Track Listing

1. E5150
2. Neon Knights
3. NIB
4. Children Of The Sea
5. Voodoo
6. Black Sabbath
7. War Pigs
8. Iron Man
9. Mob Rules
10. Heaven And Hell
11. Sign Of The Southern Cross
12. Heaven And Hell
13. Paranoid
14. Children Of The Grave
15. Fluff

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57793 in Music
• Released on: 2009-03-30
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Live, Original recording remastered

CD Description
Released in January 1983, LIVE EVIL was competing against Ozzy Osbourne's live SPEAK OF THE DEVIL for the dominant share of Black Sabbath fans' favor. Both albums did fairly well,and EVIL features Ozzy's successor Ronnie James Dio on vocals. Recorded in Seattle, San Antonio, and Dallas on the Mob Rules tour, excellent production only enhances these powerful live performances.
With two Dio-era albums under their belt, Sabbath opens with "E5150" and "Neon Knights" for a rousing start. Then Dio tackles "N.I.B"., the first of many Ozzy classics. Longtime Sabbath fans were curious as to how the former Rainbow belter would handle "Black Sabbath", "War Pigs" and "Iron Man". Quite well, as it turns out. Dio's vocal style is drastically different from Ozzy's, but his range and power sustain the songs formidably. While "Heaven And Hell" and "Children of the Sea" are two of the finer Dio-era Sabbath songs, "Paranoid" and "Children Of The Grave" drive the point home. Although Black Sabbath mark II did not last long, Dio did return to front the band 10 years later. LIVE EVIL is an excellent recording from a classic lineup.

Customer Reviews

Guess what... there was life after Ozzy!
It's a shame that now Sabbath (and Ozzy in particular) have become household names again with the advent of the reunion of the classic lineup, Ozzfest and "The Osbournes" (d'oh!) that Messrs Iommi and Butler have decided to disown any other incarnations of Sabbath and remark that for them the original lineup was the only one that could "cut it". Sure there have been some pretty bad ones (Glenn Hughes and Ian Gillan to name two rather baffling choices as front men) but I would argue that drafting Dio and Appice into the band perhaps enhanced the musical ability of the group. Maybe the band should have formed under a diferent name but it's fair to say that this live offering is a tremendous chronicle of this group's first outing (they reformed in 1992 with the "Dehumaniser" album). The best cuts on this album for me are "Children Of The Sea", "Heaven And Hell" (complete with elongated and brinking on pretentious solos by Iommi) and, my personal favourite from this reincarnation, the ultra heavy "Sign Of The Southern Cross". So why not a five star album. Well "Paranoid" and "War Pigs " just sound wrong with Dio singing and the liner notes look suspiciously similar to those of "The Mob Rules". However for all those anti-Dio Sabbathites, maybe it's a chance to be a little more open-minded and appreciate just how good this incarnation was

4.5 stars if you get the 2CD US version
Myself, I think the mix is fine as far as the band goes but a crowd would have been nice! For this, I dock a star. Trackwise, it is a faithful representation of the set on the US-leg of the 'Mob Rules' tour.

First time this was released in the UK on CD they dropped 'War Pigs' (or 'Warpigs', as they had it) so as to fit onto a single CD at a price we fans could afford. Eeh, thanks, mister!

The remaster was in an era of longer CD running times, so 'War Pigs' returned. However, this was at the expense of most, if not all, of RJD's chat. To hear this album as originally released on vinyl, get the 2CD US Warner Bros version. (For info, even the original cassette release swopped sides 2 & 3 of the vinyl so as to give equal running-times, rather than Vertigo having to pay for a more expensive tape!)

Dio's great... but where's the crowd?
This was Black Sabbath's first official live album, recorded while touring in support the band's second album with Ronnie James Dio, "Mob Rules". The track-list is good, although it ommits several classics like "Snowblind", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "Turn up the Night". "Live Evil" contains a great selection nonetheless, and Dio puts a new perspective on Ozzy-era songs like "War Pigs", "Black Sabbath" and "NIB". The rest of the band are also on top form, with a drum solo by Vinnie Appice, and a long guitar solo during "Heaven and Hell" by Tony Iommi. The aforementioned track is the centrepiece of the setlist, to which Sabbath return to at the end of "The Sign of the Southern Cross" and "Paranoid".
However, a few complaints about this album must be said. While the band themselves have been captured in full flight, the crowd is barely audible. This is evidenced especially during "Heaven and Hell", when Dio lets the crowd participate. This is a great idea, but they can't be heard! For this reason, it doesn't have a good live feel to it; you can't picture yourself being at this gig like you can on Iron Maiden's "Rock in Rio", for example.
The other complaint is: where are song introductions? Dio barely talks to the crowd on this one. This can be answered by the fact that when remastering the album and putting it all onto one CD (the original was split onto two CDs), all in-between song talking had to be cut out, and "Fluff" reduced to a mere nine seconds of audible sound. I'd have been willing to pay an extra few quid for a full concert! My advice would be if you can get hold of the 2-CD version, then do, it must be better than this.
If you want a decent live album, then look elsewhere. But if you're interested in hearing Mr Dio singing Ozzy-era Sabbath, then this album delivers in loads aplenty.