Inside Bay Area has issued the following report from Jim Harrington:

BLACK SABBATH'S 'Iron Man', 'Paranoid' and 'War Pigs' rank as first-tier heavy-metal classics. But try playing those songs night after night for two consecutive summers (2004-2005) during the annual Ozzfest touring festival.

It can get a little old, even for two of Sabbath's founding members, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Terry "Geezer" Butler.

To break up the monotony of the nightly set list, which was constructed of tunes from the band's first incarnation with drummer Bill Ward and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, Iommi and Butler began playing songs from later Sabbath releases during sound checks.

They found themselves drawn to the material from 1980's Heaven And Hell and 1981's Mob Rules, two post-Ozzy albums that featured the great howler Ronnie James Dio on vocals. Think 'Lady Evil', 'Die Young', 'Heaven And Hell' and other Dio-led classics that are often overlooked by Sabbath fans who celebrate all things Ozzy.

"Tony and I got talking and said, 'What a shame it is that these songs never get to be played anymore," Butler says during a recent phone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

That situation, however, has now changed. Inspired by the music made at these sound checks, the guitarist and bassist decided to reunite the Dio-era Sabbath. The first call, of course, was to Dio, who was up for the reunion. They also brought Vinny Appice, the drummer who set the beat on "Mob Rules" into the fold.

That's the lineup that will headline the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Tuesday, under the moniker of HEAVEN AND HELL. The concert, which also features current metal icons MEGADETH and MACHINE HEAD, should be a regular headbangers' ball for fans of this quartet's work.

"I think this is the best we've ever sounded," Butler says of the current band.

Get a sneak peek by picking up a copy of Rhino Records' recently released Black Sabbath: The Dio Years. The disc features 12 cuts from Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and the 1992 reunion album Dehumanizer, one selection from 1982's concert album Live Evil, and three new tunes recorded by the band in late 2006. (For Sabbath/Dio completists, Rhino will also release the 1981 concert recording Black Sabbath: Live at Hammersmith Odeon next month.)

It's those new tracks - 'The Devil Cried', 'Shadow Of The Wind' and 'Ear In The Wall' - that really have fans excited about the reunion. Far from being throwaway bonus cuts, these tunes sound as if they could have been recorded during the Mob Rules sessions. Even Butler sounds surprised when he talks about how easy it was for this band to find its old footing in the studio.

"It felt like we had just walked away from each other two weeks ago," he says.

Of course, quality doesn't always translate to quantity. The Heaven and Hell tour won't draw the same-size crowds that an Ozzy-fronted Sabbath outing would. That's because, Butler admits, the general public thinks first and foremost of Osbourne when the name Black Sabbath is mentioned.

Yet, the Dio-led Sabbath was an important period for the band. The last few albums with Osbourne - 1976's Technical Ecstasy and 1978's Never Say Die! - were both critical and commercial disappointments. Indeed, before Dio entered the picture, it looked like the band was done.

"The albums toward the end of Sabbath One were forced," Butler says. "It just wasn't working anymore. It was just horrific at the end. Everybody just hated going into the studio."

The group managed to turn things around after Osbourne left to embark on his own highly successful solo career and was replaced by Dio. The singer had previously worked with the rock outfits Elf and Rainbow and he had something the band was looking for.

"We were looking for enthusiasm more than anything else," Butler recalls.

He also had - and has - pipes, the kind that Osbourne couldn't hope to match. With the release of the back-to-back studio classics Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, Dio firmly established himself as one of the finest metal singers of all time. And, Butler is happy to report, the 64-year-old vocalist has lost little over the years.

"He amazes me. His voice is just so strong," Butler says. "There aren't many vocalists his age who can do what he can do."

Dio, as well as Appice, left the band just before the release of Live Evil. Black Sabbath underwent numerous lineup changes over the next 17 years, including the return of the original Mob Rules lineup to record Dehumanizer, but things didn't really take off again until Osbourne reunited the group in 1997. Since then, Ozzy has been the focal point of all Black Sabbath discussions.

But that could change now that Heaven and Hell is back in town. Or it might not. Butler refuses to forecast whether this lineup might produce a full-length album, mount a follow-up tour or, really, give any clue about a possible next step.

"It could be anything," he says. "It could be Tony running for president."