The four Dio era Black Sabbath albums that constituted the Rules of Hell box set are being re-released individually. Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, & Dehumanizer are all being released on their own in October. October 17th to be precise. These are the same new 2008 Remasterings that were in the RoH box. But now you can just get just one, or skip Live Evil, or however you want to combine it. You can already sort of do that by buying them from Amazon.com's MP3 store, but if you want the "real disc", this is your chance.

Hit up the individual entry pages on my site here for ordering links. One other cool thing is that these are being re-released on VINYL, too. So if you know someone who is still into vinyl, this will be something they will definitely want to take a look at.

First off, let me say this. I know about it. I haven't said anything about it yet for reasons I'm not prepared to discuss. Please stop sending me emails about it. I am aware of it.

Thank you.

Here's what I got from the person who alerted me to this in email (David Macku)...

Hi Joe,

I am regular visitor to you website and decided to write to you regarding the recent article about Technical Ecstasy LP.

Almost 30 years ago Czech singer Marie Rottrova (whom you never heard of but she is still famous here) recorded a cover version of Black Sabbath - She´s gone. And because the original record (as most of the others form the western world) wasn´t available at that time here, she was very successful. The song itself is beatiful here but the perfomance by Ozzy is weak in my opinion.

Much later I had had a chance to hear the original and must say the Czech cover sounds better (maybe because of the lyrics). It may sound weird to you, but.....

I am sending the Czech song (TV appearance from 2005 or what) just to add to your collection. The singer is now in her sixties and this one belongs to one of her greatest hits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWC80Z9AZDU&fmt=18

Lately the song was performed in the Czech version of the TV contest ...IDOL by some pretty girl, see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAh55FkNaXY&fmt=18

Cheers, enjoy

"I had hoped that I'd been doing more shows this year since I hooked up with a Canadian agent but it didn't work out, so I'm going to be concentrating on a new album instead. I already have some things in mind and some of the demos are sounding quite good so as that gets closer I'll let you know more.

"But I did a seminar recently in England which is unusual for me! It was by way of an accidental meeting actually, because my lady has been taking medical treatment in East Anglia and the clinic she was at is close to a music store and teaching school called Planet Music. I called in briefly to have a look around and the guys in there turned out to be great. So I ended up doing a seminar on the industry and vocal stuff. It was cool!! So I'd just like to thank those guys and wish them luck."

Thanks blabbermouth. If you've never checked out Tony's 2005 solo release, "Scream", you really should. While the CD is somewhat hard to come by now, it is available at a pretty good price at Amazon.com's mp3 store. You can also check out some samples via this mp3 widget below.

The band would like to apologize for not having played Neon Knights in Jones Beach nor at PNC. Much to their extreme dismay, they had technical issues both nights that caused them to have to leave the stage prior to completing their set. They would never intentionally be discourteous to people that are there to see them and leave the stage without playing every possible second they could (and of all songs...Neon Knights is one of their favorites to play).

Again, many apologies for the unfortunate circumstances.

Welcome, all my followers, to the 16th edition of What The Hell Happened To. Yep, I'm still keeping count. Not only am I keeping count of the editions, but I'm also counting down the days until my official one year anniversary at 411mania. For those wondering, its 37 days away!

I got some good responses on last week's column, so I'm hoping for the same, or even more, this time. Actually, I can basically guarantee this edition will get people talking, as I am going to discuss Black Sabbath's 1976 album Technical Ecstasy.

After the success of 1975's Sabotage, the band went back in the studio a year later to start recording a new album. This album would be radically different from their previous albums, with drugs and too much experimentation with their music starting to become a hindrance.

Technical Ecstasy would turn out to be a commercial and critical failure, with many fans not liking the band with a more hard rock sound to it. After the release of Technical Ecstasy, Black Sabbath slowly fell apart until lead singer Ozzy Osbourne left in 1979.

So, why all the hate on Black Sabbath's seventh studio album? Is it really as bad as people think it is? It's time to ask the question: What The Hell Happened To Technical Ecstasy?

The Band

Ozzy Osbourne-Vocals
Tony Iommi-Guitar
Geezer Butler-Bass Guitar
Bill Ward-Drums, Lead Vocals on "It's Alright"
Gerald Woodruffe-Keyboards

The Track Listing

1. Back Street Kids-3:47
2. You Won't Change Me-6:42
3. It's Alright-4:04
4. Gypsy-5:14
5. All Moving Parts (Stand Still)-5:07
6. Rock N' Roll Doctor-3:30
7. She's Gone-4:58
8. Dirty Women-7:13

The History

Black Sabbath was formed from the remains of two separate bands. The original line up for the band had Ozzy, Tony, Bill, and Geezer together alongside slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan "Aker" Clarke. The band's name was first The Polka Tulk Blues Company before the band shortened it to Earth.

