Or, actually BECAUSE DIO is just that much BETTER of a metal vocalist.
But hey, this isn't a music blog ( :) ) so let me move on to the beautiful cover art on the album by world-famous fanstasy artist
GREG HILDEBRANDT (of the famed Hildebrandt Brothers). If you loved fanstasy and sci-fi, and if you read your Tolkien in the 60's or early 70's, and then hung out at any Mall bookstore or counter-culture record store in the mid to latter 70's you saw the HILDEBRANDT wall-calendars everywhere... the art of these guys was ubiquitous.
Frankly, I think their non-Hobbit stuff was better, hence this album jacket!
This was the jacket art for Black Sabbath's 10th studio album released in November 0f 1981. Supposedly in the words "kill Ozzy" are somewhere near the bottom of the picture (urban myth I think).
I like the use of yellow and browns. I like the creatures in the faceless hoods, as they conjure up the mutants in OMEGA MAN as well as the Jawas from STAR WARS. The whole thing has a creepy post-apocalyptic & zombie vibe going, if you ask me.
The piece of stretched fabric (I hope it's fabric) with the blood stains, tauntly strung up in a... I don't know... a door frame... make me think it's probably Lady Cassandra from Doctor Who series one (Eccleston)
