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Black Sabbath - Live Evil CD (album) cover

LIVE EVIL

Black Sabbath

 

Prog Related

3.47 | 161 ratings

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Guillermo
Prog Reviewer
3 stars I listened to this album for the first time in late 1983. In fact, it doesn`t bring me good memories because I was having hard times as a teenager then. Fortunately and obviously that "hard and dark period of adolescence" passed. But I still remember that this is a very good album from this band, recorded during their 1982 tour with Ronnie Dio (as he is listed in the cover) as lead singer, Vinnie Appice as "guest drummer" and Geoff Nichols on keyboards (also lsited as an additional musician).

I think that Ronnie James Dio did a very good job with this band. Some of the songs in this album which appear on the studio albums recorded with him on vocals are very good, particularly "Children of the Sea", a song which I also played with a covers band then. "Neon Nights", "Heaven and Hell " and "Mob Rules" are also very good. Vinnie Appice is also a very good drummer, and I like his drums solo at the end of "War Pigs". This line-up of the band also played very well the songs originally recorded with Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward, particularly "Black Sabbath", "N.I.B." and "Iron Man". "Iron Man" is a great song, in my opinion.

About the mixing of this album: the audience sounds very distant. The guitar and the bass are at the front of the mixing, above the sound levels of the vocals, the drums and the keyboards. Maybe this is one of the things which I don`t like very much from this album. But it has been said that it was mixed during the split of the band, with Dio and Appice leaving the band. Anyway, the guitar and the bass sound great most of the time, very heavy and distorted, adding more "darkness" to the sound of the band. Dio`s vocals sound like he was being overpowered by the guitar and bass (but I don`t think that it really happened in their concerts, being Dio a very good singer). The same happens with the drums, and the occasional keyboards sound very distant. Maybe a new mixing could improve the sound of this album.

The cover design obviously also adds "darkness" to the image of this album. It was the desired effect, of course.

Three and a half stars rating.

Despite the problems this line-up had then, they reunited in 1992 for another album and tour, and then again another split happened. Now, this year, this line-up is playing under the name "Heaven and Hell", and they recently released a live album and also a DVD from their tour. Maybe Iommi and Butler are wating for Osbourne and Ward for a new album and tour as Black Sabbath. Their label also recently released a compilation album called "The Dio Years".

Guillermo | 3/5 |

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