LIVE EVIL

I have always liked his own band Dio and what he did in Rainbow and Elf. I am not so sure about his epitaph as a Black Sabbath vocalist. This live album sums up my doubts in a nice and orderly manner.

Ronnie James Dio is without any doubts one of the best vocalists ever to grace the hard rock and heavy metal scene. In Black Sabbath, he was put in a loose-loose situation. Taking over from Ozzy Osbourne and having to sing his songs is a sure looser. Ozzy's songs are impossible to sing for others than Ozzy himself. Ronnie tries his best...... but does not win me over.

The other problem Ronnie was facing was the change of style from Black Sabbath. Out went the doom. In came the 1980s heavy metal sound. Black Sabbath adopted it and they lost their way, in my view. I am not sure if Ronnie or Tony Iommi can be blamed for this. But hearing Mob Rules on this live album makes me cringe. It is utterly horrible. So this album fails on two accounts: Ronnie's far from good renditions of Ozzy's songs and the horrible cynical 1980s heavy metal sound Black Sabbath adopted.

This album does have it's highlights though. Those are some of the best pieces of heavy metal I have ever heard. This live album really comes to live when Black Sabbath goes back to what they do best: Heavy doom. The first highlight of the album comes with the doomy Children of the Sea. Ronnie really shows us how to sing on that song. The next highlight is the medley Heaven & Hell/The Sign of the Southern Cross/Heaven & Hell medley. Black Sabbath goes epic doom here and pulls off one of the best moments in the history of heavy metal. OK, that's my very subjective view. But I really love that medley because it proves how heavy Black Sabbath was. They should have concentrated more on the heavy, slow stuff instead of the faster stuff where both Ronnie and the band falls flat on their faces. That is the flaw of this live album. A fatal flaw in my view. I can only give this album three stars.

3 stars

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