LIVE EVIL

This is the last appearence of Dio on a "Sabbath" album. Two studio ones and this live. Not too much actually. It will lead to a chaotic situation for Iommi, always in search of a stable vocalist whom he won't find very easily (see the later albums with Gillan and Hughes...).

This album equally mixes the "Dio years" and the Ozzy ones : seven songs each (although "Fluff" can not really be considered as a song frankly). Four come from their latest release (it was the promo tour for "Mob rules" and this live album was recorded at different venues in the US) : "E5150", "Voodoo", "The Mob Rules" and "The Sign Of The Southern Cross". Three songs from "Heaven & Hell" of which a very long version of the the title track. This one is not really memorable featuring a long karaokee exercise and a overlong and dull guitar solo), the great "Neon Knights" and "Children Of The Sea".

I guess that fans were expecting how would the oldies (and the crowd's favourites of course) be performed by Dio. Well, my opinion is between average to poor. Even if the "Sabbath" sound is somewhat edulcorated on this live album like in "N.I.B.", the other ones will be rather faithful to the original version. It is of course difficult to listen to these anthems and adapt oneself to this voice change because there were no clones available for Ozzy.

The worse being his intrepretation during "War Pigs". Not convincing at all IMO. Also weak during "Paranoïd".

If ever you would like to get one live album from "Sabbath", the choice is extremely easy. Don't waste your time and money on nothing else than the "Reunion" one. You'll get rid of lots of useless songs and you'll get dear Ozzy back on the vocals (as well as Bill on the drum kit) to be able to feel the true "Sabbath" sound.

Three stars for this one. A good live album, nothing more.