Review Summary: Altogether, this is a goodish album. Certainly not one Sabbath's best but if you like Black Sabbath LIVE a lot you should get it.
For all of you that dont know Black Sabbath, they are a four-piece line up that are one of innovaters of Heavy Metal. for more click on there >
Black Sabbath
In March 1973 Black Sabbath performed a few shows, two of which were fully recorded and then compiled into 'Live At Last' and released in 1980. So some songs were still production or demos when recorded such as 'Killing Yourself To Live' and the jam medley twenty minute version of 'Wicked World'. The whole live album, last just under an hour at 57:04 minutes.
The Line-Up, of the recording was the original of:
Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals.
Described as the godfather of Metal, [by Dave Willaims from Drowning Pool] Ozzy's vocals are among the greatest rock vocals ever. and a great showman. But his vocals can also let him down.
Tony Iommi - Guitar.
Tony is possibly the greatest Heavy Metal guitarist, as he always expresses his talent in lots of and lots of different ways.
Geezer Butler - Bass.
Bass player who is very versatile.
Bill Ward - Drums.
Drummer who has a lot of skill and plays a mean symbal bash.
However by the time of release in 1980, the line-up had changed, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals. So it is surprising that they accepted the release as you would assume they wouldnt want to be represented by their last vocalist on a new release, instead of their new vocalist.
01 - Tomorrow's Dream [3:04]
The whole album starts with the crowd cheering, then a squark from the guitar. Then the song begins and Ozzy shouts 'Come On!' with much hype and crowd cheering, the song boasts some great musicality, but is let down by some feedback. But a good opener.
3/5.
02 - Sweet Leaf [5:26]
Ozzy introduces the song, he is a little weak on the verse but makes up on the chrous, This track shows off some immence drumming from Bill Ward espicially on the symbols. And mid song shows Tony Iommi's great skill with a guitar with his solo, but is also credit to Bill and Geezer, as they show a great sense of timing in this from Tony's Solo to go back to the rest of the song is pretty sick.
4/5.
03 - Killing Yourself To Live [5:28]
The playing in this track is pretty bog-standard, however shows occasional florishes of greatness, from all the performers. Espicially Tony's Guitar, and Ozzy's Vocals.
3/5.
04 - Curnucopia [3:57]
There is no definate label you can put on this song, the intro is pretty good but then its very good at all with Ozzy's vocals letting it down, but a good performance from the Bass. The next bit is very sluggish until the pace picks up with Tony charging in with his guitar and then Bill comes in with a very good beat then theres and Ozzy sings to it after his vocals it breaks down to just Tony, then Bill comes back in, then it breaks down to the sluggish part. very hard to judge.
3/5.
05 - Snowblind [4:47]
Like Ozzy says this is from the 'Vol.4' album. It starts off in the heavy way but after that the song is some what lighter than the studio recording and seems to be slightly mellow, which puts a different slant on the song, which to be honest doesnt fit in very well.
2/5.
06 - Embryo/Children Of The Grave [4:32]
Even though the song is titled as 'Children Of The Grave' on the CD that Guitar solo at the start is a little guitar-piece that Tony Iommi created himself and named 'Embryo' which people clapped to. The song opens up with its great Drum intro showing that Bill Ward is a great drummer. But thats not all of great performance the Bass, Vocals and Guitar are also on top form.
5/5.
07 - War Pigs [7:38]
The track starts with 'Iommi' playing on his guitar whilst Ozzy speaks the crowd 'If You wanna get up do it, dont just sit there, we're gonna do one from our 'paranoid' album, its called war pigs.' To which the audience cheer loudly and they stamp their feet.
The song has its sixty-second introduction, and then comes the vocals, guitar and bass all together however that part is slightly let down by some unwanted feedback. The next part is fine and sounds damn good with some great drumming. But is let down by some vocals which keep on changing in quality and a few errors with guitaring.
2.5/5.
08 - Wicked World [18:59]
This littly ditty, slips and slides in various different qualities. Medlelying different songs I assume these songs were demos, covers or even unfinished songs all put together to add to their live shows. As it is so different in qualities, I am not going to rate it.
N/A
09 - Paranoid [3:09]
Here we go, the one that made Sabbath what they are today. It is played slightly faster than normal, which actually sounds darn good. Ozzy however lets it down a little as you can tell hes not finishing the lines properly. But still a good performance.
3/5.
