Black Sabbath – Asbury Park, New Jersey, 5th August 1975 (1993)

April 26, 2024

Quite possibly one of – if not the – greatest live album that I have ever heard. The fact that I’ve been listening to Sabbath for over 20 years and have never stumbled upon this recording until this week is nothing short of embarrassing. I feel like I have unlocked some sort of secret.

Anyway, the release itself is phenomenally good. The production, for a 1975 live recording, is absolutely fantastic. I’m not sure how much work has been done after the fact to clean it up, but either way, it sounds incredible. The entire band are firing on all cylinders – even Ozzy sounds brilliant – but Iommi’s riffs are just… I have no words. The version of “Symptom Of The Universe” here is off the chart.

Forget Live At Last, Reunion and definitely put The End in the bin. This is THE live album for the classic lineup of Sabbath.

This particular boot is from 1993 but this thing has been released on the black/grey market a million times.