Some of my long-time readers will recall my mentioning that I have never had any love for picture discs. Historically, they always look cool but sound awful. You can check out a review I did here for the Black Sabbath Hand of Doom box set from the Ozzy era, which is nothing but picture discs. As usual, it looks awesome, but that whole set has more surface noise than a wax cylinder.
They are great for collectors, but I suspect a lot of people bought those sets so they could have all the Sabbath albums on vinyl in one shot. I am sure more than one buyer noticed how bad they sounded and decided to go back to CDs, or even worse, streaming or MP3.
That said, picture disc technology does seem to have come a long way in a relatively short time. Either that, or some companies know how to make good ones and some simply do not.
The last official picture disc related release I talked about here was when Pink Floyd put out Dark Side of the Moon on those clear UV discs, which are sort of but not quite picture discs. You can read that review if you are so inclined. Apart from those, most of the picture discs I have picked up lately have been unofficial, with Ultimate Sin In Chicago being the latest addition to my Ozzy collection.
Casino Records almost always puts out good stuff, but I was skeptical that even they could pull off a truly listenable picture disc. The very nature of how these things are made makes that difficult.
Well, I cannot argue with results.
The release
Casino has somehow managed to make a genuinely great one here. They chose some excellent period appropriate Ozzy images for the discs themselves and packaged everything in a themed triple gatefold sleeve, complete with the usual resealable Casino outer sleeve and numbered hype sticker.
These sets are limited to just 300 copies, which really is not very many for an Ozzy title.
The LPs themselves are very heavy, totally flat, and free of defects. Like most picture discs, they come housed in thick clear sleeves rather than paper or poly lined inners. I gave mine a cleaning and swapped them out for rice paper sleeves, but honestly, keeping them in the factory sleeves would not hurt.
Cleaning notes
Normally, anything I spin goes through one round in the ultrasonic, followed by a vacuum clean and rinse. I used to include an enzymatic cleaner in that process, but replaced it with the ultrasonic step, which is cheaper, faster, and more effective overall.
However, I do not recommend using ultrasonic cleaners or enzymatic solutions on picture discs. Because of how they are constructed, aggressive cleaning could potentially damage them. In this case, I used a basic vacuum clean and rinse only, and it worked perfectly. The discs were not visibly dirty to begin with, so caution made sense.
Audience Recording – UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL, USA – 5th April, 1986
A1 Carmina Burana Intro
A2 Bark At The Moon
A3 Suicide Solution
A4 Never Know Why
A5 Mr. Crowley
B1 Shot In The Dark
B2 I Don’t Know
B3 Killer Of Giants
B4 Guitar Solo (Jake E. Lee)
C1 Thank God For The Bomb
C2 Flying High Again
C3 Secret Loser
C4 Drum Solo (Randy Castillo)
D1 The Ultimate Sin
D2 Iron Man
D3 Crazy Train
The Show
As far as the performance itself goes, this is a great show. The playing is excellent across the board, and the audio quality is very strong for an audience recording.
There is a bit of tape noise near the very beginning, but it disappears quickly as the taper settles in. After that point, this becomes one of those audience tapes that really put you in the room. Crowd noise is present, but well balanced… audible without being intrusive.
As frequent readers know, I am a huge Jake E. Lee fan, so I need to spend some time here.
One of the most unusual things about this show is how heavily it leans on The Ultimate Sin material.
Most Jake era shows focus overwhelmingly on the Randy Rhoads years, padded with newer hits like “Bark at the Moon” and “Shot in the Dark”. This performance digs much deeper into the album, which is a real treat for collectors.
“Bark at the Moon” opens the show with a hard-hitting start. The crowd is immediately engaged, and Jake plays an altered solo that keeps the structure intact while adding some live flair. A fantastic opening.
“Never Know Why” is a rarely heard gem. If you are a fan of The Ultimate Sin, this one feels like striking gold. The solo is improvised but instantly recognizable.
“Mr. Crowley” has a couple of brief tape issues right at the start, but they vanish quickly. The bass and drums really stand out here, likely a combination of the live mix and taper positioning. Structurally it stays close to the studio version, with just enough Jake to make it unique.
When I got to “Shot in the Dark”, I could not help but think about how ironic it is that Phil Soussan, the bass player here, was a major factor in Jake eventually being fired from Ozzy’s band. Jake talks about this in detail on his recent Talk Is Jericho interview, which I highly recommend. The performance itself is excellent. Whether it was worth firing one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time to keep the songwriter happy, I will leave that for you to decide. Phil, for what it is worth, is still touring off that one song today. So… get your tickets now, I guess.
“I Don’t Know” is a faithful version of the original, but this is where I really locked in on Randy Castillo. Jake personally helped get Randy the gig, even offering to cover travel costs if it did not work out. He was absolutely right. Randy was one of Ozzy’s best drummers, with my personal favorite still being Tommy Clufetos.
Randy’s drum solo later in the show is refreshing. No hand drumming gimmicks, but far from boring. The audience is clearly into it, which is not always the case.
When Ozzy introduces “Killer of Giants”, he makes it clear that this is the Jake E. Lee feature of the evening, and he is right. It may not define the era for casual fans, but guitar players know exactly how massive this song is. It was not played often, which makes its appearance here especially welcome.
Right after that, we get an extended guitar solo that eventually turns into a band jam. This is the only moment where I found myself wishing for a bit more fidelity. Some nuance is lost on the tape, but without recordings like this, these moments would be gone forever.
“Thank God for the Bomb” follows and is another underappreciated favorite. The vocals are strong, effects are tasteful, and the live explosions do not overload the recording.
“Secret Loser” effectively becomes a three-part sequence with the drum solo inserted in the middle, even if the track listing does not spell it out. Ozzy returns for another verse afterward, making it feel more like “Secret Loser”, “Drum Solo”, and “Secret Loser (Reprise).
Once we reach Side D, the show is nearing its end. “The Ultimate Sin” sounds remarkably close to the album version. “Iron Man” is abbreviated, cutting out before the first guitar solo and moving straight into a full version of “Crazy Train”.
The Missing Encore
Normally, this is where we would expect “Paranoid”, and the audience clearly did.
Instead, Ozzy returns to the stage and explains that while he and the band would love to do an encore, Jake E. Lee has suddenly fallen ill and has been taken to the hospital, reportedly by ambulance.
I searched extensively to see if I could find confirmation of what actually happened, but no reliable contemporary information appears to exist. What is clear is that it is extremely unusual for an Ozzy show to end without an encore, which makes this night notable on its own.
If Jake had been sick throughout the show, you would never know it from his performance. Everything sounds tight and powerful from start to finish. Hopefully one day he will address it in an interview. I would love to know.
Final thoughts
Ultimate Sin In Chicago far exceeded my expectations for a picture disc. Casino Records pulled off something genuinely impressive here.
Pressing and packaging get a solid 10/10. Flat, quiet, visually striking, and thoughtfully presented. The audio source lands around 7.5/10, which is excellent for an audience recording.
This show absolutely deserved a vinyl pressing, and it has been done justice here.
I have another Ozzy picture disc from this era on the way from a different label, along with a non-picture disc version of the same show, so a comparison may be in order. If it is worth talking about, you know I will cover it here.
Until then, happy digging.