BLACK SABBATH — Live Evil (review)

BLACK SABBATH — Live Evil album cover Live album · 1982 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Live Evil" is a live album release by UK heavy metal/doom metal act Black Sabbath. The album was released through Vertigo/Warner Brothers in December 1982. The 14 tracks on the album were recorded at two concerts in Seattle in April 1982, one concert in Dallas in May 1982 and at one concert in San Antonio in May 1982. The touring band featured the same lineup that recorded "Mob Rules (1981)".

The setlist naturally focuses on tracks from the Dio-led Black Sabbath albums, "Heaven and Hell (1980)" and "Mob Rules (1981)", which were at the time the most recent releases by the band. However about half the setlist are tracks from the first two albums by the band, which includes tracks like "Iron Man", "War Pigs", "Black Sabbath" and "Paranoid". "Children of the Grave" is the only other track on "Live Evil" from any of the other Ozzy Osbourne-led Black Sabbath albums.

The musicianship is impeccable as expected. Dio was such a powerful vocalist and those heavy riffs and determined playing style of Tony Iommi and the powerful heavy rhythm section of drummer Vinnie Appice and bassist Geezer Butler interact like a great organic machine. Unfortunately the sound quality doesn´t follow suit, and much of my listening experience is drowned in the muddy sound. The band´s comments in the booklet to how the mixing process had run, probably explains a lot though. Already on the tour the band were more or less broken up. Dio and Vinnie Appice were driving in one car between shows and Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were driving in another car. Little things that had not been adressed properly had build up and there was animosity between the two groups. During the mixing process the band couldn´t share the studio, which meant that Iommi and Butler would work on the mix at day and Dio would work on the same mix at night and then Iommi and Butler would enter the studio the next morning only to find that their mix had been altered. This led to the mixing process taking a very long time. Paired with what Iommi himself mentions "an Odd drug problem" he had at the time as an issue, so things just didn´t go as the band had planned.

What should have been a triumphant celebration of the live version of the Dio-led Black Sabbath period, ended up an obituary instead. Black Sabbath weren´t satisfied when the lo-fi sounding "Live at Last (1980)" was released as the first official Black Sabbath, but personally I don´t think "Live Evil" is a much better live album. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
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