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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Black Sabbath-Last Supper, The (NTSC) (1999)
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Black Sabbath-Last Supper, The (NTSC) (1999) (NTSC)
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Details At A Glance
| General |
Extras |
| Category |
Music |
Biographies-Cast
Gallery-Photo
Featurette-Electronic Press Kit (7:25)
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| Rating |
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Year Of Production
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1999
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| Running Time |
106:14
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RSDL
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Flipper
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RSDL (61:45)
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Cast & Crew |
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Start Up
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Programme |
| Region Coding |
1,2,3,4,5,6
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Directed By |
Jeb Brien
Monica Hardiman
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Studio
Distributor |
Sony Music
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Starring |
Ozzy Osbourne
Tommy Iommi
Geezer Butler
Bill Ward
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| Case |
Amaray-Opaque |
| RPI |
$34.95
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Music |
Black Sabbath
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NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.
Plot Synopsis
It is only fitting that, a couple of months after Ozzy Osbourne's so-called farewell video is released on our beloved format, the video footage gleaned from the infamous reunion concerts that took place a few years later should be made into a disc of its own. That disc is The Last Supper, and it is a showcasing of the fact that even after nearly twenty years of b****ing and fighting, Black Sabbath can get up and make far more powerful music than the thousands of try-hards that Sony love to claim are inspired by them. Hell, they can even give the genuine-article bands that are truly inspired by the Sabbath magic, such as Type O Negative, a real run for their money. As the biography that was obviously written by someone who has no idea what the music is about states, the footage on this DVD is gleaned from six shows that were played in one place or another during the Reunion tour of 1998. Between each song, all four members of the band tell a few secrets about the evolution of their music, and in order, the tracks on this DVD are as follows: - Program Start (an introduction consisting of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward talking about how the reunion came about and how glad they are it did... they're not the only ones!)
- War Pigs (a perennial classic from the Paranoid album that Faith No More utterly ruined)
- N.I.B. (another perennial classic, this one from the self-titled debut album)
- Electric Funeral (a rarely-heard piece of brilliance from the Paranoid album)
- Fairies Wear Boots (another rarely-heard piece of brilliance from the Paranoid album)
- Into The Void (the closing track from the Master Of Reality album, average by Sabbath standards, or just a total paragon by any others)
- Snowblind (the song that Vol. 4 was originally going to be named after)
- After Forever (a well-veiled piss-take of Christian attitudes from the Master Of Reality album, and a real classic)
- Dirty Women (an unusual inclusion, from the Never Say Die album)
- Black Sabbath (the song they named themselves after, and the one Type O Negative turned into an immortal classic, from the album of the same name)
- Iron Man (from the Paranoid album, and so doomy that it's common to hear the audience singing along with the guitar riffs)
- Children Of The Grave (a perennial classic from the Master Of The Reality album: more oomph in two notes than the try-hards can put into a whole song)
- Paranoid (from the album of the same name, and proof that even a light-hearted Sabbath song has more power to it than the heaviest try-hard effort)
- Closing Credits
To my annoyance, most of these songs are cut off early by a slightly over-enthusiastic editor, or have interview footage placed in the middle of them like N.I.B. does. I do not want this interview footage in the middle of my songs, Epic, so get it the hell off my DVD right now. Black Sabbath are the greatest and most influential band of the Twentieth Century, so this treatment of their work is nothing short of a joke.
Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.
Track Listing
1. Program Start
2. War Pigs
3. N.I.B.
4. Electric Funeral
5. Fairies Wear Boots
6. Into The Void
7. Snowblind
| 8. After Forever
9. Dirty Women
10. Black Sabbath
11. Iron Man
12. Children Of The Grave
13. Paranoid
14. Closing Credits
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Transfer Quality
Video
After the stunning experience that Live & Loud presented, I was looking forward to being able to tell you that Epic have produced another sterling effort that should be regarded as the standard by which all digital music videos should be judged. While it falls short of this kind of quality, it still sits well beside Live & Loud as an example of how music video should look. The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and is not 16x9 Enhanced. I am not sure what aspect ratio the VHS version of this music video was presented in, but the transfer doesn't suffer too much for this limitation. It is also in the NTSC format, which means that you're out of luck if your equipment is not capable of displaying this signal. These slight grievances aside, the video transfer is as sharp as such a transfer allows, with every important detail being completely clear and easy to make out. It is easy to see how the video is in perfect sync with the audio, to the point of Tony Iommi's and Geezer Butler's hand movements being perfectly in sync with the music. Shadow detail was as good as it needed to be, given that the stage is perfectly lit, and that all the details hidden by slight darkness are still fairly easy to see. Low-level noise is not a problem at any time, and film grain is absolutely non-existent, reflecting the youth of the source material.
MPEG artefacts were quite noticeably, and happily, absent from the transfer, with the bit-rate of the main feature consistently hovering around eight or nine Mb/s, as it certainly should. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some shimmering in stadium seats during footage of the band rehearsing, but they were otherwise completely absent to the point that you would expect of an anamorphic transfer. Sadly, film artefacts picked up the slack, with white flecks and hairs showing up in the concert footage in mild frequency and moderate amounts. This is a terrible pity, as the video transfer would certainly be reference quality if not for the problems with aliasing and marks on the negative.
