Label: Sanctuary Records
Release date (reissue): 08/20/2002
Production: Black Sabbath
Album length: 117.01 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 10 / 10
This re-release is a one-of-a-kind document of the beginnings of the metal earthquake that shook the music world. We’ve got a double CD in front of us. The first disc is the original live release of the album “Live At Last” from 1980. The second one has rare live cuts played between 1970 and 1977 on various stages and tours, with Ozzy on vocals, of course. Considering the live Reunion album from 1998, the second disc has a few songs that have never been released as official live versions before. Those are “Hole In The Sky”, “Hand Of Doom”, Symptom Of The Universe” and a special surprise, a monstrous doom-crusher called “Megalomania”.
The original lineup of Osbourne / Iommi / Butler / Ward, the only real one for many, took a huge step forward with “Vol. 4” compared to their debut. So a live album was planned. To that end, the band recorded a few shows on the European leg of the tour in March 1973, right in the middle of Great Britain. Sadly, the live album never saw the light of day. In 1980, when Ozzy was just a fond memory for the band and was carving his way forward with a solo career, “Live At Last” finally came out. The chemistry that only that original lineup could conjure worked fantastically on stage and stands out especially in songs like “War Pigs”, Children Of The Grave” or “Sweet Leaf”. Black Sabbath, or the revolution that lives on today in every riff of every metal band across planet Earth. Ozzy. A young man with a hollow voice, a hollow stare, and still today the charismatic synonym for a true frontman, lets out a few ear-piercing screams from his throat, proving what shape he was in back then. Of course, with his banter he constantly provokes the audience and leads it into original sin. Ozzy as only Ozzy can be (was).
The two discs are completely different in content, which is an extra plus. The magic of Tony’s fingers is unique, and it shines especially majestically in the opening part of the song “Black Sabbath”!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik, 2002
Track list:
CD 1.:
1. Tomorrow’s Dream
2. Sweet Leaf
3. Killing Yourself to Live
4. Cornucopia
5. Snowblind
6. Children of the Grave
7. War Pigs
8. Wicked World
9. Paranoid
CD 2.:
1. Hand of Doom
2. Hole in the Sky
3. Symptom of the Univers
4. Megalomania
5. Iron Man
6. Black Sabbath
7. N.I.B.
8. Behind the Wall of Sleep
9. Faries Wear Boots
Lineup:
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar
Terence “Geezer” Butler – bass guitar
Bill Ward – drums
