I like it BUT... Ozzy Osbourne has become such a caricature of himself that I cannot take Sabbath seriously anymore. All I see is a bumbling, shaking, mental wreck in my head that spoils everything... If he didn't sell out to a stupid TV show Sabbath would still be one of the greatest bands of all time. He fucked it all up.
Excellent song, IMO. I enjoyed it from the very first time, and I think it really sounds "like Black Sabbath", especially from the sixth minute onwards.
I was already excited about the new album and tour, but I was afraid they'd sound like lame copycats of themselves. Now I'm a lot more confident they'll give us an excellent album and a great reason to expect them to play new stuff on stage.
Dio is God in Italian.
My interpretation - they're talking about Ronnie James Dio, and they're well aware that everyone's going to be talking about the religion thing.
Anything to keep people talking and the mystique going.
Great track and concept.
GratefulFan wrote: Wasn't so much thinking of drug related lyrics, they just all seem to have that atmosphere of torpid retro despair.
A lot of Ozzy's stuff sounds like that but Heaven and Hell with Dio on vocals is a lot ... brighter (I was going to say lighter but that's not the right word). Dio wrote about dragons and faeries; Ozzy about god, devil, angels, demons etc.
GratefulFan wrote: So more of a, say, one speedball too many circa 1981 atmosphere? :)
Possibly.Not sure if Dio was on anything: I'm not an expert but I suspect he was genuinely a bit fey. Of course, Oz was smoking, drinking, eating and injecting every illegal substance known to man back then.
As for this song .... it's a bit dull. Has to be said though, I've never been Sabbath's biggest fan. Tony Iommi is great and Oz is ... well he's Oz ... but a lot of their stuff leaves me cold. Same with Deep Purple: very hit and miss. At the risk of being hit by a bolt of lightning hurled by the rock gods, I actually prefer Rainbow to Purple.