The excellent Black Sabbath Super Deluxe Edition releases continue, with Live Evil set for sale from 2 June 2023. Live Evil was the first official Black Sabbath live album. Now it features two versions – a newly remastered version by Andy Pearce and a new mix created from the original analogue multi-tracks by longtime band associate Wyn Davis.
Ronnie James Dio joined Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward in 1979. The resulting album Heaven And Hell was released in 1980. Halfway through the album’s tour, Ward left and was replaced by Vinny Appice.
When the tour ended in 1981, the group decamped to Los Angeles and quickly recorded Sabbath’s 10th studio album, Mob Rules. Released in November 1981, the album would be certified gold. While touring for the album, the band announced plans to record several shows for what would become their first official concert album.
“The ten-month Mob Rules tour was certainly a very successful one,” Hugh Gilmour writes in the liner notes, “resurrecting their reputation not only as a band that could fill major venues, but one that could sell plenty of vinyl and cassettes too. Black Sabbath Mk 2 had given their record label two best-selling LPs and were about to present a third.”
When Live Evil arrived in 1983, the double album was a commercial and critical triumph, reaching #13 in the U.K. and #37 on the Billboard Top 200. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, including one from Kerrang! that hailed it as “one of the greatest live albums of all time.”
Live Evil can be pre-ordered from https://blacksabbath.lnk.to/LiveEvil.