The disc is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change coming in at 61:45. I just want to go on record as saying that I have never seen, nor do I ever hope to see, a briefer, more unobtrusive layer change. It comes at the end of Geezer Butler concluding a series of monologues by the band about the things that kept the band going, and eventually killed it for the better part of two decades, between Snowblind and After Forever. Hats off to whomever was in charge of placing the video and audio data on the disc, as the total change seems to take less than a zillionth of a second, if that.
Audio
As you would rightly expect, the audio transfer takes all those who undeservedly claim the Sabbath influence and kicks them in the butt until they begin to bleed from the nose, eyes, and ears in copious amounts. Every note grabs hold of the listener and hits them with everything it has, and the subtle nuances of the interview footage don't offer much relief, either. The audio is presented in two flavours, both of them being the original English (I cannot conceive of these songs being in any other language except maybe Latin, and good luck trying to sync that). Your typical Dolby Digital 5.1 remix is present and accounted for, as is a Linear Pulse Code Modulation soundtrack based on the original stereo master that was used to comprise the VHS cassette. As you would obviously expect from someone who enjoys these songs so much, I listened to both mixes from start to finish. The main difference between the two mixes is that the music is not quite as aggressive in the Dolby Digital format, being more subtly spread through the channels. The music is impeccably mixed, with not a single instrument losing out or being overly dominative, not even the traditionally neglected (or even sometimes over-amplified and consequently distorted) bass channel. Neither mix suffers from any problems with clarity or distortion to detract from the sheer kicking power of the music. The vocals were clear and easy to understand within the limits of two important factors: the listener's familiarity with the lyrics and Ozzy Osbourne's somewhat annoying tendency to mutter in order to compensate for the speed of the music, which is especially bad during After Forever. In case you're wondering what I mean with that last factor, Ozzy used to slow down the master tape during the recording sessions of the early-to-mid 1970s so that he would find it easier to stay in time when recording his vocal tracks. This resulted in a very noticeable pitch shift when the master tape was returned to its normal speed for transfer to whatever medium was used, and this problem cannot be eliminated even today by digital remastering. Sadly, live performances do not allow for such tricks to be used, and it shows from time to time.
The surround presence was somewhat limited in the PCM mix, with the rear channels only being used to contain such sounds as the audience and some noise during the interview footage. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, however, took the music and spread the overall presence around the channels, resulting in a much more immersive, if somewhat uneven, experience. Sadly, the level of the sound tended to vary up and down a little during the 5.1 mix, whereas the PCM mix stayed as steady as a rock. The subwoofer was called upon quite heavily and constantly to support the lower registers of the music, with the drums and bass coming out quite wonderfully. If it wasn't for the interruptions by the interspersed interview footage, this would really be the definition of a reference quality PCM audio transfer.
Extras
One thing I am steamed about is that the commentary from the band members, which is presented as interview footage between, and sometimes during, the songs, is not encoded as a separate track with the songs being presented without interruption. This is really infuriating, and ruins what should have been the best experience of the disc - the rendition of Black Sabbath. Hopefully, Epic will come to their senses and remaster this disc with the songs presented complete and without interruption. Menu
The menu is presented with some minor animation and theme-setting audio. It is not 16x9 enhanced. The chapter selection menu is presented as a song selection menu instead of the traditional arrangement we normally see. Band Biography
This was obviously written by some dork who doesn't understand what the music is about. When Epic remasters this disc and jettisons the interview footage (or encodes it as a separate audio track), I also urge them to get someone who knows what Black Sabbath are about to write their biographies. Peter Steele would do a very good job of this, given how brilliantly his band have already rendered the song they named themselves after. Photo Gallery
A series of stills taken from shows during the Reunion tour, without any annotation of any kind. Amusing to look at the first time, but otherwise a waste of space. Featurette - Reunion Electronic Press Kit
An extended advertisement for the Reunion live double-album. Since most people who would buy this disc would probably already have this album, it is of limited value.
R4 vs R1
NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.
This disc is identical the world over.
Summary
Black Sabbath: The Last Supper is a very disappointing DVD. Epic Music Video failed to realize that when you're dealing with a band as powerful and as standard-setting as Black Sabbath, you're supposed to shut up with the running commentary and let the music speak for itself. As a result, much of the music and presentation is ruined. The video quality is surprisingly good, and denied reference status only by carelessness.
The audio quality is reference material unless you decide to try out the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.
The extras are as disappointing as the main feature.
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© Dean McIntosh (Don't talk about my bio. We don't wanna know.)
Friday, May 05, 2000
| Review Equipment |
| DVD | Grundig GDV-100D/Toshiba 2109, using S-Video output |
| Display | Samsong CS-823AMF (80cm)/Panasonic TC-29R20 (68 cm).
This display device is 16x9 capable.
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| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver.
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| Amplification | Sony STR DE-835 |
| Speakers | Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Sharp CP-303A Back Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer |
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