Heaven & Hell
Neon Nights: Live in Europe
9
Were it not for the untimely death of a true legend, this release would be more or less superfluous. After all, the dust has barely begun to settle on Live From Radio City Music Hall, a release superior to Neon Nights that, in addition to offering more content overall, captures every song included here, save the three tracks from The Devil You Know (“Bible Black”, “Fear”, and “Follow the Tears”) and “Time Machine” from the underappreciated Dehumanizer. And a huge middle finger to whomever decided to offer encore “Country Girl” as a DVD-only track. There appears to be disc space for it, and in any case, it would have pleased fans to have left off another song in the name of one that actually was not on the band’s last live album. Still, the rebirth of the legendary Sabbath as such an undeniably masterful beast, a reawakening of a slumbering behemoth, combined with the loss of a true metal icon make it hard to deny the offering of one last feast of live Dio-led Sabbath.
By now you know these songs like the back of your hand—even the new stuff—so I figure it’s not my job to tell you how great they are. I can, however tell you that the production and performances are all that you’d need them to be. Forty years in—with this band and others—and the boys still had the energy and vitality to make these songs electrify and soar. The phoenix of Sabbath rising as Heaven and Hell was a phenomenal gift to the faithful, and the shows and releases will no doubt remain highly prized experiences of a band many fans didn’t get to see the first time around. Neon Nights captures the magic one last time.
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4/28/2009