Black Sabbath — The Rules Of Hell

Hot on the heels of The Dio Years two disc anthology, Rhino has remastered and re-released all four albums Ronnie James Dio recorded with Black Sabbath (Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil and Dehumanizer) into The Rules Of Hell five-disc box set. Listening to Dio wail away reinforces how most contemporary metal acts are lacking in the vocal department and also serves as a reminder that he always sounded better than Ozzy. The remastering is a blessing for audiophiles. But more importantly, going through the set will send nostalgists headfirst into a land of rainbows, crying devils, neon knights and all sorts of other over-the-top metal mysticisms. Mob Rules and Heaven And Hell are still classics, Live Evil's two discs continue to be underrated, and '92's Dehumanizer comeback album, with it's man vs. computer theme, is surprisingly prescient (and not as entirely ball sweat as first thought) 16 years later. The only real flaw is that the Rhino packagers couldn't find a way to jam the three new songs that appeared on The Dio Years in there somewhere for completists.