Black Sabbath "The End" (DVD+CD) 2017💀💀💀💀

Oh no! It's Halloween, and I don't have a relative album to post! And, to make matters worse, I've missed too many Friday the 13th's too. So I decided to cheat and repost an older review. You may think I've run out of "horror rock" albums to present, but that is absolutely not the case! I just don't want to do any of the obvious ones - not yet! I still have a few centuries for that - and I will need centuries to finish presenting my record collection at this pace. All I need is a vampire to come and bite me, and then I've got it made: listen to my records and CD's all day long (no wasting daytime sleeping in coffins for me, thank you), write in my blog, and roam the streets of Delft at night hunting juicy TU students for their blood. Next morning there'll be another bloodless body floating in the canal - call Van Helsing to the rescue! I'm not kidding, professor Van Helsing lives right down the street and teaches at TU Delft! And if you think Delft is no place for vampires, you obviously haven't watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. Most of the town scenes were filmed here - boy do I know some crazy stories about the filming of that movie, that guy Herzog was a first-class loon, just like his protagonist Klaus Kinski. But I'm not going into them today - no, I want to write instead about the DVD playing on my home cinema right now.
It's called Black Sabbath The End, and it documents the last concert of the last tour ever by that happy-go-lucky boy band, Black Sabbath. The boys have been through a lot these past years: when I last saw them in concert almost a decade ago, guitarist Tony Iommi was battling cancer but he looked healthier than Ozzy who looked and sounded like one of the zombies from Walking Dead. In this DVD, though, he just sounds like an older version of himself, and seems in good shape: a bit like an artificially re-animated corpse who has recently been taken care of by a master undertaker. Iommi and Geezer Butler ooze class, and drummer Bill Ward looks thirty years younger - scratch that, he has been replaced by Tommy Clufetos. Maybe Ward had an embalming fluid accident, it wouldn't be the first time a musician's reanimation goes bad - if you've seen the cult movie Dracula Of Exarchia you know what I mean. Adam Wakeman (son of Rick, who also played with Sabbath in the 70's) has the unenviable task of playing keyboards at a Sabbath show. Of course pitted against the heaviest guitar in the universe he stands as much chance as Tiny Tim in a boxing match against Mike Tyson. The concert in this DVD took place on February 4th, 2017 at the band's home town of Birmingham. It is augmented by "The Angelic Sessions" a few tracks recorded live-in-studio a few days later. I thought I was getting both the concert and bonus tracks on CD plus the DVD but no - you can get either the audio CD or the DVD plus a CD with The Angelic Sessions. If you want everything, you'll have to spend a small fortune for the super deluxe edition.

If you have to choose, go for the DVD. It's well-filmed, and the 5.1. surround sound is fantastic. The editing gives the movie a fast pace, many different angles are used, and the picture is given an atmospheric tint. Every instrument sounds crisp and clear, allowing you to admire the mastery of the musicians, especially Butler whose bass was previously all-too-often buried in the mix. Iommi is, of course, the riffmaster but he lays down a few nimble solos too. Clufetos also takes the spotlight for a long and powerful solo, and Ozzy sounds pretty good. Except when he talks, I can hardly make out anything he says. How the hell did he end up with his own TV show? What do they do - dub him or use subtitles? The concert starts with the perfect Halloween tune: the eponymous song "Black Sabbath", slow and heavy with menacing lyrics like "What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me...Satan's sitting there, he's smiling/ Watches those flames get higher and higher". Well, what did you expect from a band named after a horror movie with Boris Karloff? Lucifer appears frequently in the lyrics, together with a homicidal Iron Man, bloodthirsty generals, fairies with boots who dance with dwarves, Death as the Grim Reaper, paranoid men, dirty women and the children of the grave. References to marijuana and cocaine also abound. The songlist relies heavily on the first four albums, while the Angelic Sessions CD finds some room for 5 classics left out of the concert: On "The Wizard" we get a rare chance to hear Ozzy blow some blues harp, "Wicked World" sports some pretty wicked guitar, and "Sweet Leaf" is a solid run through an old favourite. I found the performance on "Tomorrow's Dream" a bit sloppy, but the emotive piano and vocals on the closing ballad "Changes" made for a fittingly emotional coda to the career of this iconic band.

