Heaven and Hell is the ninth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released on 18 April 1980.

Produced by Martin Birch, the album was a commercial success, particularly in the United States, where it reached number 28 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified platinum for one million sales.

Osbourne has stated that he had become fed up with the experimentation on the preceding albums Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die!, preferring the band's earlier, heavier sound.

In his memoir, Iommi revealed that he still possesses a recording featuring Osbourne singing an early version of what would become "Children of the Sea" with different lyrics and "a totally different" vocal melody.

"[7] The pair kept in touch via telephone until Dio arrived at Iommi's Los Angeles house for a relaxed, getting-to-know-you jam session.

Demo recordings for the album, including song titles like "Lady Evil Blues", "Slap Back", "Lord She's Handsome" and an early version of the title track[9] featured Geoff Nicholls on bass, as longtime bassist Geezer Butler was going through a divorce and his future with the band was in question.

[10] Gruber has stated that his contribution was quite substantial; he says he cowrote most of Heaven and Hell's songs and that it was he and not Butler who played bass on the album.

[12] Personal issues aside, drummer Bill Ward was not completely happy with the direction Black Sabbath was moving in creatively.

Black Sabbath had a long history of playing pranks on drummer Ward, and this continued during the recording of Heaven and Hell.

[14] His behaviour became erratic; on the Heaven & Hell Tour, Ward began dictating long and rambling press releases to the band's public relations representatives after every show, instructing them to "get that out on the news wires tonight".

The Heaven and Hell album represents the only Sabbath material recorded during the Dio era that does not feature Appice on drums.

In the UK, it became the third Black Sabbath studio album to attain silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in November 1980.

It subsequently attained gold certification (100,000 units sold) in April 1982, the only Black Sabbath studio album to be thus certified.

Four of those became mainstays in setlists for the band's tours with Dio and Tony Martin: "Children of the Sea", "Neon Knights", "Die Young" and the title track.

In his autobiography, Iommi admits, "We were doing big shows and it was difficult for Ronnie to go out and stand in front of people who had seen Ozzy in that spot for ten years.

In Britain, Sounds magazine had begun championing a new musical phenomenon it dubbed 'The New Wave of British Heavy Metal' ...

The reborn Black Sabbath, with their glistening new sound, incomparable new singer and top-drawer new album, were seen as part of a widespread revival in rock fandom."