Earth played a lot of cover songs and was more into the lengthy blues jams that dominated the late 60's. Eventually, the band decided to change their name to Black Sabbath, named after a Boris Karloff movie that was playing in the theater across the street from the band's rehearsal space.

With the name change came the evolution of the band's sound. The lyrics and music were much darker than before, mixing crushing riffs with lyrics on the occult and evil demons. Their self titled debut, released on February 13th, 1970, would go on to sell over a million copies in the US alone and would later be named one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

The band wasn't satisfied with just touring for a year or so off of the debut album. Black Sabbath quickly went back into the studio in June of 1970 to work on the sophomore album Paranoid. I think we all know about the great success of this album. While critics did pan it at the time, Paranoid is now considered a highly influential album.

The band would begin down a drug-influenced stage, where experimentation would reign supreme. After the successful 1971 Master of Reality and 1972's Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the band began to feel the effects of the constant drug taking. The drugs would not only have an effect on the band's sound, but the chemistry they originally had.

1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath saw a greater increase of keyboards, orchestration, and even synthesizer driven songs ("Who Are You?"). 1975's Sabotage is my personal favorite Black Sabbath album, as it shows the band at its heaviest ("Symptom of the Universe") and their most melodic ("Megalomania"). The band toured successfully under this album, and a year later, the band would return to the studio to record their most diverse album yet.

The Analysis

The influence that Black Sabbath had on metal music can't be underestimated. Without Black Sabbath, there wouldn't be many of the bands we have today. Like every band, Black Sabbath had its ups and downs throughout its almost 40 year career. To me, the late 70's was an interesting period for Black Sabbath.

You had a band that could basically do no wrong. A band that was on a thin line when it came to controlling their drug and alcohol problems, while trying to experiment with their sound without offending their long time fans. With Technical Ecstasy, Black Sabbath crossed that line and never looked back. Too bad the fans didn't follow them, as this album and 1978's Never Say Die would be considered the worst albums the band has done with Ozzy as the lead singer. Technical Ecstasy is the beginning of the end for the original line up of Black Sabbath, but there are some decent ideas behind the internal struggles the band was going through.

"Back Street Kids" is the first sign that the band's sound has dramatically changed. The song is very upbeat and sounds like it should belong on a UFO album. Iommi's guitar work is still great, but the song turns out to be only decent. A weird keyboard section in the middle of the song reminds me of early Rush. I was waiting for Geddy Lee to wail "BACK STREET KIDS."

"You Won't Change Me" is the only song on the entire album that harkens back to Black Sabbath's doom metal roots. The song is slow, plodding, and dark as hell. The keyboards heighten the mood immensely and add to the song. I wish the album had more songs like this, as I think this would have been a fine balance of their classic sound with some experimentation. A special notice has to be made to Tony Iommi again, as his solo at the end is a personal favorite of mine.

After the solid doom metal song, the album takes a weird turn. "It's Alright" is Black Sabbath trying to be the Beatles. I looked at the credits to make sure that Paul McCartney or John Lennon didn't write it. "It's Alright" also features drummer Bill Ward on lead vocals. Ward does a decent job, but I'm glad he didn't quit his real job in the band. The acoustic solo at the end is very tasteful and helps to save the song from mediocrity.

"Gypsy" starts out with a Ward solo before the song goes through the motions for five minutes. Of course, the guitar work is awesome, but nothing really stood out from the song. "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)" is one of the better tracks on Technical Ecstasy, with the band adding a little blues to the hard rock. Geezer Butler can finally be heard on this song, as his bass seems to stay in the background for most of the tracks on Technical Ecstasy. The blues sound works for Black Sabbath and Bill Ward gets in his best performance of the album in the fast middle section, where his fills are frequent and technically accomplished.

"Rock N' Roll Doctor" is Black Sabbath trying to sound like Styx or Blue Oyster Cult. That's not a bad thing, mind you; I enjoy this song a lot. I don't know why I like it though. It might be the catchiness of the song, the subtle piano work in the background, or the fact that it's just so radically different from anything Black Sabbath has ever done.

