Black Sabbath: Live Evil (1982) – Retro Review

Quite possibly the best metal vocalist of all time, Ronnie James Dio never failed to bring you a perfect show. Although I never was able to see him live, I envy any of you who have. I can certainly pretend, though, can’t I? Now for this review I took the liberty of reviewing the double vinyl version of this concert. For your listening pleasure, we have the digital copy in the player below.

https://youtu.be/8oXwOS8buzg

Now the reasoning for the vinyl version is simple. Anyone that has ever heard a vinyl copy knows that the quality is 100 times better than MP3 or FLAC. There are some specific reasons why vinyl is better, but we’ll keep those ideas for another time.

So listening to the lyrics and the emotion of Dio on this live album is just absolutely amazing. Although Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t a part of Sabbath at the time, Dio certainly didn’t disappoint. From the first minutes to the 123rd minute, it’s die-hard, balls-to-the-wall Sabbath and legendary Dio vocals. The feeling you get from Dio’s lyrics and Iommi’s guitar is just fullfilling.

One of my favorite parts is the “Heaven and Hell” mash-up with the “Sign of the Southern Cross” and “Paranoid.” If you have the vinyl, the unfortunate part is that you have to flip the record to continue. But the fact you have it, out-weighs all of that. Remember, the quality. Anyways, Dio announces “Heaven and Hell” in the concert and even gets the crowd involved in singing the chorus. Of course, Dio sings the first few lines before the beautiful, mellow guitar work of Iommi. The sound of Iommi shredding on his axe for eight minutes is soothing. Eventually he finishes his part and immediately goes into “Sign of the Southern Cross.” The song is only a few minutes until they go right back into the second half of “Heaven and Hell.” Dio and Sabbath finish strongly and then go right into “Paranoid.”

Now, it did feel a little weird at first to hear Dio singing songs written by Ozzy, but who’s to judge? There were a few other Sabbath songs that were a part of the setlist, including: “War Pigs,” “N.I.B.,” “Iron Man,” and “Children of the Grave.” Honestly, I think every one of you need to listen to this album. To me it was Dio at his best. Although Dio never really disappointed anyways. Below I have included the setlist for this album and I hope you all enjoy. Stay metal my friends.

Black Sabbath: Live Evil (1982) Track Listing:

E5150
Neon Knights
N.I.B.
Children of the Sea
Voodoo
Black Sabbath
War Pigs
Iron Man
The Mob Rules
Heaven & Hell
The Sign of the Southern Cross
Heaven & Hell (Continued)
Paranoid
Children of the Grave
Fluff

The Verdict:

With everything said, I'd recommend listening to this live album. If you love Black Sabbath and, of course, Dio, and if you love the deep, dark sound and lyrics, and that deep animalistic bass of Geezer Butler, then I say this is for you.