Black Sabbath: The Dio Years is a 2007 compilation CD of material from recordings made during vocalist Ronnie James Dio's tenure in the band. The CD contains full album length, remastered tracks culled from all three studio albums; Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), Dehumanizer (1992), and the live album Live Evil (1982). It also contains three new recorded songs; "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall".
It was reported that the collection was first conceived of as a box set, in the vein of Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970–1978); containing all of the group's albums released from their post-Ozzy Osbourne period, starting from Heaven and Hell to The Eternal Idol. This idea was eventually scrapped, and another box set was planned only to feature the four albums recorded from the Dio era of the band. This second idea was put aside, eventually emerging into The Rules of Hell box set released in the summer of 2008.
In an interview conducted by Martin Popoff, Tony Iommi revealed that in fact three tracks were recorded: "Shadow of the Wind" (a slow tune), "The Devil Cried" (a mid tempo rocker) and "Ear in the Wall" (a fast song), therefore changing the original plan for two new songs to accommodate all three tracks in the compilation. "The Devil Cried" was released as a single on 13 March 2007.
On 23 February 2007, both Eddie Trunk and Sirius Satellite Radio unveiled the song "The Devil Cried" from the upcoming album. Rhino Records subsequently made the track available (for preview only) on 26 February 2007. On the week of 13 March 2007, it became available for download at all digital outlets.
After the recording was completed the members decided to tour under the moniker, Heaven & Hell. Dio and Iommi decided that the working partnership they had achieved in recording the 3 new songs would not be wasted, so they recorded The Devil You Know.
Read more about Black Sabbath: The Dio Years: UK Tour Edition, Track Listing, Personnel
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