"She's Gone" is the other ballad on the album and is much better than "It's Alright." The song uses a full piece orchestra and a heavy use of acoustic guitars. The song is very dark, arguable the darkest ballad the band has ever done. Ozzy's voice holds up and he actually sounds decent on here. At least he sounds better than he did in "Changes."

"Dirty Women" is the longest song on Technical Ecstasy and is the song that sounds like Black Sabbath the most. The song has an epic feel to it and the band seems to get all this energy and motivation basically out of nowhere. "Dirty Women" is Tony Iommi's song. What do I mean? While he has some great solos throughout Technical Ecstasy, I never felt as if he was the dominant force on the album, with outside elements getting in the way (keyboards, orchestration, piano, drummer singing, etc.). With "Dirty Women," it's just Iommi doing what he does best; play some crushing riffs and solo his ass off, especially the two and a half minute solo that ends the song.

Ozzy Osbourne doesn't sing as well as he did on Sabotage, but his voice still has some power behind it. Technical Ecstasy would be the decline of his vocals though, as drugs would take their toll on his voice.

What else can be said about Tony Iommi that hasn't already been said? Even on a lesser Black Sabbath album, Iommi still kicks the crap out of most guitarists. His riffs are still fresh and his solos are still great. Geezer Butler seems to get pushed to the background, which is a shame, considering his high level of skill. Finally, Bill Ward does a decent job on the drums. It isn't his best performance, but it is far from his worst. I would have liked to see more creativity with his drumming, as he doesn't do anything too fancy other than the middle section of "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)."

Technical Ecstasy is much better than most people perceive it to be. I enjoyed this album a lot when I first heard it and I still do to this day. There is no way that Technical Ecstasy can compare to their past catalog, but it is actually much better than some of their later output (Forbidden and Never Say Die are just a few examples). It's a shame that the pressures of substance abuse and record labels got to the band, as I believe that Technical Ecstasy could have been a much better album with more effect and a little motivation. For now, Technical Ecstasy will always be known as the album that began the downfall of the original line up of Black Sabbath.

The Conclusion

Well, that does it for this week's edition. I hope you all enjoyed a look at an album that could've been so much more.

A reminder again that if you attend one of the shows, I'm doing something different with concert reviews this time. I'm asking that you submit them directly on the individual tour page. This will help me get them online a lot faster than before.

This time around, I'm doing something a little different. I've revamped the 2008 Tour section to be interactive. This will allow you to submit your entries directly to the specific tour page. I will still have to approve them, but this should make things A LOT easier in terms of getting reviews posted. In the past, I had to hand edit them onto the page. For this tour, you can submit your concert review directly on the page. It will go into a queue, at which point I will approve them. The reason for this is to combat spam and irrelevant posts about the gig. I would also ask that you refrain from posting to a gig page until you've actually seen the concert. Thanks.

I will still take ticket stub scans, and tour advert images via email like normal, but concert reviews can be submitted directly on the tour pages! So if you're going to one of the shows, be sure and send in your materials. The fan created tour date pages here have been a big success since I started them in 1999, so let's keep that tradition going!

Patrick Grimes
Edward Burr
"Doom Vez" (not his real name, but I don't have the notes here with his real name)
Patrick Sheehan
Brian Huberdeau

The answers to the questions were:

1) The painting used for the cover of the Heaven & Hell album was not originally created for the album. What was that painting's original name?

The name of the painting was "Smoking Angels". While I didn't ask for it, the artist's name was Lynn Curlee. I actually have done an brief interview with Mr. Curlee, and I hope to have that online shortly.

2) What was the name of the artist that painted the cover art for The Mob Rules album?

That was Greg Hildebrandt who painted this. The original name was "Mob Dream" (which I didn't ask for as an answer).

3) Name the two theatrical movies that the Dio era of Black Sabbath contributed songs to.

While I didn't intend for this to be a trick question, it sort of turned out to be one. I was asking for movies the the band specifically contributed music to. Not just any old movie that a Black Sabbath song (with Dio) happened to be in. I got quite a few submissions with things like Trick or Treat, or Halloween, and things like that. I was looking for movies the Black Sabbath specifically had songs they wrote for the movie they appeared in. There's two of those. That was "The Mob Rules" for the 1981 movie "Heavy Metal". The other was "Time Machine" which appeared in the 1991 movie "Wayne's World". Technically the track E5150 was also in the movie "Heavy Metal", but most people don't count that one. :)

4) Which song from Dehumanizer was the only track to be played live on the 1994 Cross Purposes tour with Tony Martin?

