation. On 23 February 2007, both Eddie Trunk and Sirius Satellite Radio unveiled the song "The Devil Cried" from the upcoming album.

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

subsequently made the track available (for preview only) on 26 February 2007. "The Devil Cried" was released as a single on 13 March 2007. After the recording was completed, the members decided to tour under the moniker Heaven & Hell. Dio and Iommi decided that the working partnership they had achieved in recording the three new songs would not be wasted, so they recorded '' The Devil You Know''.

UK Tour Edition

Before the Heaven & Hell tour of the UK in November 2007, a special edition release of ''The Dio Years'' was released on 5 November, ''Black Sabbath: The Dio Years Tour Edition'', to commemorate the tour. This CD, only to be in print for a limited time, features four songs from the ''

Live at Hammersmith Odeon ''Live at Hammersmith Odeon'' is a live album by Black Sabbath recorded at three concerts between 31 December 1981 and 2 January 1982, during the ''Mob Rules'' tour. It was released by Rhino Handmade on 1 May 2007 in a limited edition of 5000, w ...

'' limited edition live album recently released by Black Sabbath. The four songs, recorded live in 1981 during Black Sabbath's "Mob Rules Tour" are "Neon Knights", "The Mob Rules", " Children of the Grave", and "Voodoo".

Track listing

All songs were written by

and Geezer Butler, except where noted.

Personnel

– vocals *

– guitar * Geezer Butler – bass * Bill Ward – drums (on tracks 1–5) * Vinny Appice – drums (on tracks 6–16) *

Geoff Nicholls Geoffrey James Nicholls (29 February 1944 – 28 January 2017) was a British guitarist and keyboardist, and longtime member of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath until 2004. Nicholls also played in the NWOBHM band Quartz before joining Black Sa ...

– keyboards (on tracks 1–13) * Mike Exeter – engineering and mixing

Charts

Album

Singles

References

{{Authority control Black Sabbath compilation albums 2007 compilation albums Warner Records compilation albums Rhino Records compilation albums