Heaven And Hell  by Black Sabbath

In 1979, Tony Iommi was looking for a new singer and Ronnie James Dio was seeking a new band after Rainbow. The meeting of the two took place in Los Angeles and its result culminated the following year in Heaven And Hell. It was the ninth studio album of Black Sabbath and in retrospect, we know that with this album a new era was beginning for the band from Birmingham.

Heaven And Hell was produced by Martin Birch, who was a recommendation from Dio, as he knew him from his work with Rainbow. The album secured a place among the best albums of Black Sabbath – and of heavy metal – rekindling the interest of the public and critics for the band which seemed to have lost its stride in recent years. Dio took on the lyrics, which acquired a metaphysical theme.

The album sales reached 100,000 in Great Britain and 1,000,000 in the U.S.A.