Heavy Remastered

Most metalheads here don't know, but Heaven And Hell are actually one of the first if not, the first heavy metal band from Greece, and their music coincidentally seems to mimic the style of heavy rock/metal, (arguably) the first heavy metal band (Black Sabbath) used to play. Even if these guys released their first album almost 40 years after their formation, I still appreciate the effort put into this album from all its participants (musicians, sound engineers, etc.).

And yes it is true, this album does sound a lot like Sabbath. From the riffs to the vocals. This might be considered by elitists as a worthless Sabbath worship LP but for me, this is so much more. Hell, I might even say that “Heavy Remastered” is just as good as “Born Again”, the album that was released the same time all of the songs of “Heavy Remastered” were recorded. Yes that's right, this is not an album with modern production and instruments that sound polished, but a release containing very old recordings that relatively recently were given to the hands of talented sound engineers in order to fix the volumes of some instruments, erase some problems the ??-track recorder might have displayed and overall, make those old compositions sound better.

On a first note, I would like to mention that Nikitas Kovaios is one of the earliest examples of a vocalist whose voice sounds very similar to Ozzy and it's not like the guy sounds bad unlike what a certain review from a 80's greek magazine said. I don't think we will ever have a vocalist who sounds close to Ozzy ever again. Pure talent can also be seen in the eyes of the guitarist of Heaven And Hell, Michalis Nikolaedes who is just as skilled as Tony Iommi on The electric guitar, offering some great riffs and melodies such as the ones you can find on the interlude of “Trash” or on “Centaurs And Demons”. Though I have to admit, my favorite part is the main riff on “Papa's Gallow. What a riff that is!! It could definitely be considered an A-rank riff if it were first written by Tony Iommi. I also love how there are some cool panning tricks done with the guitar, where some of the melodies and solos phase from the left speaker to the right.

I have to disagree with Nick Papakostas of Vice Human on his view that Heaven And Hell's compositions are dog poison (that's what he said in an interview on the “Metal From Hellas” documentary). All These songs here sound great and are on the same level as Vice Human's songs. If you ever find this in physical form, please do yourself a favor and buy it. It is worth your money more than most Rotting Christ records.