This was Time Machine - it was the opening song in the set list on the Cross Purposes tour. On a personal note, the 1994 tour was one of the more varied set lists in the band's history. Only thing that would have made it perfect is if they hit three criminally underrepresented albums in the live set lists (Never Say Die, Born Again, Seventh Star).

5) What is Ronnie James Dio's real surname?

I was only looking for his surname, and since I've seen it spelled a ton of different ways online, I was not going to get hung up on the spelling. As long as you had something like Padavona, I accepted it as correct.

Thanks to all who entered, and for those who won - congratulations! I hope to have some sort of new giveaway with the new studio album comes out next year. That ought to be a good one. :)

Back in 2004, Black Sabbath released "Black Box", the definitive remastering of the original eight studio albums with Ozzy. It was well received, and of course, after release, people's attentions turned to what might come next. There was talk then of a "Black Box II" which would cover the Dio Years. Not much happened then with that because Sabbath was still touring with Oz on the annual Ozzfest into 2005. In 2006, the band was finally inducted into both the UK & US Hall of Fames, and after that, things seemed to settle down, and some folks were thinking that might be "it".

Well, as has happened before, Black Sabbath came back again with Ronnie James Dio, and talks began anew about the box set of the Dio era. While nothing was settled, there was some talk that we would get a box. Then word came down in late 2006 that the "Box" had been whittled down to a single disc, that being "The Dio Years", which showed up in 2007. Great though it was, some folks felt it a letdown after (falsely, most likely) expecting a full Dio era box set. We skip ahead to 2008, and word comes down during the spring that there would finally be the box set of the Dio era albums. That's what this is. Some commentary about the newly released box set, "The Rules of Hell", which comprises the four releases from the classic era of Black Sabbath.

First off, let me start by quoting my own review of Black Box from four years ago. I said then about Black Box.. "if you're looking to buy this based on the recent trend of other box sets to include rare songs and things like that, you WILL be disappointed. But if you're interested in how the songs SOUND, then my god, this is for you." This holds up again for RoH. Lets get into some detail on that.

The first thing you will notice is the box is significantly smaller than the other two boxes (Black Box & Radio City Deluxe). It's not that much larger than the four jewel cases inside there. Check out the picture reference here for comparison. When you take the shrink wrap off of the thing, there's a paper overlay that covers the outside of the box, but is not attached to it in any way, and appears to be meant to be discarded once you open the set. Opening the box reveals the insides to be four jewel cases inside there. Check out a picture:

The physical CDs themselves contain a nice font style writing similar to the fonts used in the original packaging of the particular albums. Black Box did the same thing four years ago, but these feel a bit more readable than those discs. Black on Black is never the easiest thing to read.

What do the discs contain? We have the three studio albums from the Dio era of Black Sabbath. Those being 1980's "Heaven & Hell", 1981's "The Mob Rules", and 1992's "Dehumanizer". The live release from 1982, "Live Evil" is also in this box (in its original two disc configuration). The newer releases (The Dio Years, and the Radio City and Hammersmith releases) are not represented. But that's OK - those are all new releases, less than 24 months old for all of them, so it's probably right that they weren't included.