DVD (*** to ****) Black Sabbath, Fairies Wear Boots, Under The Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes, After Forever, Into The Void, Snowblind, War Pigs, Behind The Wall Of Sleep, Bassically/ N.I.B., Hand Of Doom, Medley:Supernaut/Sabbath Bloody Sabbath/Megalomania, Rat Salad/Drum Solo, Iron Man, Dirty Women, Children Of The Grave, Paranoid
CD **** for The Wizard, Changes *** for Wicked World, Sweet Leaf ** for Tomorrow's Dream

Dio "Holy Diver" 1983 (Deluxe ed. 2012)*****

I can totally dig Jack Black's adulation of Ronnie James Dio, as showcased in his albums with Tenacious D and the "Pick Of Destiny" movie. Before him, RJD had always been a bit of a guilty pleasure. OK, heavy metal in general is a guilty pleasure if you're over 18, but the likes of Metallica invite less ridicule than Dio and his sword-and-sorcery imagery. His grandstanding on stage also made for a comical contrast to his dwarf-like stature and age - 40 when this, his solo debut, was released. I know technically Dio were a band and not a solo act but they've always been Ronnie and whoever. This album features the best Dio line-up ever: RJD's former colleagues Jimmy Bain (from his Rainbow days) on bass and Vinnie Appice (Black Sabbath) on drums plus the young and talented Vivian Campbell on guitar. Few people knew then that Dio existed before Metal - he actually cut his first record in 1958, just three years after Elvis. His Italian-American family were opera fans and, unlike other kids, Ronnie (real name:Padavona) did not abandon his early influences for rock'n'roll. He instead remained an opera fan, something that shows in his singing. Although he wasn't -as is often wrongly mentioned- classically trained, the power and range of his voice are unmatched in rock and metal music. His singing style and lyrical preoccupations were evident in previous work with Rainbow and Black Sabbath, but this time the voice takes center stage. No more lengthy Blackmore guitar solos and heavy Iommi riffs to steal the show; instead of the doom laden Sabbath music, Dio's is uplifting and anthemic, setting the blueprint for power metal. Opener "Stand Up And Shout" is a perfect power metal anthem, drums setting a breakneck pace, Campbell delivering his solos with supersonic speed and RJD screaming his rebellious empowerment message to young metal fans. "Holy Diver"'s iconic riff reminds me of Dio's work with Sabbath. "Gypsy" and "Invisible" are mid-tempo tracks closer to Deep Purple, while "Caught In The Middle" has a commercial AOR feel. "Don't Talk To Strangers" may be Dio's best vocal performance ever, starting off as a fragile ballad and abruptly turning into an epic metal piece with incredibly powerful, even menacing, vocals. A trick he had previously employed on Black Sabbath's Sign of the Southern Cross. "Straight Through The Heart" could have come straight from the seminal Rainbow Rising album. "Rainbow In The Dark" introduces itself with a cheesy keyboard part (played by Ronnie himself), but Dio's fantasy lyrics and epic vocal leave no doubt: this is still heavy metal. Thanks to the radio-friendly keyboard part and catchy chorus it was Dio's biggest crossover hit. Ironically, they kept their most cheerful melody for the most pessimistic lyrics: "There's no sign of the morning coming/ You've been left on your own/ Like a rainbow in the dark...". The album closer "Shame On The Night" is a typically theatrical metal number, introduced with the sound of a howling wolf and fading out with a satanic laughter. Today "Holy Diver" stands not only as Dio's finest achievement but as one of Heavy Metal's most emblematic records, both for its powerful music and its lyrical context. The album cover was almost as iconic as the music. It seemed to picture a demon (actually Dio's mascot, nicknamed Murray) whipping a drowning priest with an iron chain. RJD denied this explanation but that didn't do much to deter the ensuing moral outrage and accusations of satanism.
My copy of the album is the 2012 Deluxe edition containing a second CD with B-sides and Live tracks. This opens with "Evil Eyes", a driving song too good for a B-side, which is why the band re-recorded it for their next album "The Last in Line". It's followed by two rough and ready live versions of "Stand Up And Shout" and "Straight Through The Heart" originally released as B-sides to "Rainbow In The Dark". The rest of the bonus tracks come from a contemporary live performance professionally recorded for radio's "King Biscuit Flower Hour". The band is in smokin' form playing their own songs ("Stand Up And Shout", "Shame On The Night", "Holy Diver" and "Rainbow In The Dark") as well as some from RJD's previous bands. Their live attempts on Sabbath's "Children Of The Sea" and Rainbow's "Man On The Silver Mountain/Lady Starstruck" are interesting and nice to have, but let's face it: comparisons to Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore aren't about to be favourable for any guitarist, let alone a 20-year old kid from Belfast in his first big tour. Which is not to undermine his considerable ability: even at that age he was among the best heavy metal guitarists. He left Dio in '86 and has since played in some of the genre's top groups, including Whitesnake and Def Leppard. Bain and Appice also came and went, as the band never had a stable line-up: 17 musicians have at various times been members. A large number, sure, but still far behind The Fall's 66 (at last count!)

