1208. Ozzy Osbourne / Live & Loud [Live]. 1993. 5/5

By the time Ozzy Osbourne had released his “No More Tears“ album, an episode of which you can listen to on Season 1 of this podcast, he had decided that he had become jaded and sick of touring, and that he would go out on one final world tour, calling it the “No More Tours” tour, and that a resulting live album recorded on that tour would be his final album. Looking back now, thirty years ago, it seems like a facetious remark, given that even into his 70’s now and suffering from a number of ailments including Parkinson’s disease, he’s still out there making live appearances. And given that there have been a number of things said over the years that appear to be more of a promoting of Ozzy and his music, and things including reality shows and series made which, in the long run, come across as brazen promotion of the artist and his music, is it so wild to believe that the whole “No More Tours” thing was just a way of selling out more shows and selling more albums? Or was it simply a case that once he had gone on a break following this tour, that he realised how bored he was, and that it was making music that was keep him going? In the long run, it probably doesn’t matter, that even if it was a promotional tool it turned out to be a good one, but other things that went into it did create some ructions.
As it was going to be his last time out, Ozzy invited the other three original members of Black Sabbath to come out on his final night and have a reunion for the encore, and asked the band to play as support for that night. At the time, Sabbath was touring on their “Dehumanizer” album with Ronnie James Dio back as lead singer. When Iommi and Butler agreed to this, Dio dead set refused, saying that to be considered as a support act for Ozzy was degrading for the band and not what their status demanded. It caused this second formation of this lineup of Sabbath to dissolve immediately (although the band played the support slot with Rob Halford filling in on vocals), and also eventually led to a reunion of the original foursome for a tour in 1997, though a new album did not eventuate from this.
All in all, lots of consequences came from the tour that this live album was recorded on. Most of all, it produced a cracking live album of some of the best music Ozzy and his bandmates ever produced.

The “No More Tours” tour stretched through the back half of 1992, and the songs from this live album were taken from several shows on that run, including from Orlando, Atlanta and Cincinatti.
The first thing to consider here are the performances. And they don’t miss a beat. Ozzy is in fine form, no doubt standing in front of his autocue to make sure he doesn’t forget the words, but he sings everything terrifically. Zakk Wylde on guitar is as awesome as ever, every nuance of every song is found with the correct ting of the string, from the ferocity of “War Pigs” and “Bark at the Moon” to the mood swings of “Mama I’m Coming Home” and “Goodbye to Romance”. He was truly on a prominent rise at this stage, before his journey into Black Label Society, when this was the dream gig that he had been waiting for. Mike Inez finds all of those wonderful Bob Daisley written bass runs perfectly through each song, and Randy Castillo is as powerful as ever on the drums. The performance of the band here is second to none.
The song set list is also a who’s who of the best that Ozzy has to offer. The Sabbath tracks “Paranoid” and “War Pigs” are as bombastic as always. The mix of tracks for the rest comes from all six of the studio albums to that point in time, with the focus remaining on the album they were touring on at the time, “No More Tears” with five songs from that album. Only one song appears from each of the mid-era albums, represented by “Bark at the Moon”, “Shot in the Dark” and “Miracle Man”, while the Randy era albums get the six classic tracks played, as one would expect.
At the end of the album we have the aforementioned reunion of the original four members of Black Sabbath performing that title track, which, while it was a somewhat momentous moment at the time, has paled into insignificance in the years since. And for all the grief it caused at the time, with Dio leaving Sabbath again and Tony Martin returning to Sabbath again, and Ozzy deciding he WASN’T going to retire after all and in fact go on for another 30 years of albums and tours, including one more with Black Sabbath again... it feels more and more like an Ozzy promotional exercise than any other possibility. But in the long run, the people behind Ozzy’s career were always looking for those angles.

The most annoying part of this album’s recording and release was that, once again, Australia got looked over for a tour by the band, and as it had been ‘the final tour’ we believed we were never going to get to see him perform these songs live, which was very frustrating.
I got the album on its release and played it on rotation over a long period of time. The live versions of all the songs were just fantastic. Sure, perhaps the Randy era versions on the “Tribute” album were better, but not by much. And it was great to hear songs like “Bark at the Moon” and “Miracle Man” get the live treatment.
And as I’ve said before here when reviewing live albums for this podcast, live albums really all should be brilliant, because you are getting the best songs in their best environment, and that is absolutely true of “Live & Loud”. Great songs, performed by a great band. And there is probably no better way to “finish” your career than for it to be with this song.