Which brings us to our next point - the one I quoted from my Black Box review. "Extras". As is the case with most box sets, there's some sort of extras package. The recent Genesis box sets are a treasure trove of extras and whatnot. These things are not here. The four albums are as they were when originally released. The only notable difference here is Dehumanizer. Due to contractual things at the time, Dehumanizer was released worldwide by IRS, but inside the US by Warner/Rhino. The US version of Dehumanizer had a track that wasn't on the general worldwide release, that being the version of "Time Machine" from the movie Wayne's World. But that's it folks. There's no "sixth disc" of unreleased tracks, demos, and all that. If you're familiar with the collector's scene (cough), there are quite a few unreleased and demo tracks from the Dehumanizer sessions that exist (that weren't used elsewhere), so they could have been, but they weren't. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, really. Oh sure, who wouldn't like to see more tunes? The grapevine says that Tony isn't a big fan of that kind of thing, and that's probably why these boxes are the way they are. I did make some inquiries on this subject before the album was released. If you take the "no unreleased demos" as read, there aren't a ton of tracks that could be included anyway (and before anyone else gives me crap about this statement, I'm talking about real extra tracks - meaning STUDIO TRACKS, not B side live tracks, I don't count those as real extra tracks). The only tracks I am aware of were the alternate Mob Rules version from the Heavy Metal soundtrack, as well as an alternate version of Dehumanizer's "Letters From Earth". That track turned up as a "B side" to the CD single for TV Crimes. I know it exists, I bought it myself in 1992. When I checked into these tracks, I was told by someone at the record label that the Heavy Metal version of Mob Rules couldn't be used, since it was on another record label. The annoying part was that the guy didn't even know that version of Letters From Earth existed! It was even on a Warner release - so they have it somewhere in their vaults - that it wasn't even considered was something personally irritating. Additionally, there is no overall "box booklet". There are booklets with each individual album, but no overall booklet - something that was in the Black Box set. There are jewel case insert booklets with each of the four albums. Each of THOSE has a new story about that particular album's story as it were. These new stories comprise about 90% of the booklet space, so there is some good reading material. Anyway, that's enough of the griping. I do admit I tend to be the kind of person who gets worked up over their own little pet minutiae when it is not being served, so I need to let that go. Lets get to the music, which is by far the strongest point of this set.

A little history on Sabbath remastering. In 1996, Castle Records released new remasters of all the Black Sabbath albums from 1970-1987. This included two of the three Dio studio albums (and Live Evil). Those masters were from the European master set, not the "Warner Brothers original" (as I've come to understand it). These were needed upgrades at the time, and while better than the original CD releases, probably not what I could call "definitive". Fast forward to 2003, and there was a package named the "Dio Anthology" that covered Ronnie James Dio's career from Elf through to Black Sabbath and the Dio band. There were a handful of Black Sabbath tracks on this compilation, and they were remastered, as everything else was for that package. Sounded good. Fast forward again to the 2007 release "The Dio Years", and Dehumanizer tracks were added to the remastering party. This stuff sounded quite good. Was much cleaner than any release at that time. Then we get 2008's Rules of Hell. This is of course the first time that the entire Dio studio catalog (plus Live Evil) got the full remastering treatment. If you recall, shortly before Black Box came out, there was a two CD greatest hits of the Ozzy era called 'Symptom of the Universe", and both Black Box and Symptom were from the same remastering session. Rules of Hell is different in that the remastering work done for this box set was an even NEWER version than the work done for the tracks released just last year! The recordings in Rules of Hell are QUITE fantastic!

Heaven & Hell: Well, this album by far benefits the most from the remastering work done for this set. This is probably due to the fact that it is the oldest album in the catalogue here, being 28 years old at this point (ACK!). I will say that this is by far the cleanest version of the album I've ever heard. It has a freshness that is totally new to me. I know this album very well, it is a metal classic, and even the most ardent "Ozzy only" fan tends to think this is a pretty decent disc. I say that because I think it's the one most people are familiar with. The single biggest thing here is Geezer Butler's bass. It's far more noticeable than it EVER had been before. Oh sure, you knew it was there, but it never stood out. I have a great subwoofer system on my computer at work, and this is where I listen the most. It is REALLY noticeable, and that's without maxing the bass on the woofer, too. :) This is a great mix, and it makes me wonder why this kind of stuff couldn't be done before? By far the highlight of the box set for me. The booklet has an new story, and also has some artwork I have not seen before. It's done by Lynn Curlee, the guy who did the original artwork for the Heaven & Hell album cover (although it wasn't done specifically for Sabbath). I am unclear as to whether this is truly new artwork, or another of Lynn's older pieces. Either way, a nice surprise to see in the booklet.

Mob Rules: This album holds a special place for me, because it was the first Black Sabbath album I ever got. As frequent visitors to my site know, I bought this album solely on the cover art. At that time I didn't know about Black Sabbath, and I saw the cover art in Hit Parader magazine, and thought.. "I wonder what their music sounds like if their cover art looks like THAT!" So I ran out and bought it, and was instantly hooked by the opening riff of Turn up the Night. While I could never recapture that feeling, the new RoH remaster of Mob Rules is a definite improvement over the previous CD versions of the album I've owned. This album always (to me) had meaty, somewhat muddled sound. Now this isn't a bad thing - normally muddled means bad, but this had a heavy low end sound that wasn't "crisp", if you know what I mean. This new version keeps that feel I'm having issues describing, yet notches up the clarity. The bass isn't as noticably pronoucned as it is in the new version of Heaven & Hell, but it is most definitely an improvement. Of course, I'm somewhat biased about this disc, because of what it means to me and Sabbath in general, it's hard for me to be totally objective about this one.