***** for Stand Up And Shout, Holy Diver, Don't Talk To Strangers, Rainbow In The Dark 

**** for Gypsy, Straight Through The Heart, Evil Eyes, Stand Up And Shout (Live), Holy Diver (Live), Rainbow In The Dark (Live)

*** for Caught In The Middle, Invisible, Shame On The Night, Stand Up And Shout (Live B-Side), Straight Through The Heart (Live), Shame On The Night (Live), Children Of The Sea (Live), Man On The Silver Mountain (Live, incorporating "Lady Starstruck")

Black Sabbath "Master Of Reality" 1971(Original) 2009(Deluxe Edition) *****

This is the 3d album of the heavy metal pioneers, who were at the time faced with the impossible task of following "Paranoid" with something as good. Well, maybe it's not as good (how could it be?) but a pretty fine album it is. Lyrically it's lighter than its predecessor and touches on a variety of subjects, embracing youth rebellion in "Children Of The Grave", marijuana in "Sweet Leaf" and tackling pollution in the dystopian sci-fi "Into The Void". "After Forever" gets criticism for its infamous line "Would you like to see the pope at the end of the rope?" Very visual and shocking, but it's actually sung from the point of view of a reborn Christian denouncing atheism. Sabbath could be that way, playing the satanist card for shock value but never actually following it through. Ozzy usually assumes a persona, so he can sing as a Christian the one moment and as Satan himself the next (e.g. "N.I.B." or this album's "Lord Of This World"). Two short acoustic instrumental interludes ("Embryo" and "Orchid") provide some respite from Iommi's riff assault, together with the delicate flute-adorned ballad "Solitude". Compared to the two unparalleled albums that preceded it, "MoR" may have slightly weaker songs (although "Leaf" and "Children" are rightly considered classics), but it sports a momentously heavy groove thanks to its revolutionary low tunings. Together their with next record Vol.4, it has proved hugely influential and served as a template for countless doom/stoner bands. The Deluxe Edition adds instrumental and alternative versions plus an unreleased song from the sessions, "Weevil Woman '71", which would actually not be out of place in any of the classic Sabbath albums. It's that good. The instrumental versions will allow you to appreciate Iommi's riffs without distractions, while also of interest are the different lyrics on Sweet Leaf (which seems to have started as a love song) and Children Of The Grave. The latter has Ozzy making up some nonsensical lyrics which were later rewritten by the group's better lyricist, bassist Geezer Butler. It's impressive how songs like this or "War Pigs" connect with the concerns of the flower power generation (this was still the aftermath of Woodstock) while they're esthetically their polar opposite. The alternate "Lord Of This World" comes with extra production flourishes (piano, slide guitar, double tracked vocals). Intriguing, but I can understand why they decided to dispense with them at the end - with Sabbath, it's all about the riff. IMO, the Deluxe Edition is of interest only for serious fans. If you're a fan and overtly familiar with this classic album, you'll be more than glad with the alternative versions and newly remastered sound. Most Classic Rock/ Metal fans would be well served by the regular remastered edition, while the simply curious need only a good compilation and probably "Paranoid" or the debut "Black Sabbath".

