Live Evil (40th Anniversary)

Product Information

These next two images are what was inside the vinyl gatefold for the album’s original release back in 1982.

I knew it would be better than the other two and put it on the stereo and was really pleased to hear (properly) Sabbath live.In the liner notes to the 2008 retrospective The Rules of Hell, vocalist Ronnie James Dio remembers, "It was an excellent tour. I’ve owned a Japanese pressing of this for sometime now and I always believed that these recordings could never sound any better until I listened to this presentation.

Iommi, in his drug-addled state, misunderstood what he was being told and came to the conclusion that Dio was not only mixing the album without him, but was trying to push his own vocals much too prominently in the mix. AllMusic states that " Live Evil does benefit from a crystal clear, in-your-face sound, and by showcasing even amounts of both Ozzy and Dio material, effectively documents Black Sabbath's renascent tours of the early '80s. When Dio and Appice arrived at the studio to begin the Live Evil mixing process, Iommi and Butler never showed up. This album was bought for me as a birthday gift by one of my best friends when I was in high school. Two years later we made the move to our present address, 35 The Headrow, where we have remained ever since.

citation needed] In the same interview series, Butler described the Live Evil mixing sessions as "the Yanks against the Brits," adding, "I think Ronnie seemed to desperately want to do his own stuff and we sort of wanted to keep it going as it was. In the liner notes to The Rules of Hell, Appice states, "I knew things were coming to a close from some of the things that were happening on the road. After that there was no point due to Dio’s ageing voice (which was still great, but not matching a decade ago) There you have the REAL story. Listen to ‘voodoo’ ‘children of the sea’ and ‘heaven and hell’ ,metal doesn’t get much heavier than that. The liner notes state that the album was recorded in Seattle, San Antonio and Dallas during the 1982 tour in support of the Mob Rules album, but doesn't give specific information on which songs were performed in which location.