Live Evil: When this album was released on the original Warner set of CD's it was a double CD. Was one of those "fat" double CD cases from years gone by, if you remember those. The kind now that hold like five discs in the same space. Anyway, when Castle did their remastering in 1996, Live Evil was butchered. Was cut down to a single disc, and almost 100% of the crowd banter was gone. Fortunately, this release restores the album to its original configuration of two discs, allowing for everything to be put back. The problem for me is that no amount of remastering can help this one. When it was BRAND NEW in December of 1982, it was pretty cool. The problem is it feels overproduced to me - the band sounds "flat", it has no bite, and no crispness. Heck, Geezer Butler himself referred to this album as "Live in the Studio Evil" on a 2007 TV interview. I've seen Black Sabbath live a ton of times, and I've always wondered where the band's live energy went on this disc. This is not a complaint about the remastering, but the original release itself. I've always felt that Live Evil was an inferior live recording, and while I've checked it out as part of my reviewing duties, I cannot say I will honestly listen to this much. The limited release "Live at Hammersmith" from last year beats the crap out of Live Evil. It wouldn't have happened obviously, but I wish that Hammersmith was included in this package over Live Evil. Having said that, it is nice that its original release format of two discs was included, so in that regard, it is an improvement over the 1996 Castle release by miles.

Dehuamanizer: This is the album that benefits least from the remastering. This is probably because the album is the most recent of the studio work in here. I really love this disc, there's some absolutely stellar tracks on here. It's not like the remastering work produced NO difference, it's just the differences are far less noticeable than the other studio albums in here. I'm going to say the least about this one for that reason.

If you look at this review on my Black Sabbath site, it's enhanced with pictures. These will show you that the inside of the box is four CD jewel cases, and that's it. Unlike Black Box or the Radio City Deluxe release, there's no real reason to keep the actual box this comes in if you don't want to. Since these are just CD jewel cases, and not some custom molded digipak or something, the exterior "box" in the box set can be discarded, and you can put the jewel cases with all your other jewel cases. I'm not advocating throwing it in the trash, as that doesn't seem right either - it's just odd that the box set is just that - a box. Some box sets have the "box" be part of the packaging, and it all comes together in a nice presentation so to speak. Not here, the box is just "a box". The exterior has some artwork on it, but it's that kind of "black on black" that Black Box featured, so it doesn't really stand out, either.

If you're still with me, you might think that I'm dumping on this box a lot, and that I don't like it. That is definitely not the truth. If you get all hung up on extras, packaging and the like, well, then you may not like this set. But if you're like me, and like Black Sabbath for the right reasons, that being the music, then you will absolutely love this set. Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules are seriously improved. Dehumanizer less so, but it does sound better than before, and Live Evil? Well, it's Live Evil. The pricing on this set is quite nice, too. If you're a Black Sabbath fan that knows these albums well, you'll find a lot to like about the remastering. If you don't have these albums, it should be a no brainier - go get them. They're classic pieces of metal, and the remastering does wonders for them. You'll enjoy it.

Some other notes. I've been told that this is a North American release (like most recent Rhino stuff). I did inquire as to whether or not it will be released outside of North America, and I cannot get a concrete update on that. It would have been nice if the three studio tracks from the Dio years package could have found their way onto here. They actually are, if you buy the box set from a digital format (such as Amazon's MP3 store, or iTunes or the like), but the physical disc version does not have them. Geezer Butler has said that the title of the box is not for the obvious "Hell" connection, but it's a play on the names of the first two albums with Dio. Granted, Sabbath has never been above playing the "Satan" angle for marketing (look at the box cover art), but I personally find these kinds of album names tiring. Yawn. It's Satan again. Can we move on to something more important than that?

That's it for me and my review of "The Rules of Hell". Hope to see you back here again before too long with a review of "Black Box 3: The Everything Else" box set. Oh, you can see my photo gallery of the images used in the review here, which includes a couple of others not used in the review.

A special thanks to Rhino Records who provided the copies for the giveaway I ran last week. Go support the band, and buy the box! Here's some ordering links. If you don't care about physical media, check out the digital versions. They're priced well (iTunes is $24.95 and Amazon's MP3 store is $22.95 as I write this). Both the digital links come with the three new tracks "The Devil Cried", "The Shadow of the Wind", & "Ear in the Wall".

