Now that the 21st Century has arrived without the expected apocalypse, it is perhaps time to look back at some of the great controversies that defined the dread and unease of the end of the millennium. Communism may have fallen, but it gave way to dozens of recently liberated Balkan nations battling one another for reasons of territory and ideology. This development resulted in a situation where formerly anonymous nations like Uzbekistan were transformed into nuclear powers overnight. And in our own backyard, Aryan survivalist groups trained in the Pacific Northwestern wilderness, preparing for the race war that would undoubtedly come. There were the predictions of Nostradamus. The rapture, as foretold in the Bible and Chick Comics. How would we deal with these frightening scenarios? Were we approaching the end of the world? And most importantly, how could we allow the world to end before answering the question that had plagued mankind for decades: Is Ronnie James Dio better than Ozzy Osbourne?
For those of you who never wore a mullet, never drove a muscle car and, most importantly, never listened to heavy metal, it is understandable if you do not consider this question one of the burning issues of our time. For the rest of us, however, there was perhaps no issue as divisive. One was either in one camp or the other, and no one could be allowed to straddle that particular fence. As a result, fistfights started, couples broke up, and an atmosphere of general misery was created. But how did we get there?
In 1979, after recording eight albums, Black Sabbath parted ways with their original singer, Ozzy Osbourne. It has never been made clear if he was fired, if he quit, or if the parting was mutual. One thing has never been in dispute, however. The parting was an acrimonious one, with both sides only able to put aside their differences for a twenty-minute set at Live Aid in 1985.
Osbourne was replaced in Black Sabbath by former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio. Unlike Osbourne, whose trademark banshee wail was self-taught, Dio had been singing professionally for many years prior to his gig with Rainbow, and as such his vocal style was more technical and polished than Osbourne�s. And while this meant that Sabbath never again had to endure another cracked note, there are many who feel that something was lost in the process. And this point is the crux of the debate; should Black Sabbath have kept their name when they booted Ozzy?
One popular argument for a name change is that they �weren�t� Black Sabbath without Ozzy any more, that their style changed too radically with the inclusion of Dio. In some respects, this argument is a valid one. The untrained ear would certainly have a difficult time telling that the people playing on the original 1970 recording of �Iron Man� are 75% the same as those performing on �Neon Knights� in 1980. Or, as my lovely girlfriend Asia Linn would say as I subjected her to seven thousand consecutive plays of �Die Young�, it �doesn�t sound like Black Sabbath�. Fair enough. But is this Dio�s fault? No fucking way, I say. �Classic� Sabbath, that is to say material like �Iron Man�, �War Pigs�, �Paranoid�, and so forth, all originate from a point early on in Sabbath�s career, namely their second album. The Sabbath sound began changing and taking on new elements beginning with their fourth album, �Volume 4�. On their next album, �Sabbath Bloody Sabbath�, Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman was brought in to add futuristic laser beam noodling, to the shock of many. Then there was their seventh album, �Technical Ecstasy�, which truly broke from the Sabbath mold by consisting entirely of shitty songs. If anything, I am of the opinion that Dio actually revitalized the band, and that the first album he cut with them, �Heaven and Hell�, was better than the two previous ones with Ozzy put together.
It�s also important to consider Ozzy Osbourne�s own post-Sabbath career. His first solo album, �Diary of a Madman�, was very much in the early-80�s metal mold of such new bands as Def Leppard and Iron Maiden. If Ozzy was responsible for the �classic� Sabbath sound of yore, why didn�t it follow him into his solo career? "Crazy Train" bears as little resemblance to classic Sabbath as "Holy Diver". It is for this reason that I conclude that although Black Sabbath�s material with Ozzy Osbourne is undeniably classic material, it is not the only material that deserves to wear the Sabbath mantle.
The other argument that often comes up when discussing the most divisive issue of the 20th century is whether or not Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio �sucks�. Again, this is an issue that deserves closer inspection, and in so doing, let�s examine the 1983 release, �Live Evil�. This was a two-record set culled from the band�s �Mob Rules� tour, where both new, Dio-era material, and old, Ozzy-era material were performed. On all the Dio-era selections, such as �Children of the Sea� and �Heaven and Hell�, Ronnie is in top form, committing acts of vocal gymnastics with ease. The same can be said of his handling of the earlier material from the Ozzy era. Except for one small problem; he sounds like a fucking idiot. Nowhere is this more painfully apparent than on �Iron Man�, where he insists on singing along with the guitar as though he were scatting a la Cab Calloway. But the most heinous infraction occurs at the beginning of this song, where he is supposed to speak the words �I am Iron Man� in an ominous voice. Dio responds to this challenge by adopting a cartoonishly stupid voice that is reminiscent of �Sesame Street�s� own Cookie Monster. This is especially unfortunate, as this is the first recorded example of this in existence on a heavy metal record, and today 90% of the heavy metal albums that are released feature this most hated of vocal �styles�. I refuse to buy any CD that features Cookie Monster vocal stylings, and it is upsetting to me to know that the man I consider the best singer in heavy metal is also the man who invented it, and that he did so while interpreting his predecessor�s material.
So where does this leave us? We have proven that Black Sabbath started with Ozzy Osbourne but didn�t end with him, and didn�t change simply because he left. We have also proven that Ronnie James Dio�s involvement did not signal the end of the band, so much as it signaled that it was no longer the same band everyone was comfortable with.
The last couple of albums with Ozzy were really, really terrible. As we all know, it is all too common for bands to start to become uninspired after a while and start releasing shitty music. It happens. Sometimes some new blood is needed to get things moving again; the only problem with that is that it reminds the older fans that they are not so young any more. It asks them to accept the fact that their beloved object, once shiny and new and appealing, is now old and doesn�t work as well as it once did. It needs more than a fresh coat of paint. More than an oil change. It needs to be overhauled, and it implicates anyone who was there at the outset. It suggests that maybe they too could use some new blood.
Last summer when the new �Star Wars� movie came out, I heard a lot of grumbling, mostly from people my own age, about how it �sucked�. It did not suck, but something was definitely missing, something I detected right from the opening crawl. I�m not eight years old any more, and nothing will ever be as new and exciting to me as it was back then. If the movie �sucked�, then what sucked about it was mainly its failure to magically de-cynic the viewer and make him young and na�ve again for two hours. There is no entertainment product that will, either. By the same token, I believe that for heavy metal fans, Sabbath with Dio probably �sucked� for the same reason. There was nothing in the world like hearing �Iron Man� for the first time. It actually frightened you, and it did so in the way that only a child can be frightened. Dio-era Sabbath gets heard mainly by more serious fans of heavy metal, who by that time are already comfortable with the music. It�s just not new to them any more.
It�s a sad thing realizing that you�ve gotten older and that nothing can really affect you the way that it did when you were young and dumb. Adulthood has its advantages, and I�m glad to be enjoying them, but it also has its very painful drawbacks, chief among them being the realization that you can never go back again, and that it will get harder the more you try.