1207. Deep Purple / Nobody's Perfect [Live]. 1988. 5/5

In many ways, the release of this new live album by Deep Purple came at the right time. Having brought back their classic line up, toured the world endlessly and brought out two brand new albums, ones that showcased each member of the band perfectly and also showed that they could still write songs and albums that were contemporary of the time yet retained the essence of what made them Deep Purple, all that really remained was to show that they were still doing that on stage as well.
On top of this, the ability to not only play their newer material live was counter argued that they had to show they could still pay the older material with the fire and passion that they always had in the past, and that they still deserved in the next decade.
Recording of the live tracks took place in several locations, including Irvine Meadows California, Phoenix, Oslo and Milan. As it is a collection of live tracks from several shows rather than just one concert, there is a fade in and out between most of the songs on the album, which is something with live albums that can sometimes annoy me greatly. However, it is done so seamlessly here that it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the album at all. Roger Glover as producer finds a way of putting these fades in without destroying the live appearance which is excellent. The mix between the old, well known songs and the newer material is also well done, so that it doesn’t feel as though there is a proliferation of one over the other when listening to the album for the first time.

The first half of the album concentrates on material from the two albums released in the 80’s, “Perfect Strangers” and “The House of Blue Light”. “Perfect Strangers” and “Knocking at Your Back Door” both come from the aforementioned album, while “Dead or Alive”, “Hard Lovin’ Woman” and “Bad Attitude” are from the album they were touring on at the time. Other songs were played on the tour from that album, including “Call of the Wild” and “The Unwritten Law” but didn’t make the cut here, which seems unusual as “Call of the Wild” was the single released from that album. All the new tracks sound great here, which makes it unfortunate that most rarely saw the light of day live again.
Of the rest, all the great songs from the bands golden era are here - “Highway Star”, “Strange Kind of Woman”, “Child in Time”, “Lazy”, “Space Truckin’”, “Black Night”, “Woman from Tokyo” and “Smoke on the Water” - songs that would be hard to leave out of any Deep Purple set list.
What is also great about this album is that it shows the play off that goes on stage during their gigs, banter between Ian Gillan and bandmates and the crowd as well, Ritchie Blackmore chiming in with doodles and riffs from other songs which Gillan then plays along with. For two guys who had a long running disagreement while in the band together, they still did this kind of stuff really well.
The last song on the album is a reimagining of one of Deep Purple’s earliest hits, “Hush”, this one with Ian Gillan on vocals and a modern sound to it. Personally, I love this version, more than the original. It’s how the song always sounds to my ears now even when I hear the other versions that have been recorded.
The band, as you would expect, sound brilliant as always. Apart from Gillan and Blackmore, Jon Lord’s organ playing is magnificent, and his little solo leading up to “Knocking at Your Back Door” is wonderful. And the rhythm of Roger Glover and Ian Paice as always drives the band from the back seat, rarely afforded a leading position in front of the other three, but just as important in bringing the power to the songs, and in particular to the intro to one of Purple’s best ever songs.

There were several releases of this album with different variations of the songs available on them due to time constraints of the audio device produced, and I have owned all of them over the years. I initially bought the cassette version because it was the only copy available at my local record store when I found it, and so it went into the car and was played a lot at that time. Eventually I bought a CD copy of the album some years later to complement it.
I loved both of the albums the band released in the 1980’s, and therefore loved this album that combined the old and the new together in a terrific format. And given that I never believed I would get a chance to see the band live, this was as good as it got for me. Fortunately, down the road, I got that opportunity.
As live albums go, this gets an A from me. You know my opinion of lie albums, they should ALL be good because they contain the best songs, but as this one does combine the two eras of the Mark II lineup, it is especially good. Sure, you won't get any of the Coverdale/Hughes/Bolin songs here, as is also the case since the 1970’s sadly, but you will get some great songs performed excellently. And that in itself is worth the price of admission.

