Customer Reviews

Past Lives (Dig)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fans of Black Sabbath finally have a new officially-released collection of '70s-era, Ozzy Osbourne-led Black Sabbath to sink their teeth into. While this is by definition a good thing, a closer look (and listen) reveals that while this set is quite a welcome addition to anyone's collection, it is far from perfect.

First off, the DigiPak packaging leaves a bit to be desired. While the sepia tone is all class, and several never-before seen photos are included (including a huge panorama of the audience at the '74 Cal Jam, plus Ozzy donning his platform boots for said event!), the liner notes by Bruce Pilato are rather mundane. Any hardcore fan could have written better notes in his or her sleep. The guitar pick is a nice touch, but guitarists won't want to use it for fear of losing it. The poster is cool, but smaller and less colorful than the one once found in Master of Reality. Furthermore, the dates and venues for the tracks on disc two are left off; it only says "Recorded at various locations during the '70s." As an armchair rock historian I would like to have seen those dates.

Now onto more important things, namely, the music contained herein. Disc One consists of the infamous Live At Last, remastered for maximum clarity, or so they say. Personally, I think polishing that pseudo-bootleg is a lost cause. It sounds a bit louder and bassier than my earlier copies, but that's about it. The performance itself is good, if you have never heard it: recorded in early 1973, when Sabbath were at a peak. Iommi's extremely lengthy blues/jazz excursions on "Wicked World" are quite enjoyable, and "Killing Yourself To Live" comes off a bit tougher than the studio version, but "Sweet Leaf" is too slow and too off-key for most tastes. In addition, where is the "Will you welcome--Black Sabbath!" announcement at the beginning? Having grown up with Live At Last, I think this omission is heresy.

Disc Two is what most hardcore fans will pop in their players first. Consisting of tracks recorded, err, at various venues in the '70s, the sound quality varies from track to track but is generally better than Disc One. Especially rocking are the three tracks from Sabotage, here recorded a few months before that album's September 1975 emergence; Ozzy's voice has a great timbre to it (plus strange effects during "Megalomania"), and the rhythm section of Butler and Ward shows us once and for all where thrash metal came from. Also great is Iommi's lengthy acoustic intro to Black Sabbath, which will have guitar players rushing to their favorite tablature websites to learn. Personally I would have loved to hear more material from Volume IV, my favorite Ozzy Sab studio LP, but I guess that's covered by "Tomorrow's Dream" and "Cornucopia" on Disc One.

Bottom line: Get it if you're any kind of Sab fan for the cool selections on Disc Two, but if you don't feel like spending the extra dollars, skip the DigiPak. The regular CD apparently has the same tracks. And keep in mind that Disc One is basically Live At Last, an old wine in a new bottle.

The music is incredible.
You get the feeling of being transported back to the seventies and listening live to young and top notch Sabbath concert.
the CD package is great, two CDs a poster and a pick.
True Sabbath Fans must own it!!

All the concern about the sound quality on these CDs is misplaced. The sound quality on "Live at Last" was almost intolerable, but on Past Lives the sound quality is JUST FINE. If you aren't fixated on the technological aspects of the sound, you will be able to hear the sound texture, heaviness, and SOUL that come through crystal clear throughout this album. NOWHERE ELSE can you hear the early original brilliant Sabbath heavy funky sludgy live sound that, together with their seminal studio work, made them the legend that they are.

The recent Sabbath "Reunion" live album is very good, very solid, but at this point for me it does not rise to the level of a classic. Ozzy's voice is not as good on that album, and the music doesn't have the feeling of raw wild inspiration that pervades "Past Lives." To me, this distinction is not about which album had more technical mistakes (there are some in both albums). It seems to me that in the old shows on "Past Lives," the band was "living the life," and living the music, and you can hear that. It's similar to how other people can play Hendrix note-for-note, but it's not necessarilly going to sound like the real thing. This album is the real thing!

Another album to be compared to "Past Lives" is "Speak of the Devil." "Speak of the Devil" IS a classic live album of Sabbath tunes in the same league as "Past Lives." Brad Gillis, guitarist from the cheesy band NightRanger, played brilliantly for these shows. The sound is great, the whole band is part of the jamming, the passion is there. But if you want to hear what the real thing sounded like, you've got to check out "Past Lives."