US: Amazon.com's physical CD page
US: Amazon.com's MP3 download page
UK: Amazon.co.uk's Page
US: iTunes download page

Anyway, I'm here to give away some copies of the box as has been my custom on this site for quite some time now. I've got five copies of the box set that are being given away. First off, I wanted to thank the folks over at Rhino Records for providing me with the copies to be given away. If you don't win these contests, please go support the label and the band by buying copies. Here are some ordering links:

ALBUM ORDERING INFO: First are some links you can use to order the album.

US: Amazon.com's physical CD page
US: Amazon.com's MP3 download page
UK: Amazon.co.uk's Page
US: iTunes download page
US: Best Buy Ordering Page

As per my contests in the past, you'll need to answer a few trivia questions about the band. If you get them all right, you'll be put into a drawing for a copy of the Rules of Hell Box Set. Here are the questions you need to answer:

1. The painting used for the cover of the Heaven & Hell album was not originally created for the album. What was that painting's original name?
2. What was the name of the artist that painted the cover art for The Mob Rules album?
3. Name the two theatrical movies that the Dio era of Black Sabbath contributed songs to.
4. Which song from Dehumanizer was the only track to be played live on the 1994 Cross Purposes tour with Tony Martin?
5. What is Ronnie James Dio's real surname?

You need to send your answers for the questions and your name and address to roh@black-sabbath.com. There's two important things here. First the email must go to this address. Second, you have to include your name and address. IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY WITH THESE TWO SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS, YOUR SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. The contest will run through Tuesday the 22nd of July 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.

A few notes about other versions of box set I should point out.

1. It appears that the digital distributions of the Rules of Hell box set include more material than the physical version. I'm referring to the versions that appear on places like iTunes and the Amazon MP3 store. These two versions also include the three new tracks from the Dio Years set (Devil Cried, Shadow of the Wind, & Ear in the Wall). I'm attempting to find out if these will be on the physical version, but I do not believe they are. Confirmed. Rhino told me this afternoon that these tracks appear on digital versions only.
2. The Best Buy version has a limited edition exclusive bonus disc, which contains five live tracks, culled from last year's "Live at Hammersmith" release. More details available here.

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The majority of the box will be exactly the same as you can get everywhere else. There will however, be an extra CD packed on the outside that will contain five live tracks from 1981. The live tracks are:

• Neon Knights
• The Mob Rules
• Children of the Grave
• Voodoo
• Country Girl

The source of these live tracks was the "Live at Hammersmith" release from May of 2007. The first four of these tracks already were released on the UK Tour Edition of "The Dio Years" last year. Country Girl was not on the Tour Edition release.

If you want to check out this release, you can do so via this link over at the Best Buy website.

From my personal experience at Best Buy, given the quantities Best Buy tends to stock of things like this, if you're interested, you may wish to pre-order. Best Buy will have the regular version fine, but this one with the extra disc might be harder to come buy. I mean, this isn't the kind of stuff that fills the "best sellers" section at Best Buy. That section is usually filled with crap, so special editions of Black Sabbath might not be in huge quantities at Best Buy, know what I mean? :)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001AZ7RU0/73407921 (Amazon US)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001AZ7RU0/blacksabbatho-21 (Amazon UK)

It is due to be out on July 22nd, and contains all three existing Dio era Sabbath albums plus Live Evil in its original double CD format. Please note that Amazon.com has a pre-order price guarantee, if you order it now, and the price goes down between now and when it ships, you'll get billed for the lower price.

I have received a pre-release copy of the CD's, and can say I hear an improvement on them - especially Heaven & Hell. I haven't had a chance to fully digest them yet - plus this was just the CD's, not the packaging or the booklet. I'll have more to say about that when I receive the final product. But on first listen, the albums themselves sound improved, yes.

That is the reason for the DVD box set I'm talking about here. It's called "Deep Purple: Around the World Live". This is a very nice quality set. It's got four DVD's in it. The first three are all concert footage (interspersed with interview stuff as well). The fourth DVD is a rather long documentary on the history of the band in the Steve Morse era. The documentary talks about all kinds of stuff with Steve Morse, spends a lot of time on the departure of Jon Lord as well, and is really quite cool. There's some references to the other times of Purple's history, but this documentary is really all about the Morse era. Which I happen to love, so it was right up my alley. Ian Gillan even referenced a concert I saw with a friend of mine in 1994 in Texas, which was technically Steve Morse's third ever gig with Purple. There's a review I did of it back then still online over at the Highway Star website, too!

