10. Dehumanizer (1992)

Whenever Black Sabbath needed to work some magic when the chips were down their mantra seemed to be: rehire Dio. It worked when Ozzy was fired for the first time, it worked in the early 90s and it worked in the aughts when they reunited with Dio as Heaven And Hell. Sabbath’s third pairing with Dio and their second with drummer Vinny Appice showed how effective the Dio-Iommi partnership could be under the right circumstances. Sabbath also proved that they could be eerily prescient: one of the best songs on the album is “Computer God.” It’s hard to see how threatening a bunch of glorified word processors with no Internet access could be in the early 90s but roughly two decades later technology has become divinity for many. Dehumanizer includes several songs that were resurrected and given their proper due during the Heaven and Hell tour, including “After All (The Dead).” This lineup would go one more round with the excellent The Devil You Know album prompted by those wildly successful tours. It’s not included because it’s not called Black Sabbath, but in every other regard it’s the fourth Dio/Sabbath album and an excellent addition to any Sabbath collection. Dehumanizer remains a riveting listen and a vital piece of the Sabbath discography.