Several reviewers have let their annoyance with CD1's having already been released cloud their judgement. Once you get over that, you will thank God that we have this album. The armchair metalheads who said they don't like live albums or don't think Ozzy should tell the audience he loves them or to stand up needs to see a real show or go back to easy listening. People like that will never be able to understand why we love Ozzy.

Just because I love Ozzy though, doesn't mean that I won't admit when his voice is cracking or he's forgetting lyrics. On "Past Lives" he occasionally changes or forgets lyrics, but his voice is strong with just the correct amount of rock-n-roll roughness (presumably related to drug use).

In summary, if you've forgotten that rock-n-roll has as much to do with moving your body, attitude, texture, spontaneous exhuberance, improvisation, soul, cutting loose, and having a great party as with melodies and digital sound qualities, this album might not be a good starting point for you. Maybe some Sex Pistols or Nirvana would remind you. But for him that has ears to hear, this is the old testament of live Sabbath.

Most people here do complain about the sound quality. True, it is not great, but when I first heard it I was astounded. After all, this was a live recording in the 1970's: digital recording technology didn't exist. For that era, however, the recording is nothing short of incredible; but simply not comporable to modern live recordings. The only real complaint I have about the recording is that (on the first disc, Live At Last) Geezer's bass and Bill Ward's kick drum are all but inaudible, although the rest of Bill Ward's kit is recorded reasonable well. Since Geezer isn't heard that well, people new to Sabbath can't appreciate the unique and tight rhythm that made Sabbath so great. Aside from that, Tony Iommi and Ozzy sound fine. The songs sound so much heavier live and the band often does variations on the tempo, like with the "Wicked World" medley. This song also showcases Iommi's vastly underrated guitar skills, which certainly place him equal with Jimmy Page. But he still remains sadly overlooked in comparison, but that's really true of everything between Sabbath and Zeppelin: say what you want, but Sabbath was the original heavy metal band. Another interesting thing to hear is Ozzy. For people only familiar with the re-fried Ozzy that you see shuffling around on the Osbournes, that disc will show you that, yes, at one time Ozzy could talk, although his interaction with the crowd during Children of the Grave is a bit annoying. He was never able to sing at all, but this was the time when he was probably at his best. His voice sounds somewhat erractic as previous reviewers have noted, but Sabbath wouldn't be Sabbath without him. Most of the Live At Last disc if fine, but some songs on the second (NIB, for example) sound truly dreadful. On the whole, however, this is an excellent live album and a great deal better than the awful Reunion disc.

I loved the original Sabbath line-up of Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward. I have heard every studio album countless times. I consider each to be recommended listening for anyone even remotely interested in hard rock/heavy metal.

How does "Past Lives" fit in with rest of the Sabbath pantheon? My answer would be to consider "Past Lives" after you have exhausted all of their studio work. Basically, you have to be a dyed-in-the-wool Sabbath freak to get any value from this set. If you are anything less than that, you may come away somewhat disappointed. For everyone else, I would consider the album to be a curiousity in the Sabs discography, but hardly an essential purchase.

A lot of "Past Lives" is tinny, trashy, and bootleg-sounding. If you're expecting a pristine sounding live document, be forewarned: the sound and production values aren't exactly major-label quality. (This is probably why it's being put out by Divine Records, Ozzy and Sharon's vanity label.) If you can get past that and also the fact that Disc One is "Live at Last" rehashed in its entirety, it's not too bad of a set. My personal highlights would include the extended jam on Disc One's "Wicked World," "Tomorow's Dream" and "Megalomania" from Disc Two.

The packaging, particularly in the deluxe edition, is very well done. I don't quite understand all the emphasis given to the Cal-Jam photos, given that none of this set is culled from Sabbath's Cal Jam appearance! No matter, at the very least there are lots of cool pictures to look at why you're listening to the studio albums!

