What else can a Heavy Metal fan say after watching Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, Vinny Appice and the great Tony Iommi on stage than that we saw 4 extremely important pieces of the heavy metal history in front of us in flesh & blood?

The HEAVEN & HELL tour was in Rio on the 17th of May, 2009 at Citibank Hall, and it was a great experience.

They got on stage at 8:25 pm playing “Mob Rules” followed by “Children of the Sea” and “I”. If there was anybody expecting to see an old man called James Dio singing, this person surely went back home frustrated. Dio is 67 years old but is in much better shape than many 20-year-old ones. He kicked ass as usual.

The sound wasn´t good during the first 3 songs but it was clear that Mr. Dio´s singing is still amazing. All highs were there followed by a lot of energy and power.

While observing the audience we could see astonished faces agreeing that he had probably sold his soul to Devil to be able to sing like that. Well, if he did it or not it just doesn´t matter, what matters here is the quality of the work, of the music HEAVEN & HELL showed.

Tony Iommi was also great with that particular guitar tone, music phrases and solos doing everything just like a very respected guitar god. Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice did fine too and although drum solo is something I really do not appreciate, I have to say that he did it well and in a very good proportion. The solo took only 3 minutes and a few seconds not giving us time to get bored.

Dio was really kind to the audience, talked to people, got presents, showed them to everybody and made comments. He made many people happy that day.

Two nice and curious gifts were a very beautiful and artistic black & white portrait style drawing A4  shape of Dio, and a small billboard saying: “Mr. Iommi, thanks for creating and sustaining Heavy Metal.” We could see a thankful and proud smile.

The concert was a little disappointing for those who were expecting a Black Sabbath  show cause it wasn´t one. Heaven & Hell is the name of the project and the set list is much more backed to the new album tracks, so if you haven´t had the opportunity of seeing them alive yet, get ready cause this is what you´ll get. If the new record makes no sense to you there is a big chance you won´t enjoy the concert very much and one more thing: get ready to almost half an hour of improvising...

Besides the drum solo, there is a guitar solo track and an unnecessary 23-minute-Heaven & Hell song with more solos and too much impro.

What we have to keep in mind in such event is that we are there to see 4 living legends of heavy metal and they deserve all respect and reverence.

The concert was good in spite of being kind of short in relation to number of songs and too long due to the solo moments overplaying.

After 11 songs Neon Nights was the last one.
Of course everybody wanted more, of course we all wish we had heard more songs but it´s impossible not to feel rewarded after watching Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice alive.
Heaven & Hell is surely heaven to us.

Note: Hard Blast didn´t get any support or press pass from the production of the event to be there. Once more we paid to work but our love to rock ´n roll is bigger than everything. We will always be there. 

SET LIST HEAVEN & HELL RIO DE JANEIRO:

MOB RULES
CHILDREN OF THE SEA
I
BIBLE BLACK
TIME MACHINE
DRUM SOLO
FEAR
FALLING OF THE EDGE
FOLLOW THE TEARS
GUITAR SOLO
DIE YOUNG
HEAVEN & HELL – GUITAR SOLO IMPRO – COUNTRY GIRL (incidental)
NEON NIGHTS