Anyway, there's tons of concert footage, and with the sets varying over several years, you don't get the same set lists all the time, it varies - and includes live tracks from Battle Rages On, an album I rather liked, and is under appreciated. I'm going to post the press release below, so there will be some more stuff to read. But the bottom line is this. If you like Deep Purple, and want to see more than just old music videos of Highway Star when Ian Gillan talks about Steve McQueen, then I urge you to check out this set. Its' really good stuff, and I didn't even get into the booklet that comes with this. :)

New York, NY (May 29, 2008)—On June 17, 2008, Eagle Rock Entertainment, through its wholly-owned Eagle Vision subsidiary, will release Deep Purple: Around The World Live [pre-book date May 28, Retail Sales Price $39.98], a 4-DVD boxed set chronicling live shows in 1995 India, 1999 Australia and 2002 England. The fourth disc, Access All Areas, is a documentary of the band, from inception on.

Deep Purple is one of the most beloved Hard Rock bands in music history. Seen as one of the key precursor bands to what ultimately became Heavy Metal, it is also in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the loudest band ever. Its debut album, Shades Of Deep Purple, came out in September of 1968. By year’s end, The Book Of Taliesyn was also out and 12 months later, in 1969, its self-titled third album made them stars. Superstar status was achieved in the ‘70s, and there was no looking back from there. All during the ‘80s and ‘90s, Deep Purple continued to make new fans, performing its music on stages all over the world. With 18 studio albums, six live albums, and 14 of Hard Rock’s greatest musicians (including guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, organist Jon Lord, vocalist David Coverdale, guitarist Joe Satriani, and the late Tommy Bolin) who have filled its ranks at one time or another, Deep Purple has sold millions of records, and are considered one of the greatest bands of alltime. (The current lineup, which has been solvent for six years, consists of vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Don Airey and drummer Ian Paice.)

Around The World Live disc bonus features an eight-song fourth concert from 1995 Seoul, South Korea (Disc #1), a 1999 documentary, “A Band Down Under” (Disc #2), and a 2002 interview with vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover (Disc #3).

This lavish boxed set comes complete within a hardback cover that also includes a 32-page specially commissioned book written by Joel McIver of Great Britain’s Classic Rock magazine, illustrated with photographs of the various eras covered by the concerts.

Packed with rare and previously unseen material, this is the ultimate Deep Purple 57-song nine-hour collection!

Track Listing
Disc #1 “Bombay Calling—India 1995”
1) Fireball
2) Maybe I’m A Leo
3) Black Night
4) The Battle Rages On
5) Woman From Tokyo
6) Perpendicular Waltz
7) When A Blind Man Cries
8) Perfect Strangers
9) Pictures Of Home
10) Child In Time
11) Anya
12) Space Truckin’
13) Guitar Solo
14) Lazy
15) Speed King
16) Highway Star
17) Smoke On The Water
Bonus Material “Live In Seoul South Korea 1995”
1) Black Night
2) Woman From Tokyo
3) When A Blind Man Cries
4) Perfect Strangers
5) Child In Time
6) Speed King
7) Highway Star
8) Smoke On The Water

Disc #2 “Total Abandon—Australia 1999”
1) Ted The Mechanic
2) Strange Kind Of Woman
3) Bloodsucker
4) Pictures Of Home
5) Almost Human
6) Woman From Tokyo
7) Watching The Sky
8) Fireball
9) Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
10) Guitar Solo
11) Smoke On The Water
12) Lazy
13) Perfect Strangers
14) Speed King
15) Black Night
16) Highway Star

Disc #3 “Live At The NEC—England 2002”
1) Fireball
2) Woman From Tokyo
3) Mary Long
4) Ted The Mechanic
5) Lazy
6) The Well-Dressed Guitar
7) When A Blind Man Cries
8) Space Truckin’
9) Keyboard Solo
10) Perfect Strangers
11) Speed King
12) Guitar Solo
13) Smoke On The Water
14) Hush
15) Black Night
16) Highway Star

It's been out for about a year now, so I wanted to see what people thought of the new tracks. There's a new poll available for them, and you can also check out some song samples via the MP3 widget below (and buy the tracks too if you're so inclined).

Take the poll, and let's see which wins. The poll is on the front page of the site towards the bottom of the page.