As if anyone needed any more proof that Black Sabbath were the true granddaddies of heavy metal, this two-disc slab of vintage '70s brilliance hammers the point home even more. Sure, the band released the live album Reunion a few years back, but that was present-day Sabbath: the guys were older, clean and sober, and a little pudgy around the waistlines. But Past Lives showcases the Sabs at their purest, most honest, drug-addled best. The first disc is simply a remastering of the unofficial release Live At Last, which most purists already own. The standout track from that disc is the nearly twenty-minute rendition of Wicked World, complete with Tony Iommi's jazz guitar noodling, and Ozzy's vocal improvisation.
But the second disc is the real goldmine of this collection: It takes listeners on an aural tour of Sabbath's golden years between 1970 and 1976. Die-hard devotees will flip over the epic Megalomania, which bootleggers have sought for years. Other tracks from the album Sabotage, like Symptom of the Universe and Hole in the Sky lose none of their original power, even amidst today's nu-metal wasteland.
Sadly, no tracks from the albums Never Say Die or Technical Ecstasy are present, but that's not surprising, since the Sabs seem to have all-but disowned those stellar recordings.
Past Lives is the live Sabbath album fans have been waiting for, and thankfully, it does not disappoint. It just rocks.

As any diehard Sabbath fan suspects, this album rules, and that's something someone realizes weeks before the actual release of it. The tracks on here are so raw, and really give a strong feeling to what Sabbath concerts were like in the '70s.

The first disc is the previously released 'Live at Last', but it seems cleaned up, with better sound quality. It was recorded in '73 I beleive, and includes such killer tracks as "Killing Yourself To Live", "Snowblind", "Children of the Grave", and an awesome "Wicked World" medley that clocks in at 18:55. Defiantely well worth the price for just this disc alone.

Then, we get an incredible second disc that's probably my favorite of the two. The tracks from Sabotage are really what takes the cake, but they are all "just grand." "Symptom of the Universe" has one of the most massive guitar tones I've ever heard (yeah, I think it's even heavier than the album version), and "Megalomania" is just insane, no other way to put it.

This could very well be the best live recording of the millenium, infact, I'm sure it is. Sure, they probably released this mainly because they needed some cash (or not, I could be wrong), but I plunked my American dollars down with pride, knowing exactly what I was about to experience.

Well what can one say but classic Sabbath is just that, Classic. It sounds classic in more ways than one. The quality is poor, but remember when this was recorded people. Let's say it's like designing a sports car and then putting the smallest engine you can find into it. You can only remaster something so much and hope it comes out better.

The songs themselves are excellent and the packaging is a nice touch as well. Another thing I found rather funny was you can actually make out what Ozzy's saying. I guess he was still coherent back then... It's Sabbath live and because of that you get some add libing here and their. Ozzy's Ozzy, so the "We love you all", "get up" and a few other Ozzy gems are there. Overall it's a very good cd, not great but good. It you expect classic Sabbath sounds, feel, and vibe, this is it. If you expect clean, digital, sterile sound, this isn't your cd.

If you love Sabbath BUY IT!!, if you don't DON'T!!.

JESUS MARY AND JOESEPH. I remember when I was 10 years old sitting in the car when I first heard Iron Man. 6 years later I pick up this live album and can only say one thing...when you hear the Sabs live, it's like God entering your life. Or Satan. Whichever you prefer. This whole album basically kicks the [butt] of any other live albums I've heard from anyone but I did have some problems with it. I for one, didn't like Meglomania...I adored Wicked World though. Ozzy's voice is truly the most ungodly, scary, possesed voice I've ever heard in my life. He truly sounds evil which rocks.
Tony "The master of the Riff" Iommi is ever present to punishing that Gibson SG of his. Bill and Geezer are their also pounding out those haunting rythms.

YIKES...This album is really good. Not the best...but really really kick [butt].

Black Sabbath Past Lives The Limited Edition 2 CD Set, Includes A Awesome California Jam Poster, And A BS Guitar Pick!. Not a Studio Recording Yet Still The Best Live Early Sabbath You Can Get!. Sound Quality Is Due To The Rare Live Recording Itself. Sanctuary & Devine Should'nt Be Blamed. It's a Great Package! Try Finding An Early Black Sabbath Recording, (OK) And Try Buying A Black Sabbath Pick (What Would you Have to Pay)And The Cal Jam Poster! (Not A Simple One to Get) So I Believe That The True Black Sabbath Fan Will Be Delighted Indeed. (Bonus Tracks Megalomania, Hole In The Sky, & Iron Man)18 song Limited edition Black Sabbath Past Lives Comes back To Life Here Baby! Hats Off to Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Sharon, Devine & Sanctuary"
Robert M. MacKinnon
A.K.A. Bahama Kin