Dio & Iommi 2006

A few times over the last few months, I've seen reports that Ronnie Dio is rejoining Black Sabbath, or is working with Tony Iommi again, or they're doing a new project, etc, etc, etc.. This report has cropped up again at Blabbermouth today. It's definitely NOT new news, as this has come up before. However, I wanted to address it anyway.

NOTE: What follows is all personal speculation and some rumour - I don't have formal news on this as it has not been announced yet.

There's nothing new in that story that hasn't been said before. The last time it came up, Dio's camp issued a statement saying that Ronnie was not rejoining Black Sabbath, just that he would probably work with him again (or something like that, I can't find the exact words right now). "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years" could essentially be "Black Box 2" for the Dio Years. From what I can gather, it will be remastered versions of the three Dio studio Sabbath albums, plus the Live Evil album.

The story talks about recording new songs. The last time this came up, I had read where it might be new songs, or dustoffs of leftovers from the Dehumanizer sessions. Whatever they are, it's likely stuff we haven't heard before, so that will be a nice inclusion. There are some oddities floating around that might be interesting to include, although some of them (and I'd say definitely not the last one) might not be. They are:

• The version of 'The Mob Rules' that appeared on the Heavy Metal movie soundtrack
• The "Wayne's World" version of Time Machine (as well as the album version)
• The alternate version of "Letters From Earth" that appeared on the TV Crimes CD Single
• The Live Evil concert video Ronnie mentions on the Live Evil album
• The demo version of Dehumanizer with Tony Martin on vocals ( this exists according to Garry Sharpe-Young's book on that era of Sabbath)

That's it for the oddities from the Dio era that I can think of. Hopefully these things can be included, but I would understand why the Martin think would not. :)

Anyway, I've put in a request for information from Iommi's camp, if I get a response on this issue, I'll have a followup.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 12:26 PM

It's giveaway time again!

Today I get moving on the news page again with not one, but TWO giveaways. First is the newest Greatest Hits album by Black Sabbath, and the other is Dio's new double CD "Holy Diver Live". With both I'm going to have a trivia contest like I've done with giveaways in the past. First off, I wanted to thank Nikki over at Rhino & Rob at Eagle Rock for sending over the copies to be given away. If you don't win these contests, please go support the labels and the bands by buying copies. In fact, before we get to the contest, here's some order links for you:

BLACK SABBATH: GREATEST HITS 1970-1978:

• Amazon.com's page
  
• Amazon.co.uk's page
  

DIO: HOLY DIVER LIVE:

• Amazon.com's page
  
• Amazon.co.uk's page
  

Sabbath's Greatest Hits album here is nothing surprising - it's the original Sabbath's Greatest Hits on one CD. Whether you think the CD has merit, or is a cash grab aside, there's no denying the music on here. It's great stuff. And Dio's 2 CD live set is unique in that it has the first ever recorded performance of the Holy Diver album performed all at once, plus it has some nice chestnuts from his Rainbow & Sabbath days he doesn't normally play (Sign of the Southern Cross, Tarot Woman, Gates of Babylon). It's good stuff, too.

As per my contests in the past, you'll need to answer a few trivia questions about Sabbath & Dio. If you get them all right, you'll be put into a drawing for each respective CD. Here are the questions you need to answer:

Sabbath questions:

1. What was the name of the new track Sabbath played live during Ozzfest 2001?
   
2. What was the original name of the "Volume 4" album before the record label made them change it?
   
3. What was the original name of the "Paranoid" album before the record label made them change it?
   
4. Who was Ozzy's first replacement as lead vocalist in Black Sabbath?
   

Dio questions:

1. What is the name of the "character" that is on several Dio album covers?
   
2. What is Ronnie Dio's real surname?
   
3. What metal band's concept album does Ronnie guest on in 2006?
   
4. What year and what band was Ronnie's first recording released?
   

You need to send your answers for the questions and your name and address to either greatesthits@black-sabbath.com or holydiverlive@black-sabbath.com depending on which contest you're entering (make sure and remove the NOSPAM when sending in). There's a few important things here. First the email must go to these addresses. Second, you have to include your name and address. If you don't do these things, your submission won't be considered. These are simple requests - I'm quite frankly stunned at the number of people who ignore these requests and send anyway. If you do that, your submission goes in the bin. The contest will run through Tuesday the 18th of April at noon (my time, which is the Central Time Zone in the US). You don't have to be in the US to be eligible to win. There is one caveat. You can't win both. In order to be fair and give away the prizes to the widest amount of people, I won't pick the same person twice. If by some chance the random drawing selects you twice, I'll discard one and pick someone else. While I'll let you enter both, you can't win both, so keep that in mind.

I'm also hoping to have a giveaway for "Gillan's Inn" shortly too - will have more word on that when I get it.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:21 AM