Sometimes when a great artist dies, a lot of rubbish gets released by their CD companies trying to cash in. This is definitely not the case, however, with this DVD / CD release.
What you have here is four great musicians at their very best; a classic live performance with a great production sound, great playing and of course great singing. Heaven and Hell play a storming set of favourites old and new. The set list has a lot of tracks from the excellent album ‘Heaven And Hell’, but there are also tracks from ‘Mob Rules’, my favourite Sabbath album ‘Dehumaniser’ and the excellent ‘The Devil You Know’.
The album kicks off with ‘Mob Rules’ which is heavy as ever, with really tight playing all around and Dio’s trademark vocals. I don’t know how ill he was feeling that night but the singing is near perfect all through the set, which just goes to show the man’s professional and passionate attitude. Next comes ‘Children of the Sea’, which has a a slow start with a great Iommi riff. Another moody builder, ‘I’, follows which showcases great performances from Dio, Butler, Appice and Iommi. Geezer Butler looks well up for it and he’s a great bassist while drummer Vinnie Appice powers his way through the tracks. There is a good trio of heavy stuff with ‘Bible Black’, ‘Time Machine’ and ‘Fear’, before the classic ‘Falling Off The Edge Of The World’ kicks off. A really good version of ‘Follow The Tears’ is followed by ‘Die Young’, which again starts with nice guitar work by Tony Iommi. For me this is one of his best live performances ever captured on vinyl, CD or DVD, and that includes those classic double live albums of the seventies. ‘Heaven And Hell’ is by far the longest track, Dio gets very intense and the song has more good Iommi moments, with great support from Butler and Appice.. The DVD finishes with ‘Country Girl’ (too short) which soon runs into a rousing version of the classic ‘Neon Knights’ from which the DVD takes its name.
With excellent sound and picture quality, this is a great CD/DVD, recommended to all Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Dio fans and basically any lover of classic heavy metal
By Chris
Tracklist:
1) E5150
2) Mob Rules
3) Children Of The Sea
4) I
5) Bible Black
6) Time Machine
7) Fear
8) Falling Off The Edge Of The World
9) Follow The Tears
10) Die Young
11) Heaven And Hell
12) Country Girl
13) Neon Knights
