Cashier power at Best Buy for Black Sabbath The Dio Years, go armed with web prices |
I’ve been stoked about the new Black Sabbath collection CD called The Dio Years. I’ve been a Dio fan since Rainbow, when he replaced Ozzy and his early solo material. Before hitting the local stores, I did some checking to see who had the best price for the CD. iTunes had the album for $11.99 but only with the DRM-infested option. The Best Buy website showed a reasonable $9.99 for the CD, but when we arrived at the store the price on the label was $13.99.
I asked the pimply young male clerk who promptly checked the SKU and announced that yes, the CD was $13.99. He then consulted the website and my heart beat a bit faster thinking this would be a re-run of the website you see in the store is different than the website you see out, but he turned up the same $9.99 price as I’d seen earlier.
“It might be a web-only deal,” He shrugged his shoulders. “Talk to the cashier and maybe they can help you.”
I know what some of you might be thinking. Hey, four bones is four bones! If you look on a percentage basis $9.99 vs. $13.99 is nearly 30% off the price. From what I saw the Best Buy web page didn’t say anything about being a “web-only” deal. If you see differently point me to the deal.
To my surprise the cashier process was surprisingly easy. I told the guy the CD was $9.99 on the Best Buy website and he rang it up as $9.99. No checking with anybody else, no manager check, done deal. Sweet.
For those curious, Wal-mart actually advertises the lowest price for the CD at $9.72.
Song selection
Of course you’ll find the songs Heaven and Hell, Neon Knights, Mob Rules and the live version of Children of the Sea, but they fit in a personal favorite of mine: Lonely is the World from the Heaven and Hell album. That song has one of the most haunting guitar solos. I would rather of seen Master of Insanity and Buried Alive included than TV Crimes, I, and After All (The Dead) from the 1992 Dehumanizer album.
There are three new tracks included giving a seductive tease as to what a new Black Sabbath Dio fronted album might sound like in 2007. After listening to these tracks a few times I’m already saying: bring it! The guitar solo in The Devil Cried is king of drowned out but shows that Tony Iommi still has the chops and Dio has the pipes. Shadow of the Wind is the more mellow track and is a good effort. The weakest of the three is Ear in the Wall but it doesn’t embarass the group by any stretch. I liked these songs better than the ones rolled out with Ozzy on the Live Reunion CD.
Track lineup
Neon Knights
Lady Evil
Heaven and Hell
Die Young
Lonely is the World
The Mob Rules
Turn up the Night
Voodoo
Falling off the edge of the World
After All (The Dead)
TV Crimes
I
Children of the Sea (Live)
The Devil Cried
Shadow of the Wind
Ear in the Wall
Touring as Heaven and Hell
It’s too bad the free Ozzfest this summer isn’t featuring Heaven and Hell, the name these guys are touring as instead of Black Sabbath. Why not use Black Sabbath? Or are they? According to the tour schedule they are calling themselves Black Sabbath on the Heaven and Hell tour 2007. Whatever they can call themselves whatever they want and they still rock hard.
If you want a good taste of what Heaven and Hell tour will be like, buy this album. From what I understand they won’t be playing any of the Ozzy era Sabbath tunes. No paranoid, no war pigs? Believe it.
Ozzy Osbourne fans will see his new studio album Black Rain hits stores next Tuesday May 22.
Did this post make you go hmm?
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Here’s my review of the Cleveland show.
They are calling it Heaven and Hell to avoid conflict for the Black Sabbath members with Sharon Osbourne…since Black Sabbath is still a functioning unit with Ozzy at this point…
http://snipurl.com/1kq2f
It was fantastic…you really should go, if it comes to your neck of the woods…as I understand it, they will be touring again later this year with Queensryche opening…
Dio sounds unreal good.
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — May 15, 2007 @ 12:34 pm PST
by the way - Best Buy will match any price from any competitor, web, etc…as long as you bring either the flyer, or a printout of the web price from a competitor.
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — May 15, 2007 @ 12:35 pm PST
A couple of more things….first, an exclusive (sold out unfortunately) web-only release from Rhino Handmade
http://snipurl.com/1kq35
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — May 15, 2007 @ 12:37 pm PST
Final item - how about a live DVD from the above mentioned Heaven and Hell tour? You got it!
http://snipurl.com/1kq3h
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — May 15, 2007 @ 12:40 pm PST
Great review, Matt! I figured that Sharon Osbourne had something rotten to do with the name thing. She’s got a really nasty side it would seem. Remember what happened with Iron Maiden at Ozzfest?
Comment by TDavid — May 15, 2007 @ 12:56 pm PST
Absolutely remember the Maiden incident. Both sides are talking nice about this Heaven and Hell thing….but I think that it irks Sharon and crew to see how well this tour is doing, because nobody really knew how well this would do….I think it’s way beyond what was anticipated.
Also, Tony and Geezer are playing it safe, because they for sure, don’t want to flush that regular Sabbath paycheck from Sharon.
It was SO apparent though, just from body language, how much fun they are both having with this tour. Merch is great too - got a great t-shirt of the classic Heaven & Hell album cover!
It’s nice to see Dio back at full strength - he put out a DVD of a show (I think due to contractual obligations), that really should have been shelved. It was a live recording of the entire Holy Diver album, and he was sick on the night it was filmed/recorded a couple of years back - he sounds absolutely awful. I give him credit for not fixing it up in post-show recording….but it’s wretched…shoulda never hit the shelves….hopefully they will see fit to let it go mercifully out of print, soon!
http://www.amazon.com/Dio-Holy-Diver-Live/dp/B000FG65SU
Comment by Matt Wardlaw — May 15, 2007 @ 1:04 pm PST
I heard that CD on Zune actually, it wasn’t good. Dio has done too many live CDs with his solo stuff I think. I miss the old Dio, but a lot of his stuff since the 80s hasn’t been very good. This Heaven and Hell thing, however, shows that Black Sabbath still has some gas in the tank.
I’m disappointed that Ozzy didn’t try to do some of the other songs than the classic songs we’re kind of tired of hearing. Stuff like Gypsy would be awesome but I don’t think the Ozzman has the range to hit those notes any more. Guess we’ll all find out when Black Rain hits next week.
I’d like to see Black Rain be more like the first album with Zakk than the last few. We’ll find out next Tuesday!
Comment by TDavid — May 15, 2007 @ 1:12 pm PST
[…] Honestly, I like the songs from Heaven and Hell with the 60+ year old man Ronnie James Dio at the helm as much as anything on this new Ozzy CD. Don’t misunderstand me, Ozzy is still one of my favorite rock artists of all time and I’ll be there on Tuesday buying this CD but a lot of his music with Zakk Wylde has become been there, done that. I can’t blame Zakk because he keeps cranking out killer music for Black Label Society so then who to blame, Ozzy? It’s too bad guys like Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake are persona non grata. […]
Pingback by MSN Sympatico streams entire Ozzy Osbourne Black Rain album for free » Make You Go Hmm — May 17, 2007 @ 5:36 pm PST