Heaven and Hell in full H-Dio! A must buy for Dio/Sabbath fans.
Heaven & Hell Live at Radio City Music Hall is the definitive Heaven & Hell experience. The video quality is top-notch, the sound quality is incredible, and most importantly: we have an amazing setlist being performed by top-tier musicians at the top of their game. I know what many of you are asking. "Is this much of an improvement over the DVD?" I can answer that with a very confident and resounding YES. I bought the DVD years ago after seeing them live at Metal Masters in 2008. The video quality is much better with no compression artifacts and very little color bleeding. Another problem that was noticeable to me on the DVD was really weird ghosting/motion blur of some kind. This is also gone in the Blu-ray release. Seeing this concert in high definition is a treat since you can catch so many small details, like scratches on Tony Iommi's guitar or the sequins on Dio's groovy shirts. Everything here looks fantastic. The sound quality seems great to my ears. I don't have a speaker system to test out how crazy it can get, but it comes with HD audio, Dolby 5.1, and stereo. From what my TV speakers put out, everything sounds crisp and clear. The songs have varying mixes, such as Geezer Butler's bass lines dominating some tracks, while Tony Iommi's pounding riffs dominate others. I imagine that what we hear on this disc is what the band/sound engineers would want us to hear. It's perfect. See "Die Young" or "Falling Off the Edge of the World" for examples of the great mixing at work. That brings us to the setlist, which is spectacular. You get material from the first three Sabbath Mk. II albums, Heaven & Hell, The Mob Rules, and Dehumanizer, along with some new tracks from the Dio Years compilation. This is a pretty long setlist and it doesn't disappoint. You get the expected hits like "Neon Nights" and "The Mob Rules" but for every one of those tracks you get a rarely played classic like "Sign of the Southern Cross" or "Lonely is the Word." The band is in top form being filmed in the upward swing of their resurgence as gods of metal. Dio shows us that his voice, while sounding a bit aged, hasn't lost any of its power. Vinny Appice pounds the skins like he's going to be killed by a sniper if he doesn't hit them hard enough. He represents everything a professional drummer should be: a powerful, precise, timekeeper with a complete lack of vanity. His rhythm counterpart, Geezer Butler rocks the bass better than most whippersnappers half his age. He knows when to accentuate the riffs by following the guitar lines, and when to keep up the rhythm with his wild soloing. Tony Iommi, is of course, Tony Iommi. He plays heavy riffs of impending doom with ease. He has an amazing tone, and shreds with the very best of them without ever devolving into atonal noise. If you love Black Sabbath, buy this. If you love Dio, buy this. If you love both, why are you even still reading? Click the button up there! If you don't have the DVD already, this is a no brainer. If you do, I still recommend this if you're on the fence. Give the DVD to your nephew or something! I think it's very much worth the improvement. You're getting an amazing concert with great video and sound. I cannot recommend this enough. Read more