Customer Reviews

Black Sabbath - The Last Supper

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I have been listening to Sabbath for over 25 years, and was highly looking forward to this disc. Be warned that VERY FEW of the songs are heard all the way through without cutting to an interview, or talking overtop the performance. This happens song after song. The interviews were interesting for one or two viewings, but to have to sit through that everytime you want to watch some music is really annoying. At least if the interviews could have been kept to only between songs you could skip them when you want. So, there STILL isn't a Sabbath concert video! Also, the sound mix for 5.1 was pathetic. Listen to Woodstock or Fleetwood Mac The Dance, and then to this. This is mud. There are only three instruments playing, why can't you clearly hear Geezer? His fingers are smoking, but it's all lost somewhere in the mix with the drums. That is what was great about their albums, each instrument was crisp and clear and you could hear how great a musician each one is. The director and the sound mixer really dropped the ball on this one, because obviously the show that they destroyed, was great.

I've listened to Sabbath for most of my life, and was initially pleased to get the opportunity to see a video of the long-awaited reunion of the original lineup. But whoever was responsible for editing this video left MUCH to be desired.

Do not expect this to be a live rendition of the REUNION CD's that this concert was supposed to mirror. The song "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was omitted entirely, and many of the other songs have interviews with band members edited in the middle of the tracks. You will NOT see an uninterrupted concert of the show.

This DVD is obviously a "splicing" of at least two different Sabbath shows, because there are songs where Ozzy is wearing a shirt or else shirtless in the same song. It can be a little unnerving. And, . . . I appreciate crowd participation as much as the next guy, but Ozzy's constantly enticing the crowd to "go f***ing crazy" gets irritating FAST - this video and the REUNION CD would have been better without all of the profanities.

This otherwise might have been a great concert to watch, with maybe a second disc with all the interviews and bonus features. Buy this USED if you are a die-hard Sabbath fan, but I don't recommend that the casual listener invest much into it.

Based purely on the performance itself, this DVD deserves 5 stars. The performance is a lively one (especially coming from 4 guys in their 50's), and the sound quality is great. All of Sabbath's greatest songs are included here, and they sound as good as ever. Just a great show. However...

Included along with this is an interview with the band. The interview is interesting, and very funny, but it is broken into several small pieces that pop up sporadically throughout the show. If you just want to watch the concert, and not the interview, this can be very annoying. Worse yet, they actually chopped off the entire last verse of "Electric Funeral" because of this. They should have included the interview as a special feature, so that you could watch them separately.

But other than that, this is quite a good package. The band is in top form. Ozzy said it best himself when he said, "We can still outrock most of these young punks anyday". I believe him. The musicianship is excellent (Geezer Butler and Bill Ward are severely underrated), and the songs rock hard. If you can put up with the constant interruptions, this is totally worth it.

Amazing live performance shot down by some lousy editing where most of the the songs are interrupted by interview with the band members.

The band seems to be in real fine form. It's a real shame that we get to see only snippets. Why would the producers do such a thing, as this is a live presentation of concerts and not a biography of Black Sabbath.

This DVD is like a tease act. I'm waiting for the day when these concerts will be released without the interupptions.That will be a great BUY!

the show starts with an incredible performance of war pigs. unbelievable! everybody - ozzy, geezer, ward and iommi - are in great form!

the next song is nib. just when tony iommi breaks into the immortal solo, that's the time these freaks to insert an interview! i was speechless, my heart was in my friggin hand and every known expletive spewing from my mouth - the m*%$#r f#$%^rs ...

likewise it is with every song that follows.

what must have been a truly great show is ruined in this dvd!

this is one of the moments you wish something like the texas chainsaw massacre happened in these stupid music companies!

