Do the Demon Dance (Live Evil - Black Sabbath)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Live Evil - Black Sabbath
Date:	20/02/08 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent final record of the Dio years, with the best songs from that period and some old classics.

Disadvantages: Curious blind spot over the great works from 1971 to 1974.

In 1982, Black Sabbath finally released their first official live album, spurred on by the popularity of the unofficial 'Live At Last' that they weren't making any money from, and rather than being just one of many, it serves as a perfect epilogue to the years with singer Ronnie James Dio, whose two albums with the band ('Heaven and Hell' and 'Mob Rules') are well represented alongside older material from the Ozzy Osbourne years that Dio has a good crack at without trying to emulate Ozzy's distinctive style. With twelve substantial songs (the first and last are brief instrumentals), there's only a slight degree of overlap for those who had previously purchased 'Live At Last' in the form of 'War Pigs,' 'Paranoid' and 'Children of the Grave,' essentials of any Sabbath setlist, and the equally classic oldies 'NIB,' 'Iron Man' and 'Black Sabbath' are finally given a live makeover, albeit with Dio rather than Ozzy.

There are many who prefer Dio's bold, operatic singing style to Ozzy's nasal whine, but I've never been one of them, and I find his monotonous voice starts to grate when listening for an entire album (especially one that's almost eighty minutes long, such as this). While Ozzy was admittedly a bit rubbish as a singer, his odd style was perfectly suited to the terror of 'Black Sabbath' and the singers I've heard attempting to emulate this style have all failed miserably (especially Matt Barlowe when Iced Earth had a crack at it). Dio saves us the embarrassment by following his usual style and it works quite well in most of the old songs, though he does frustratingly milk the end of 'Voodoo' and doesn't seem to be able to keep his mouth shut in 'Black Sabbath,' scatting along to the instrumental sections. On the other hand, he does add a pleasant vocal melody over the melodic guitar solo to 'War Pigs' that seemed to take off with fans hereafter. He also deserves some credit for attempting to mimic the distorted robot voice at the beginning of 'Iron Man,' which sounds funny.

The performance from the rest of the band is as tight as ever, and whether as a result of editing or simply enhanced taste, there's less messing around than was present on the last live album, recorded a number of years earlier; Iommi only has one indulgent guitar solo in the final minutes of track ten, and Vinny Appice gets a (ungh) drum solo at the close of 'War Pigs.' The sound quality is very clear, perhaps lacking some of the heaviness and dinginess I associate with Sabbath but perfectly suited to the more polished material of the Dio years, and as a showcase of the band's finest material up that point (oh yeah, because they produced so many classics after 1982) it's a strong set-list, though I would have preferred if some songs from the fourth and fifth albums had been included, which is the main reason I'm rating this down slightly, as well as Dio's incessant voice.

The structure of this album is a little odd, but holds some nice surprises, which is always a good thing for live albums. 'Black Sabbath' is disguised initially by a jangly intro from Iommi, unfortunately serving to steal the thunder from the eventual opening, and while it doesn't seem like the best idea to place this long, slow and brooding song next to the equally long, slow and brooding 'War Pigs,' they're followed up by some fun, fast pieces to keep up the energy. Most memorable of all is the screwing around applied to the greatest success of the Dio years, 'Heaven and Hell'; the track itself is extended to twelve minutes here thanks to Iommi's soloing, and it then leads straight into 'The Sign of the Southern Cross,' a song that's more or less exactly the same with different words and thus segues nicely back into the previous song at the end to deliver its upbeat finale. This is all well and good, but then the band really push their luck by forming the final note of 'Paranoid' into the first of the 'Heaven and Hell' riff and going at it one more time - oh well, it was Dio's swan song, let the baby have his bottle.

1. E5150
2. Neon Knights
3. NIB
4. Children of the Sea
5. Voodoo
6. Black Sabbath
7. War Pigs
8. Iron Man
9. The Mob Rules
10. Heaven and Hell
11. The Sign of the Southern Cross / Heaven and Hell (cont.)
12. Paranoid
13. Children of the Grave
14. Fluff

Summary: Oh I get it, that's "live" backwards (1982).