I usually don't bother with post-Ozzy Sabbath, but when the fans stopped giving Dio the finger long enough to listen to this in 1980, they realized they had a masterpeice on their hands. Unlike it's successor, the overblown "Mob Rules", Heaven and Hell still had a good amount of '70's hard rock style to keep it out of the '80's excess department. That's not to say the songs are just average. Indeed, these are classics in their own right and go down with the best Ozzy and company had to offer in the '70's. Dio is in top form, and provided a fresh new sound for the rest of the band to use as a springboard to launch these new songs. Later releases would build on and recycle "Heaven and Hell", but ultimately Sabbath would never be this good again.