***** for After Forever, Children Of The Grave, Sweet Leaf
**** for Orchid, Lord Of This World, Solitude, Into The Void
*** for Embryo, Weevil Woman '71, Children of the Grave (alt.version), Sweet Leaf (alt.version), Lord Of This World (alt.version)
** for After Forever (instr.), Children of the Grave (instr.), Orchid (alt.version), Solitude (alt.version), Spanish Sid (early version of Into The Void) 

Black Sabbath "13" 2013***

Hearing about Iommi's cancer diagnosis in 2012 sounded to me like the announcement of the end of an era. Sure, Black Sabbath wasn't going to last forever. But it seemed wrong for them to stop just as the original band was getting together and giving new generations of fans the chance to witness the first and foremost Heavy Metal band of all time. I was personally very much looking forward to their canceled Rotterdam concert, originally announced for June '12. Iommi thankfully pulled through and I finally got to see Sabbath one year later, in November 2013. By that time, they had a new album out, the first in 35 years featuring both Ozzy and bassist/lyricist Geezer Butler. The only one of the original line-up missing was drummer Bill Ward. He was replaced by Brad Wilk (former Rage Against the Machine). Brad is a different type of drummer, less bluesy and heavy but very powerful and energetic. For the tour he was in turn replaced by Tommy Clufetos, whose drum solo during the show was an impressive display of skill and energy. Iommi was majestic, looking really cool while dispensing his famous riffs. Ozzy, on the other hand, looked and sounded like something that crawled out of the Walking Dead series: Damn right scary. Still, voice or no voice, Ozzy is the classic Sabbath vocalist and still the definitive performer of the early stuff. On the album he sounds fine, so maybe by the time the tour reached Amsterdam, his larynx was just in bad need of rest. The CD (named "13" despite being the band's 19th) was produced by Rick Rubin with a back-to-basics approach. No keyboards, no fancy production tricks, just "the riff, the whole riff and nothing but the riff". As has been universally pointed out, his approach worked well and this raw blooze metal really sounds like the album that could -and should- have followed "Sabotage". As if to stress the new (or is it the last?) phase in the band's evolution, the album starts off with the line "Is this the end of the beginning/Or the beginning of the end?". The slow, sludgy riff is vintage Sabbath, leaving the listener with the impression of being transported 40 years in the past. "God Is Dead?" is another monster track and rightfully "13"s lead single. It echoes German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously wrote "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him". Ozzy really wanted to sing that line, but the band found that a bit too controversial and changed Nietzsche's categorical statement into a question. "Loner" and "Zeitgeist" hark back to Sabbath's glorious past, recalling "N.I.B." and "Planet Caravan", respectively. "Age of Reason" starts off with some heavy (and hazy) riffs and wanders aimlessly mid-song until Iommi brings it back home with a long solo. "Damaged Soul" is a bluesy number (even includes harmonica) that takes us back to Sabbath's debut, "Live Forever" contains another great guitar solo and "Dear Father" is an attack on the Catholic Church, in light of the recent pedophilia scandals. It's classic Metal, replete with effects like rain, thunder, tolling bells etc. The Deluxe Edition of the album adds 3 bonus tracks that are every bit the equals to the ones included in the album proper: "Methademic", "Peace of Mind" and "Pariah". If Sabbath go out with this album, they will have gone out gracefully. But I personally think there's no way they'll stop after recapturing their mojo on "13". Provided, of course, Iommi's health permits it...

