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as "Heaven and Hell," "Die Young," and the mystical "Children of the Sea," with this album Black Sabbath were back on top.

Dio would stay on in the next equally brilliant album The Mob Rules, unfortunately Bill Ward the bands longstanding drummer (and mini vocalist) would not. He would state ill health and personal reasons for his departure, which were clearly a factor, but he was also missing life without Ozzy Osbourne, for him somehow the new set-up just didn't seem right. In would come Vinny Appice, a younger American drummer to replace him and he seemed to slot into the band naturally. Despite the success and obvious quality of these two albums it would prove to be short lived as Dio and Appice would leave the band, and from thereon the bands line-up would be in a constant state of fluctuation with no one line-up the same up for any of the other albums, (although they would return a decade later to record the excellent Dehumaniser album).

Apart from Tony Iommi who is the bands founding backbone, who owns the rights to Black Sabbath, and some would say is Black Sabbath, Tony Martin would become the only real stability in the vocal area appearing on five other studio albums. Some would say that Martin's vocal range never really suited the early Sabbath sound, and as a result of his inclusion the band would become somewhat diluted in principle.

However to this day there are many Tony Martin fans, who they see as their Sabbath, the one in which they discovered first, and in which they prefer to the Ozzy or Dio era. Whatever the individual tastes, Black Sabbath has been a band that has incorporated different types of metal over the years, suiting various tastes in which you could argue only strengthens the overall diversity of the band.

Today Black Sabbath are currently playing under the name Heaven and Hell featuring the same line-up as the 1980's classic album of the same name, and Dio is as good as ever if not better. As their hugely successful world tour had proven (the response of which will be a new album out later in 2008) they have the ability to continue going from strength to strength, and their enthusiasm and expertise is there for all to see.

The real importance of Black Sabbath or Heaven and Hell as it seems it will be called from now on, for me can be likened in musical terms as second only to the Beatles. In this I am in utter seriousness. For those people only linking Black Sabbath with "Iron Man" or "Paranoid" I urge you to go out and rediscover one of the most influential and misunderstood groups of all time. Truly life altering.

Learn more about this author, John Gray.
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