A Heaven And Hell Kind Of Summer

Heaven And Hell, the heavy metal quartet that harkens back to the days when Ronnie James Dio fronted Black Sabbath returns for its third summer tour starting Aug. 7 in Vancouver, BC.

Coheed And Cambria support on all dates except for the Seattle show on Aug. 8 when Neurosis warms up the audience.

Photo: Owen Sweeney III / Baltimoremusic.org
Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Md.

After the Vancouver show at Thunderbird Arena, the rest of the schedule shows the band featuring Dio along with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice mostly playing amphitheatres with a few indoor venues thrown in the mix.

Like Aug. 8 when the band cranks up the volume at Seattle’s WaMu Theater. Two nights later the city is San Jose and the venue is the Event Center Arena at San Jose State. Aug. 11 is Los Angeles at the Greek Theatre and Aug. 12 is Phoenix at the Dodge Theatre.

Other dates include Albuquerque at Journal Pavilion (Aug. 14); Denver at Red Rocks (Aug. 15); Cincinnati at PNC (Aug. 18); Chicago at Charter One (Aug. 19); Rochester, Mich., at Meadow Brook (Aug. 21); Cleveland at Nautica (Aug. 22); Columbia, Md., at Merriweather Post (Aug. 23); NYC at WaMu @MSG (Aug. 25); Wallingford, Conn., at Chevrolet Theatre (Aug. 27) and Boston at Bank of America Pavilion (Aug. 28).

This summer will mark the third Heaven and Hell tour of North America, but the first time the group is supporting a new album. Released in April, The Devil You Know consists of original material the band started writing last year, first at Iommi’s home studio in England and then at Dio’s Los Angeles studio.

“The band had gotten too good to just walk away,” Dio said. “We wanted to show people that we were still capable of giving them new music that measured up to what we’ve done in the past.”

Dio isn’t the only one excited about the tour. Not only are the members of Coheed and Cambria jazzed about opening for Heaven And Hell, but it turns out the Dio-era Black Sabbath was the favorite band of C&C’s Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever when they were growing up. What’s more, Sabbath’s 1992 appearance at New York City’s Beacon Theater was Sanchez’s first ever concert experience.

“The night would prove to be one of the most influential of my life,” Sanchez said. “I got the overwhelming feeling that the whole stage was alive – the lights seemed to be as controlled by the sounds as everyone there, and I would exit the venue that night with a fire lit under me.”

Okay, time to get down to what matters – tickets. Seattle, Cincinnati, Rochester, New York and Boston go on sale May 8 while Vancouver, Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Wallingford go on sale May 9. Columbia goes on sale June 5.

For more information, please click here for the Heaven And Hell Web site.