Ronnie James Dio of the band Heaven and Hell (former members of Black Sabbath) performs last night at the John Labatt Centre. (MIKE HENSEN, Sun Media) LONDON - As the pint-sized singer with the huge voice put it last night -- "bloody hell." That was the closest Heaven and Hell came to admitting what 6,000 frenzied metal fans at the John Labatt Centre already knew.
The headliners, with frontman Ronnie James Dio in magnificent bellow, were bloody close to being Black Sabbath. Dio, who was with the band after Ozzy Osbourne left, is touring with his band Heaven and Hell to showcase the songs from the band's Dio era, back in the early 1980s (with a 1990s' reunion also up for a revisit). Metal fans who know their London rock history say Black Sabbath has not played here: Ozzy was in London only as a solo act in March 1983.
The opening act, Down, had the crowd chanting: "Black Sab-bath, Black Sab-bath." They thrashed and dropped f-bombs countless times. Lead singer Phil Anselmo, a Pantera member, took the band's name to heart -- taking a apparent fall down at one point and then bowing on his knees to the fans.
Megadeth, the second act on the bill, played a blazing, 50-minute set -- and its frontman Dave Mustaine didn't talk much. "You've been great. We've been Megadeth.
Thank you," Mustaine said after being called back by the cheering fans. "Remember if you listen to fools, the mob rules," Dio said before Mob Rules -- the title of the band's 1981 album. With the band all in black, and the fans pretty much the same, Iommi -- bespectacled, cross-wearing and showing off a friendly, serious smile -- was excellent and deserved his own spotlight in the early going.
While Dio wailed away, his eyes looming huge under his mass of hair and exposed forehead, Butler and Appice pummelled and prodded the songs along. The stage featured a panel of faux church window outlines to show devils, angels and other hellish or heavenly imagery. All the band really needed was Dio up on a riser in front of the crowd pushing up the stage to work its black magic.
Well, the fans loved the solo. Two songs before Appice's hour of glory proved that unlike Ozzy, Dio still has his brains engaged and his voice. Voodoo showed the voice is strong for somebody who may be 65 this July (depending which of Dio's birthdates you believe).
In fact, his voice is so strong you have to wonder if it is being enhanced in the mix to the expense of the other guys -- and isn't that what got him in a heap of trouble with his bandmates in the early 1980s, a dispute leading to the first of his acriminious departures. "One of the reasons we got back together (was a the new compilation recording) Sabbath: The Dio Years," the singer said. (The Rhino/Warner CD actually calls it Black Sabbath: The Dio Years.
You get the picture). Some of its songs are new, including The Devil Cried, an excellent bone-cruncher with mucho Iommi to go with the Dio thoughts on Beelzebub's tears. Heaven and Hell kept rolling toward the conclusion of what was to be a 90-minute sets.
The finale was to be something totally appropriate for the downtown London arena at playoff time -- Neon Knights. Dio's nod to Ozzy -- a "bloody hell" tossed into greeting the crowd -- was about the only direct or indirect acknowledgement that Heaven and Hell is touring without using the Sabbath name -- perhaps for legal reasons, perhaps for personal ones and a way of reminding the fans that the Dio era began with an album called Heaven and Hell. Still, Black Sabbath was on everybody's mind in the heavily male, totally metal crowd.
"We wanted to have a little bit of a fresher approach on what was, is and always will be called Black Sabbath. You can disguise it and call us Barney's Beanery if you want to and they'll go, 'Oh Sabbath's in town. Who's Barney's Beanery?
' " he says. Huh? But then, as I said, Dio also left fans to puzzle over his age.
Born in 1942 and 64 at last night's concert. Or born in 1949 and a mere 57? What is clear is that while the years have gone by, Dio and the others can still forge the best metal with each other.
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