Black Sabbath

For much of the past decade, Black Sabbath have been performing with their original singer, Ozzy Osbourne. And while they haven't yet released any new material, their seemingly perennial appearances at Ozzfest make it seem as if Osbourne is the group's only real singer.

That's not exactly the case. The band had several different singers after Ozzy left in 1979, and fans almost universally agree that Ronnie James Dio - unquestionably one of the most legendary throats in metal history - is by far the best Sabbath vocalist not named Osbourne.

During Dio's tenure (1979-1982 and 1992-1993), Black Sabbath recorded their best material since 1975's Sabotage, but while both 1980's Heaven and Hell and 1981's The Mob Rules were haunting, heavy and arguably more musically mature than much of the band's earlier work, their significance in the Sabbath catalog has been diminished by the many hit-and-miss Sabbath records that followed Dio's departure, and more significantly by the group's reunion with Ozzy. And sadly, the group's third studio effort with Dio, the punishing 1992 album Dehumanizer, hit at a time when metal was shunned and faded with barely a blip (the underrated 1982 concert album Live Evil also featured Dio).

But now Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler are taking strides to resurrect the Dio era by recording three new songs with him for an upcoming best-of album, Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, and scheduling a world tour under the band name Heaven and Hell.

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SOURCE: VH1