1206. Nuclear Assault / Survive. 1988. 4/5

Perhaps the greatest component about thrash metal - and certainly this is probably more relevant to the early origins of the genre and not necessarily the latter day proponents - is that it is just FUN! What's not to like about drums that are flying along at an indelible speed, careering almost out of control, as the guitars riff and crush along at the same tempo, whilst the front man sings and screams his/her lyrics over the top. And who cares what the lyrics are about? Death? Satan? War? It's not a contest to become the most poignantly relevant band in the world you know! (well, not for everyone). It's about enjoyment of the music and how that music makes you feel when it comes on.
Nuclear Assault grew out of the dismissal of bass guitarist Danny Lilker from Anthrax, and his decision to not only put together another band, but one that wanted to go in a more aggressive fashion than his previous band was heading. Bringing together John Connolly, Anthony Bramante and Glenn Evans, the band released the EP “Brain Death” before releasing their debut album “Game Over” two months later.
After a touring schedule that saw them support many of the best bands of their genre across the country, the same foursome came together to write and record the follow up album. Prior to this they released a second EP titled “The Plague” which contained a song critical of the decision to allow Vince Neil to escape jail time over the car crash he created that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle. It was the sign of things to come lyrically for the band, with more potent songs taking on issues that they had problems with, and combining it with their increasingly faster and thrashier style of music, heading into extreme territory in their quest to create the sound that would make them stand out from the crowd. The result was something that, for many people, exceeded that successfully.

After the excellence of the first album, the band needed to ramp things up here on their second effort if they wanted to continue to be successful and bring in more fans. And while they had done so in that first album and both of the EP’s, on “Survive” they brought a more topical lyrical content to the songs, along with ramping up the speed and intensity of the tracks.
A number of the songs still deal with the band’s title, and the threat of nuclear war and the aftermath it may bring, but they also tackle current topics, such as in “Fight to be Free” where they take aim at the government over decision making that the ‘young’ (whom I presume they are including themselves in) find to be incoherent. “Great Depression” seems to be a vicious cycle of abuse, but works well for the youthful fans who would have had no trouble at all chanting away the lyrics to offset their dark moments. Still, “Rise from the Ashes” and “Survive” and “Technology” all still harp on the nuclear winter, dark and angry lyrics that lend themselves to the music around them.
Having said all of this, the album finishes off quite strangely with a cover of the Led Zeppelin song “Good Times Bad Times”, which more than anything else highlights the complete difference between what Nuclear Assault write, and then what comes from one of the great classic bands from another era. It is noticeably different, and indeed weakens the end of the album because it is so different. Was it added just to get the album length to 30 minutes? Or did they really think this was a good idea. The first thought seems the more likely.
The music itself is excellent, for those that are fans of thrash metal at its core. It isn’t the mature almost smooth sounding thrash that that age of Metallica was. It was thrash metal at its essence. The influence of Anthrax is still noticeable in some songs and some of the riffs that arise, but this is definitely not a clone album of that description. Anthony Bramante and John Connelly are excellent here, with some of the lead breaks excellent, while the hard core rhythm of Dan Lilker and Glenn Evans is excellent, providing the engine room that drives the album to its peak.
The album tops out at the 30 minute mark, so there is nothing much left in the tank once you get to the end. It’s fast, it’s furious, and it’s here for a good time not a long time, notwithstanding the cover song to finish it all off.

No one in my friend group from high school came forth with material from Nuclear Assault at the time this album, or all their albums, were released. More is the pity, because it took me a little over 20 years to finally track down their albums and listen to them. Such was the problem living in Australia, some bands albums were difficult to source, but also you need someone to ‘discover’ them for you as well, and then pass it on, in those days of shared cassettes. So though I knew the band existed, I didn’t hear this album until well into the new century. And from the moment I heard this album and their debut album, I knew I’d missed a trick. Because it is pure 80’s thrash metal, there is no mistaking its place in time. And it is prior to growling vocals and all the other tricks that came later on in the 90’s and 2000’s.
So once I found these two albums, I played them a LOT, and bathed in the glory of the guitars and speed and relatively short songs, with the album almost over before you knew it, so you just had to put it on again because you feared you had missed a couple of tracks.
I really enjoy this album. Danny Lilker’s experience with both Anthrax and then Stormtroopers of Death does shine through in the songs here, but in their own style rather than being a copycat. Beyond this album things appeared to change, but that seemed to be from internal issues and the changing landscape, something most 80’s bands suffered from. But “Survive” stands as a testament to this era of thrash, and even to today retains its freshness in attitude and fun. And if an album can continue to draw out great feelings like that after 35 years, then you know it was done the right way at the time.