Black Sabbath at The Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam 28/11/13

**** for End of the Beginning, God Is Dead?, Loner

*** for Zeitgeist, Age of Reason, Live Forever, Damaged Soul, Dear Father

Black Sabbath "Seventh Star" 1986(orig) 2010(deluxe edition) ***

Black Sabbath's "Seventh Star" was never one of my top choices but I just had to get the Deluxe Edition, since it's a bit of a curiosity, sporting the two vocalists with the shortest career in Sabbath: Glenn Hughes and Ray Gillen (And don't remind me of the Ian Gillan period: I have that monstrosity, too). To be fair, neither "Seventh Star" nor "Born Again" are quite as bad as they're supposed to be. They're rejected by Sabbath fans because they simply aren't what Sabbath's supposed to sound like. Seen as standalone heavy metal CD's they have their (limited) merits. "Seventh Star" was actually never supposed to be released under the "Black Sabbath" moniker. It was supposed to be Tony Iommi's solo debut. The "Born Again" tour fiasco had left everybody with a bitter taste in their mouth. Ian Gillan left to join the reformed Deep Purple and Sabbath cornerstone and main lyricist Geezer Butler also quit the sinking ship. Iommi had some tunes ready that he thought didn't fit Sabbath and set about recording them for a solo album. He recruited old associate Geoff Nichols and a couple of Lita Ford's band members and started seeking an appropriate singer. The initial idea of using several different guest singers fell through but he hit it off very well with former Purple Glenn Hughes. Hughes was at the time a cocaine addict and had just been sacked from the Gary Moore Band for that reason. Iommi decided to give him a second chance and Glenn sang his heart out on this album, committing one great performance after another. Iommi is, of course, a legendary guitarist and his riffing and soloing in this album is beyond reproach. Unfortunately the material isn't first class. Not bad either, but mostly run-of-the-mill 80's Heavy Metal. The record company refused to release it as a solo album and it eventually circulated as "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi" and a photo of the mustachio'd guitarist on the cover. It starts off well with "In For The Kill", a hard rocking number with fast metallic riffs where Hughes proves his vocal ability beyond doubt. Ballad "No Stranger To Love" is a curious choice for a single since it's as un-Sabbath-etic as possible. It actually sounds like a Whitesnake ballad and features a soulful performance by Hughes (Remember how he and Coverdale were Deep Purple's vocal Dynamic Duo?). "Turn To Stone" is another good metal number, ditto with "Danger Zone". "Sphinx" is just the introduction to the "Seventh Star", an epic song that cries "Ronnie James Dio". Glenn does his best but he's out of character. The bluesey "Heart Like A Wheel" and "In Memory" suit him much better. "Angry Heart" is another hard rocker but to tell you the truth, like other songs in this album, it reminds me more of late period Rainbow than Black Sabbath. The Deluxe Edition adds the single mix of "No Stranger To Love" and a whole live performance from 1986. Meanwhile Hughes had managed to waste a second chance to be in one of the world's top rock bands. The album had proved commercially successful but his behavior and performance was so appalling that halfway through the tour he was replaced with complete unknown Ray Gillen. It's him we hear in the bonus disc and, although the recording quality is rather bad, he proves to be a worthy successor, handling material from the Hughes, Dio and Ozzy eras with ease. An amazing feat, considering he had virtually no time to prepare himself. Notwithstanding, pretty soon he was also history, to be replaced with Tony Martin, then Dio for the second time, only for the circle to close with Ozzy back at the mic. This album should satisfy friends of 1980's metal and just about nobody else. To the curious Sabbath fan I'd suggest to get The Deluxe Edition to get an idea of the scarcely heard Ray Gillen line-up: Not bad at all, I assure you...

*** for  In For The Kill, No Stranger To Love, Turn To Stone, Seventh Star, Danger Zone, No Stranger To Love (Alt. version)

** for Sphinx (The Guardian), Heart Like A Wheel, Angry Heart, In Memory

Live Album: (for performance, not sound) *** for Danger Zone. War Pigs, Die Young, Neon Knights, Paranoid

** for Mob Rules, Seventh Star, Black Sabbath, N.I.B