One thing I’ve been trying to do is avoid buying really expensive music this year. Apparently the estate of Ronnie James Dio does not align with my financial concerns.

Just announced is the box set for Heaven And Hell, the outfit Dio formed with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice in the mid 00’s as a workaround to Sharon Osbourne’s absolute control of the Black Sabbath name. The group gigged on the three Dio-Sabbath records and also released their own original studio effort The Devil You Know. The band offered up two live albums in their time, before Dio succumbed to cancer in 2010.

This box set, entitled Breaking Out Of Heaven, holds reissues of the studio LP and two live albums – Live From Radio City Music Hall and Neon Nights: 30 Years Of Heaven & Hell. This set is 7 LPs and does run for a princely sum of $200. The studio record does also have the three new songs recorded for The Dio Years box set added as bonus tracks. The set is due to release on March 27^th of 2026, just a month-plus down the road.

While this isn’t cheap, all a person has to do is have a gander at current Discogs prices for the original versions of these albums to see what a steal this actually is. It is a sorely needed reissue – my quick search through everything indicated I’d have to spend at least $500 to get the original records, so $200 is just fine with me.

So yes I am going to splurge yet again for another Dio piece for my collection, I’m also awaiting the Rainbow CD box I outlined awhile back that is now also due for release on the same day as this. In terms of Black Sabbath and related stuff this actually very nearly completes my collection. I only need two studio Sabbath albums and some live stuff to finish that off. While this isn’t actually Black Sabbath in name, it might as well be Sabbath. Given that key people are now dead and gone I don’t really want to hand wring too much over the arguments involved, but for my personal collection this will file right in with the other Sabbath releases.

So all there is left to do is wait until March 27, around then is when both this and the Rainbow box are supposed to hit. I hope my neighbors like Dio because they are going to hear plenty of him once these boxes hit my mailbox.