Black Sabbath Live Hammersmith Odeon rare 3LP vinyl ltd. ed. heavy metal rock

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Black Sabbath - Live at Hammersmith Odeon  - triple live album of prime era material - limited deluxe edition on WB/Rhino Records on 180 gram vinyl.   in tri-gatefold sleeve.  from limted edition #2592/3000 copies.  hard-to-find and collectible.  own this artifact!

"Heavy metal legends BLACK SABBATH have joined the club — Metal Club, that is. BLACK SABBATH's "Live At Hammersmith Odeon", a three-LP 180-gram vinyl with a triple gatefold packaging, will be limited to 3,000 numbered copies and is a Metal Club exclusive, so make sure to snatch yours up as soon as it's available.

"Live At Hammersmith Odeon" features Ronnie James Dio, Tommy Iommi, Terry "Geezer" Butler and Vinny Appice live at Hammersmith Odeon in January 1982 during BLACK SABBATH's tour for "The Mob Rules".

Available for the first time on limited-edition numbered vinyl, the concert spotlights BLACK SABBATH as they storm through 14 of the Dio-era's best, including "Neon Knights", "Heaven And Hell", "Children Of The Sea" and "Country Girl". The band also performs several pre-Dio classics, including "Paranoid", "Children Of The Grave" and a white-hot version of "War Pigs".


"Released just weeks after The Dio Years, Live At Hammersmith Odeon, features Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice getting hot one December night in London during Sabbath's 1981 tour for Mob Rules. Previously unreleased, the concert spotlights Sabbath as they storm through 14 of the Dio-era's best, including "Neon Knights," "Heaven And Hell," "Children Of The Sea" and "Country Girl." The band also performs several pre-Dio classics including "Paranoid," "Children Of The Grave" and a white-hot version of "War Pigs." Live At Hammersmith Odeon is available was an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 CD copies. Live At Hammersmith Odeon' completely sold out on the day of release. In the 9 years of Rhino Handmade, this is the quickest a title has ever sold out. "

"This is the recording that should have been released instead of the poorly mixed "Live Evil" back in 1982.  The thing that jumps out at you is the power and volume of Vinnie Appice's drumming.I saw the Mob Rules tour in L.A. in 1982 and Appice's drums were so loud I could feel the bass drum in my bone marrow.

This has a kickazz version of "Neon Knights" with Tony Iommi's excellent guitar work. "N.I.B" is next. "Children Of The Sea". Very good version as Dio sounds strong and the band hammers it out.Appice's drums are so awesome. He had to have been at the top of his game on this tour.  "Country Girl". Never heard this one live before as they had eliminated it from the set by the time I saw them.Sounds bassically the same as the studio version except for a slightly different guitar solo.  "Black Sabbath". This is ,in my opinion, the Ozzy era song that Dio sounded best on. He kept the melodramatics to a minimum and didn't try to change it. Iommi's guitar intro has a creepy feel to it and he shreds on the solo at the end.  "War Pigs". This is an awesome version if you can get past Dio's melodramatics during the opening chords. Geezer Butler's Bass and Appice's drums really drive this song home. Iommi plays a completely different solo on the lead break than the studio version. Dio sounds weird on it but he is belting it out at full power. 'Slipping Away". Quick vehicle for Appice's edited drum solo.  "Iron Man". Played at sludge speed with Appice's fills and rolls sounding great.Iommi's riff never sounded heavier.Dio sounds alright but I get the feeling he didn't really like this song that much.  "The Mob Rules". Excellent high energy version. Iommi really rips on this.  "Heaven and Hell". Album and tour's showcase.Sounds edited due to time constraints.Excellent guitar solo by Iommi ina jazzy vein.Dio sound great but the audience participation part sounds weak due to the fact that the crowd noise is so low. Soundboard recording, no doubt.  "Paranoid". Necessary song I guess. Unfortunately for Dio, it would be like somebody other than Robert Plant singing Stairway To Heaven. He does his best but he just engages in needless melodramatics when he should just sing the tune.Don't get me wrong, Istill like it. You just can't ignore the inevitable comparisons.  "Children of the Grave". Real good version as Iommi's bone crunching riff destroys everything in its way.Dio sounds good on this one as he presents a straightforward delivery.

All in all a great recording capturing this line up at the peak of its powers.All audience banter and song introductions are not present due to time constraints which is not a bad thing bercause Dio was not a "I'm a regular guy, party animal dude just like you" kind of performer anyway.His song introductions were always kept short and dignified. The opposite of Ozzy." -C.Gwyn

"This album is more than I ever coulda hoped for a huge life-long Black Sabbath fan like myself. I probably didn't even have this recording before as a bootleg (I don't recognize it audio-wise). Rhino majorly cleaned up this recording. True true soundboard, remastered excellently, this thing deserves to be in stores next to Live Evil! In fact, it might even be better than Live Evil....well maybe that's pushing it, but it's way up there.  Those rare live tracks, Country Girl, Slipping Away, as well as Iommi's shortened solo on this make it so worthwhile. Even Dio on this one says "P**S OFF, I'm gonna burn in Hell with all of you!" instead of the usual "Go Away, I'm gonna burn in Hell...". I've got a lot of Heaven And Hell live versions with Dio & he never said it like THAT before! Cool! I do wish they did the entire "Slipping Away", instead of going to the drum solo in the middle. That part where Tony & Geezer trade licks on the studio version is great live, I have a boot of them doing it all somewhere, but not on here like that. It's just too bad they stopped doing "Sweet Leaf" live by this time too, that would have been the cherry on top. Oh well, can't have it all.

Concerning though the new battle between Black Sabbath fans "Which Is Better:Hammersmith or Live Evil?", truthfully "Live At The Hammersmith Odeon" is a great "addition" to any Sabbhead's library, but it's not as "essential" as Live Evil. First off, Live Evil is classic due to it's 25 year old existence this December (wow, has it been that long!). If Hammersmith came out in 1982, then Live Evil in 2007, maybe. But that's not the case. Second, Live Evil is a fuller representation of a complete Black Sabbath concert, LATHO is not. Lemme explain. When Castle Communications reissued/remastered Live Evil in 1996, they edited out things like Ronnie banter, crowd noise, and some of Tony's solo to make it fit on ONE disc, instead of the original two. LATHO was done in the same way. Don't believe me, think about it, how long is the crowd applause in between the tracks....it's two or three seconds each...that's not realistic. Ya mean Ronnie didn't talk to the audience at that show between songs? C'mon. And Iommi didn't do a full blown eight minute plus solo either? Sure they did, Rhino Handmade just edited it out from the master to make it fit on one disc, while Live Evil was always meant to be a two record/two CD release, hence as much filler as possible resulting in a complete show, solos, banter, crowd, and all. But don't get me wrong, LATHO has some of the best editing I've EVER heard on a live recording! But the editing is quite apparent to fans like me with a ton of boots in our collections already. But trust me, in a way it's sorta nice to get to the point with this recording, compared to times when I have to wait 30 seconds to get to the next song on Live Evil (LATHO's editing is way better than what Sanctuary Records did on Disc Two of Sabbath's Past Lives CD), but the average fan will never notice, but to most of us it's apparent pretty early on yet acceptable due to the quality it was done here." -E.Erickson

take note fans of  Pentagram, Ozzy Osbourne, Deep Purple, etc.


CONDITION:  excellent - new open copy.


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