Favorite Non-Maiden live album

Prowler_108

Trooper
Title explains it.
For me this requires no thought: Alive in Athens by Iced Earth is the best heavy metal live recording ever.
 
I think UFO's Strangers in the Night is the second greatest live album ever (Live After Death takes top spot). Other worthy contenders would be KISS Alive and The Who's Live at Leeds.
 
It's not an album, but it's a VHS/DVD which can all be easily converted to audio format; it's Black Sabbath - Never Say Die (A Decade Of Black Sabbath), live at Hammersmith Odeon, June 19th, 1978. Just seminal, mind blowing, essential and I used to watch it twice a day, back in 1997/1998.

Former offcial live albums I love are Judas Priest's Unleashed In The East & Rush's Rush In Rio. Most of my fave live registers are originally released on VHS/DVD.
 
Don't listen to too many live albums.Dio at Donnington was really good.
 
Jeffmetal said:
It's not an album, but it's a VHS/DVD which can all be easily converted to audio format; it's Black Sabbath - Never Say Die (A Decade Of Black Sabbath), live at Hammersmith Odeon, June 19th, 1978. Just seminal, mind blowing, essential and I used to watch it twice a day, back in 1997/1998.

Could you explain why -in the league of all these great Sabbath records- exactly this period is your favourite of the Ozzy (and alltime Sabbath) era?

Wasn't Never Say Die one of the biggest flops (together with Technical Ecstasy), and wasn't it the most non-Sabbath sounding record of the seventies, containing some poppy material, with all those sweet keyboards and piano, and even material without Ozzy on it (sweet vocals)?

Hell, Ozzy had even left the band before the recordings started!

I can imagine that you're not a big fan of this review on Allmusic:



After going their separate ways for a brief period following the emotionally taxing and drug-infested Technical Ecstasy tour, Black Sabbath and singer Ozzy Osbourne reconciled long enough to record 1978's Never Say Die! -- an album whose varied but often unfocused songs perfectly reflected the band's uneasy state of affairs at the time. Even the surprisingly energetic title track, which seemed to kick things off with a promising bang, couldn't entirely mask the group's fading enthusiasm just beneath the surface after a few repeated listens. The same was true of half-hearted performances like "Shock Wave" and "Over to You," and there were several songs on the record that sound strangely disjointed, specifically "Junior's Eyes" and the synthesizer-doused "Johnny Blade" -- as though their creation came in fits and starts, rather than through cohesive band interaction. But when it came to wild, stylistic departures, one's disappointing realization that the lurching, saxophone-led "Breakout" came from -- and then went back to -- absolutely nowhere was easily offset by the stunningly successful oddity that was "Air Dance." Arguably the most experimental song in Black Sabbath's entire canon, this uncharacteristically mild-mannered and effortlessly evocative ballad saw Tony Iommi's normally bullish guitar giving way to simply mesmerizing piano flourishes performed by leading session keyboardist Don Airey. If only it had represented a bold new direction (albeit one that die-hard fans would never have accepted) rather than just another sign of the band's quickly fraying sense of identity, Black Sabbath's original lineup may have found a way to save itself -- but Never Say Die!'s incoherent musical aggregate in fact betrayed the harsh reality that it was indeed too late. So even though those same die-hard Black Sabbath fans and completists will likely find some redeeming value in Never Say Die! after all these years, the original lineup's final gasp will hold little interest to the average heavy metal fan.
 
Tough choice. Most of my favourite bands have released at least one brilliant live album. Those that come to mind immediately are Strangers in the Night by UFO, Different Stages by Rush, Made in Japan by Deep Purple, Alive in Athens by Iced Earth and On Stage by Rainbow. If I dug a bit deeper, I'd find more that I would kill myself for ommiting. Like How the West was Won by Led Zeppelin.

However, as much as I truly love the above albums, I think three others are very special to me. The first would be Scream for me Brazil by Bruce Dickinson. No particular reason to be found in the album itself, but I have the same emotional attachment to it as I do to almost all of Bruce's albums. The second is Live from Radio City Music Hall by Black Sabbath Heaven and Hell. Even from a tiny Youtube screen, the sheer magic of Dio and Iommi being on the same stage gave me the chills, and I was hoping and praying that I would get the chance to see them live. Which is why maybe Neon Nights could replace this one in my heart - both because it's Dio's last recorded show, and I was there. I haven't watched or listened to it yet, though. Finally, there is P.U.L.S.E. by Pink Floyd. For the most part, the show is pretty good though not really mind-blowing, and there are some moments which I think aren't even all that good... but the one and only reason I will always keep this is David Gilmour's solo on Comfortably Numb, which may well be the greatest moment in rock history. This is what the electric guitar was invented for, and you could almost say that every other solo that came afterwards is irrelevant.
 
Very tough choice indeed.

I really like these:

Iced Earth - Alive in Athens
Rush - Exit Stage Left
Rush - Different Stages
Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder
Judas Priest - Live!

Years ago I also played to death:
Kiss - Alive II
Gamma Ray - Alive '95

Still, the biggest impact was made by the live album of my 2nd favourite band:

Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East

That will be my choice.
 
'No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith' - Motörhead
'Live Evil' - Black Sabbath
'Live Insurrection' - Halford
'Tribute' - Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads
'Unleashed In The East' - Judas Priest
'The Birthday Party' - Motörhead
'As Live As It Gets' - Blaze
 
Kiss -- Alive and Alive II
Deep Purple -- Maiden Japan
Sabbath -- Live Evil
Ozzy -- Tribute
Slayer -- Decade of Agression
JP -- Unleashed in the East
Metallica -- Live Shit
 
Iced Earth - Alive In Athens
Gamma Ray - Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome
Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys - The Legacy - World Tour 2005-2006
Megadeth - That One Night - Live In Buenos Aires (best audience ever)
Manowar - The Absolute Power
 
Hard to get some together, but here is a few:

Deep Purple - Maiden Japan: Possibly the greatest live album of them all.
Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous: The album that got me in to metal/hard rock.
Black Sabbath - Live Evil: Why? I saw them on that tour and as such, it has a special place here.
Slayer - Decade of Aggression: Again, I saw them on this tour at Wembley.
If You Want Blood - AC/DC: A particular favourite from my school days.

As the title does not actually specify metal.....
Stiff Little Fingers - Hanx: Ulsters finest could not thank the audience enough and as it was said in such a strong Belfast accent, it gave way to the albums title.
 
There are a lot of live albums I like a lot, but frankly none of them beat Alive in Athens.  It's also my oldest non-Maiden live album.
 
On Stage by Rainbow and Live in Europe/Stagestruck by Rory Gallagher were the first live albums I ever listened along with LAD.I've been listening to these for as long as I can remember myself so it's very easy to call them favorites.
Alive in Athens by Iced Earth and Rising Force Live 1985(or Live in Japan 1985) by Yngwie Malmsteen are albums that I got into later on and I really enjoy listening to them.
 
Murder89 said:
On Stage by Rainbow and Live in Europe/Stagestruck by Rory Gallagher were the first live albums I ever listened along with LAD.I've been listening to these for as long as I can remember myself so it's very easy to call them favorites.
Alive in Athens by Iced Earth and Rising Force Live 1985(or Live in Japan 1985) by Yngwie Malmsteen are albums that I got into later on and I really enjoy listening to them.

I really like Catch The Rainbow version!

Are those albums in your signature you recently listened to or are they just there, to represent your favorite albums?
 
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