Reviewed by Eric Saeger
Ronnie James Dio died recently, leaving several generations of headbangers understandably distraught; Dio made Bruce Dickinson seem like a helium-filled piker. The lineup of Black Sabbath in which he was front-guy was a legendary thing, combining Dio’s wizards-and-dragons trip with the hard acid-metal pioneered by Iommi and his peeps. This 2007 live set of the band (as renamed for the mold-breaking album that originally brought them together) finds Dio in not the greatest form but more than solid; his impeccably trained voice is plum out of those crazy-sounding high Bs by the time the set gets around to Neon Knights. Urged on by the thunderous work of the sound crews at these outdoor Euro-fests, Iommi tinkers a lot with his lead guitar work without sacrificing the shtick that made the tunes famous, such as the 3 Stooges-esque yuk-it-up ditty that kicks off the Mob Rules solo. Geezer Butle and Vinny Appice comprise the back end, thus this is classic in every sense.
Grade: A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5sCvCHr9gw
