Raw Evil: Live at the Dynamo

Here's a little live EP that should've been completely legendary, considering that it was recorded and released during Forbidden's heyday, and contains the best 3 tracks off their excellent debut plus a timeless Judas Priest classic. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that well.

Firstly, the track listing is completely fucked. This EP starts with Judas Priest cover, which was actually played as the last song on that set. Russ even wishes us a goodbye after it and due to long pause before next song, one could even think that the EP ends here. Yup, the skips between tracks are too long, and this certainly doesn't feel as a live album from a single show only, but more as a collection of songs taken from different sets. Then, Forbidden Evil is placed OK, but on the B side of the vinyl the tracks are for some silly reason mixed again - Chalice of Blood was actually played after Through Eyes of Glass and not before as recorded here.

Secondly, the songs weren't executed as good as they should've been (check out some bootlegs from that era!), which was also admitted by Craig Locicero in the 1999 CD reissue. As the title states, this is indeed RAW, but also played with lots of mistakes and lack of energy, and Russ far from his top form to boot. Checking out the other live EP from same festival (Sacred Reich), which is as well raw and muddy, I don't really consider Dynamo as the best venue to record a live EP. Of course, it wasn't up to bands to really decide what's going to be released and what not - many bands were forced to release half assed live EPs back then just to fulfill their contracts.

So all in all, this is it. Forbidden's forced live EP released because it was demanded by their label. It has a similar effect as seeing a good band playing a bad show: even though they fuck up the songs, these songs are so good that you somewhat end up enjoying it after all. Listenable stuff, but Decade of Aggression or Another Lesson in Violence, this is not.