Previously known simply as "Black Sabbath With Ronnie James Dio Singing and Vinny Appice Drumming," Heaven and Hell excel at ye olde power-dungeon plod. Too bad Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler's most churning riffs tend to last mere seconds, before getting buried under attention-deficit arrangements and Dio's theatrical mythopoeia — which gets tiring when so many songs exceed six minutes. Here and there, gothic-dirge effects and emotionally spent choruses shine through. More pressingly: Is "Eating the Cannibals" a secret update of Total Coelo's 1983 New Wave novelty "I Eat Cannibals"? The world may never know.
(Posted: Apr 14, 2009)
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