It should be no surprise to anyone that there has been a literal flood of bootleg versions of the Back To The Beginning show. Official sources have announced that there will be a truncated theatrical version, but as far as I know, there’s no word yet on an audio version. Some people are speculating that we might never get a complete version of the show from an official source, and I have to say they might be right. I have a couple different versions of the full show, and what people pulled from the live stream just doesn’t sound terrific. It’s totally good enough for bootleg releases, but unless they have versions that they are keeping secret or are able to make some major adjustments, I’m not sure the quality is quite there.
Another issue that might hamper the possibility of a full show official release might be the actual music itself. Although the show was amazing, there were a few spots where things didn’t go as planned. Singers forgot lyrics or were out of key, a few noticeable technical issues here and there, and all that other stuff that just happens with live music. Going back and trying to fix that stuff, with the live streamed version out there already, might not go over so well with people. I think it’s possible we might see an official release with just the Ozzy and Sabbath sets, or those sets in combination with the Ozzy and Sabbath covers that the other bands played. Honestly, the show was great in person, but I don’t think I’m ever going to want to hear the whole thing at once again. The good news is that even if an official release never does come, we’ll at least have these cool versions from Evil Dead.
So far, Evil Dead has pressed three sets from Back To The Beginning, including the Ozzy and Sabbath ones I’ll cover here, as well as Metallica’s set. They are available individually, and you don’t have to buy all three if you don’t want to. I am not a Metallica fan, and so I did not pick that one up. I kind of figured seeing them play live might convert me, but alas it was not to be. I can see why other people like them, but they’ve just never clicked with me. Rumor has it that Evil Dead will be pressing other sets from the show at some point in the future. So far, Gun N’ Roses and Slayer have been mentioned, but we’ll have to see if there is any truth to that, and if there will be any other bands included. I’d really like to have the Pantera set on vinyl, so fingers crossed.
Both the Ozzy and Sabbath records look great. As always with Evil Dead, the packaging is superb and the artwork and colors on the jacket are very vibrant. There are other colors available, but so far, I’ve only gotten the green Sabbath and the violet Ozzy. Both are transparent, have the standard Evil Dead labels, and are very heavy LPs. These are short sets, so obviously each one is only a single LP. Both records came unsealed but included poly-lined inner sleeves. Neither of mine had any visible defects or issues, so I put them through my standard cleaning and started with the Sabbath.
Soundboard Recording (Black Sabbath) – Villa Park, Birmingham UK – 5th July, 2025
A1 Sabbra Cadabra
A2 War Pigs
B1 N.I.B.
B2 Iron Man
B3 Paranoid
The LP starts right in with crowd noise, and the recorded introduction that was played at the show. All the speaking was done over a background of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, so that’s what they have the track listed as here. I would have just called it “Introduction” or something, but I guess there is a bit of that song in there, so it’s technically accurate even though it’s a partial recording. As usual with Evil Dead, there is a small space between tracks. It’s noticeable, but it’s also not extreme or anything. Some people won’t notice, but it is distracting for me. As far as the sound quality goes, this came directly off the stream, so I suppose it’s accurate to label it as a soundboard recording. The mix itself is pretty good and the drums sound huge. It’s not perfect, but I would say it’s still very good.
At the end of Side A, there’s a sharp cutoff with no fading. Ozzy announces “N.I.B.” and gives an introduction for Geezer before he plays his solo. Then, the record just suddenly cuts off. I’m not sure why it was done this way instead of just saving the intro for the other side of the record. Flipping over to Side B, there is once again no fade-in, and the music starts on the first note of the bass solo. In my opinion, the cuts and fades are a real shame, since otherwise this is a near prefect pressing. There is zero surface noise on my copy, and the sound is massive.
I think that this is something every fan should hear, so I won’t say too much about the performances themselves. I will say that in my opinion, these guys did a crazy great job, and as someone who was in the audience that day, I can assure you that no one went away disappointed. I think the recording here does accurately represent what was heard at the show. No adjustments or overdubs were made for the livestream, so what you are getting here is the real deal. I think that Tony, Geezer and Ozzy turned in nearly flawless performances, and that Bill also did an excellent job. I think he has slowed down a little bit with age, but drums are an incredibly physical instrument, and this is to be expected. He went out there, hung with the best of them, and turned in a great performance.
Because they did sound so good, there was a lot of talk for a while about whether the band should have done more songs. Most people at the show were expecting Ozzy to do far less than he did, and I don’t think anyone knew how great he was going to sound. In the end though, I think this was the perfect set length, and that the song selection was great. After “Paranoid”, there’s some loud microphone hiss and crowd noise which goes on for quite a while. The good news is that we do get a fade here, since apparently it was part of the livestream. I think Evil Dead typically just leaves things how they are and presses them, so we got lucky here.
Soundboard Recording (Ozzy Osbourne) – Villa Park, Birmingham UK – 5th July, 2025
A1 O Fortuna
A2 I Don’t Know
A3 Mr. Crowley
B1 Suicide Solution
B2 Mama, I’m Coming Home
B3 Crazy Train
Moving on to the Ozzy record, Side A has a nice fade in. This mix sounds totally different to me than the mix for Sabbath, which happened just a few minutes later. I imagine that we can put these differences down to the vastly different tone and preferences of the musicians themselves. Truthfully, I think Ozzy’s mix does sound a little bit better. The band itself is incredible, boasting Zakk Wylde on guitar, Mike Inez on Bass, Adam Wakeman on keyboards and Tommy Clufetos on drums. At the end of Side A, Ozzy announces the next song as “Suicide Solution” and the record cuts out to nothing. Very frustrating. Side B doesn’t cut in quite as harshly and the Sabbath did, but they just got lucky with the original audio source.
As far as which songs are standout, this is a short set and every one of them is great. Except for “Mama I’m Coming Home”, every song was from the original Blizzard of Ozz record. If you saw the livestream, you already know what an amazing job these guys did and how great Ozzy’s voice was during this final performance. If you were happy with the sound of the stream, I think you’ll be happy with what we have here on the records. Outside of probably doing a bit of mastering specifically for vinyl, I don’t think the audio was really changed very much. Just like on the Sabbath LP though, we have more microphone hiss and noise at the end of Side B. I think some of the noise is the fireworks and confetti cannons, but it’s LOUD. I’m not sure why this was left in, but there is a nice fade out at the end of the disc.
Even with the few issues, I really enjoyed listening to these records and they look great. I am hoping to get the additional colors soon, and I also hope that they will release more bands in the Back To The Beginning series. For the Sabbath record, the packaging is an easy 10/10, and the pressing is about a 7/10. There is no surface noise or anything like that to speak of, but the fading issues and the choices on where to cut the audio between sides is a little weird. The Ozzy record is still a 10/10 on packaging, but I give that one an 8.5/10 for the press. The only thing keeping it from a solid 10 are once again the fading and cutting issues.
Honestly, I still wouldn’t hesitate to pick these up while they are still around and available at a good price. We can never be sure what will be released officially and what won’t. Obviously, I’m going to be buying whatever official versions come out as well and would encourage collectors to do the same. In the meantime, though, these new pressings from Evil Dead will be more than enough to tide me over until something else comes up on the horizon.