Black Sabbath is one of the greatest heavy rock bands of all times, if not the greatest. When I saw this DVD at the music store, I was thrilled to learn that there was a live concert of their reunion so I bought it right away thinking I was going to see a great live concert. It started great but I was quickly disappointed when in the middle of the first song the music died because it was interrupted by interviews of the band members. Why would anyone think it's cool to be listening to a great song and all of a sudden stop the music to hear someone talking? All the interruptions in the middle of the songs ruined the pleasure of anjoying the music. I have to say this is a very disappointing DVD but I still give it 2 stars because I did enjoy the parts where there is no talking.

The real Black Sabbath together again! Doing some of their classic material. Good sound and video, decent DVD transfer.

Unexpected plus: It is wide-screen format instead of full screen.

Unexpected minus: There are points where songs are interupted or faded into the background while bandmembers talk about them. This is totally unnecessary, they could have easily kept the songs intact by making the video several minutes longer or by better using available DVD technology. This was annoying the first time and will be more so in repeat viewings. You may want to rent it first to see how much this might bother you.

What should and could have been a 5 star video. However, the producers failed to properly take repeat viewing into consideration.

I'm forty seven years old and have been a Black Sabbath fan since i was a teenager and i was really waiting for a live CONCERT DVD of Black Sabbath.The highlight of this dvd is that Ozzy and the band are in fine form the lowlight is that you only get about five full songs every other songs is cut by interviews.I wonder if the members of Black Sabbath have watched this dvd and thought to themselves is this how we payback our loyal fans who have followed us over all these years, yes the same fans who spent their hard earned money on vinyl,8-tracks,cassettes and first issue cd's which were also rubbish and the remastered cd's. Surely they must still have the full concert footage why not issue that.Be warned this is the type of dvd you might watch once or twice, when you continually hear rock stars talk about the old days it reminds me of Dell in Waynes World 2 you start hearing the same things over and over again whether on dvd ,tv or in print.Hi It's me again 26/09/2005 and i read an article recently which stated that Black Sabbath have filmed another concert we all might get what we have been waiting for finally.
To Sharon , Ozzy, Tony,Geezer and Bill dont let the moron who edited the Last Supper dvd edit the new one, do us all a favour and just give us the concert.Your middle aged Australian Fan Danny

I am a fan of the group. I started playing guitar just to learn every Sabbath's song(I know all of them). I was in one of the latest concerts at London. When I discovered that the band realeased a DVD based on that tour thought that I should buy it. So I bought it. The live Sabbath Performance is great, you can clearly hear all the instruments but the sound isn't perfect(as in Metallica's latest Cunning Stunts). The video quality is good but also not perfect. The songlist is the best part of the DVD, even anti-Metal listeners liked that DVD. The angles used can give you a perfect view of the scene but no multi-angle support is provided. As other reviewers mentioned the dialog in the middle of the songs is something very annoying. That fact shows that the producer just copy the VHS version to a DVD so he put the interview, which is very interesting, in the middle of the songs. In any way that DVD is good and it must be bought by any hard music fan, I rated only with 4 stars because I wanted to show that in techical terms there are better productions but if you are interested only in the music you hear then you will hear the ultimate hard music collection by the fathers of Heavy Metal.

hi, just a ditto here to all the other comments about the songs being interrupted by interviews, and no DVD menu option to just play the music, without the inane VH1 interview formatting.

anyway, that said,

The music IS TRULY GREAT anyway! The guys are at their best, and given their cumulative mileage, their energy just astounds me! If you are an older fan (like me) and have fond acoustic memories of the original versions of the songs, you will not be disappointed with this performance - it lives up to, and even in places surpasses, the original.

fwiw, I personally love Iommi's restrained and meditative stage presence! I really admire him for 'just playing' and channeling the True Power of the Universe (embodied in the Cross he wears), and not doing the usual rock guitarist aerobics.

(just have a voodoo doll handy so when the interview part stops the music, you can rip off the doll's head pretending it is the producer. This will save your room's sheetrock walls and your own knuckle skin.)

i would buy again, and recommend to any Black Sabbath fan.

the surround sound audio mix is very good, except the bass seems hard to hear in parts.