Artisan News Service has posted a short video interview with legendary heavy metal drummer Vinny Appice (HEAVEN AND HELL, DIO, BLACK SABBATH) in which he confirms that the songwriting sessions for the new album from HEAVEN AND HELL — the band featuring Appice alongside vocalist Ronnie James Dio, bassist Geezer Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi — will begin in April 2008. Watch the footage in three parts at this location.

"We're doing another HEAVEN AND HELL, we're going to do a CD album, so we're going to start writing in April-May and I also have a little thing going on with my original band DERRINGER, the first band I played with in 1976. We're doing a little reunion tour. We got all these great offers and we thought we'd do it. So, it'll be a busy year."

Vinny even went on to say that the initial songwriting with HEAVEN AND HELL is going smooth as well.

"It was cool," he said. "Actually it's been over a year now. I went over there, to England in November and we got together and did three songs and it was great. After like five minutes it was like nothing, we were never apart after that, you know. It just went smooth as silk."

So what's it like playing with the legendary guitarist Tony Iommi on one side and the legendary bassist Geezer Butler on the other side?

"Those guys are, like, I mean it doesn't get much heavier than playing with Tony and Geezer," he said. "Tony on this side and Geezer on this side, it's just a wall of sound. And then you got Dio, who manages to sing over all that, it's just totally incredible. I'm in heaven...and hell."

HEAVEN AND HELL played the final show of its U.S. tour with ALICE COOPER and QUEENSRŸCHE on October 6, 2007 at the Verizon Wireless in Irvine, California. Before the encore, Indie 103.1's Full Metal Jackie presented the band with gold plaques on stage to honor U.S. sales in excess of 25,000 copies of the group's "Live at Radio City Music Hall" DVD. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio thanked the fans for their support, then dedicated the encore song ("Neon Knights") to veteran KNAC DJ Tawn Mastrey, who died in early October of liver failure brought on by hepatitis C.

why aren't they using "Black Sabbath"? I heard $haron has something to do with it, but I don't get that, because even if Ozzy was the leader of the most famous Sabbath incarnation, he left so long ago and they lasted so well without him, it'd be like Peter Criss owining Kiss and a lineup without him would have to be called Lick It Up or Creatures Of The Night.

why aren't they using "Black Sabbath"? I heard $haron has something to do with it, but I don't get that, because even if Ozzy was the leader of the most famous Sabbath incarnation, he left so long ago and they lasted so well without him, it'd be like Peter Criss owining Kiss and a lineup without him would have to be called Lick It Up or Creatures Of The Night.I was wondering about that too, since technically it is Black Sabbath, just with the 1981 lineup for 'Mob Rules', but I guess they just didn't want to confuse listeners with the classic Ozzy lineup and this one. People have this idea that $haron "owns the Black Sabbath name", when in fact Tony Iommi owns it, since he put out all the other albums so long under the name when Ozzy was off on his solo career. Tony Iommi is the leader of Black Sabbath, and though it would be nice if Ozzy could get his act together and record a 40th anniversary album with the rest of the band, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. It would also be great if Bill Ward would be up to it, but because of his health, he passed the drumming duties over to Vinny Appice. I'm looking forward to new material with Heaven And Hell, and hopefully they'll do another tour!

And of course, has anyone heard Ozzy sing these days? He can't sing high notes any more, and his voice is so over-produced, it sounds like he's gargling with pudding! ohno:

Black Sabbath was Ozzy Ozbourne, Tony Iommi, 'Geezer' Butler and Bill Ward, any other incarnation is an also ran, since the albums produced in the 70's, by the original line up, was the legend. I have met Appice and he is agreat drummer, and Dio, is great, in his own right, but, when I saw Dio with Sabbath, during the 'Black and blue' tour during after Ozzy split, it was like the Ronnie james Dio band, not black sabbath. You may be able to replace a drummer in a band, maybe, but, a singer or guitarist is just too defining to change. I kind of respected they didn;t call it Sabbath, cause it isn't, but, this line up is a good band.

Because the original Sabbath lineup still performs occasionally at Ozzfests, Tony and Geezer decided it would be better to differentiate what they're doing with Dio and Appice so that there would be no confusion.

I'm glad H&H is doing an album. In the documentary on the live DVD, Iommi plainly states that they've been playing the Ozzfests for ten years and there's nothing new he can bring to the songs. I think this reunion of the Dio-era Sabs is the most exciting thing to happen in a long time.

A guy at work told me he'd heard "I Don't Wanna Stop" from the new Ozzy album and that it was just utter crap, the worst Ozzy song he'd ever heard. A couple of days later, I heard it on XM and I agreed. Terrible, just terrible. Ozzy's done. He "jumped the shark" with The Osbournes.:crazy:

Because the original Sabbath lineup still performs occasionally at Ozzfests, Tony and Geezer decided it would be better to differentiate what they're doing with Dio and Appice so that there would be no confusion.

I'm glad H&H is doing an album. In the documentary on the live DVD, Iommi plainly states that they've been playing the Ozzfests for ten years and there's nothing new he can bring to the songs. I think this reunion of the Dio-era Sabs is the most exciting thing to happen in a long time.

A guy at work told me he'd heard "I Don't Wanna Stop" from the new Ozzy album and that it was just utter crap, the worst Ozzy song he'd ever heard. A couple of days later, I heard it on XM and I agreed. Terrible, just terrible. Ozzy's done. He "jumped the shark" with The Osbournes.:crazy:Yeccchhh, I can't stand "I Don't Wanna Stop", it's just wayyyyyy too poppy for the Ozzzzzzzzman. puke: You'd think that a guitar guy with such cojones as Zakk Wylde would reconsider putting out such dreck with Ozzy. I like the title track, but at last summer's "Freefe$t", it was unbearable to watch Ozzy sing not one, but THREE ballads!!! Gosh, ever since that debacle at White River Ampitheater over two years ago, where his voice cracked up while singing Black Sabbath's "Dirty Women", he's gone downhill--even when he BEGAN the Ozzfest tours in 2006 and last year here in Auburn, he's been absolutely tame in his performances.

I'm hoping and praying to the metal gods that a Heaven And Hell tour would happen here!! Dio added so much life into the Sabbath lineup, whether they call it Black Sabbath or Heaven And Hell, it would be a refreshing change than Tony Iommi playing "Iron Man" constantly each night like a nostalgia act. At least with Dio, they're doing another part of the Sabbath legacy that hasn't got enough attention in the past several years. Ozzy destroyed the mystique of Sabbath, while Dio restored it.