When it comes to Evil Dead Records, I have to admit they have some of the coolest looking wax on the market. As a label, they’ve been around for years. Up until now though, I had never gotten anything from them. I’ve always thought of them as mainly an Iron Maiden focused label (which I think they are), and I simply don’t listen to them. Lots of people do, but they just aren’t my thing. I thought that might change when I saw an Iron Maiden tribute band on tour with Zakk Sabbath this year, but somehow, I ended up liking them even less. “The Trooper” is ok. I guess. But the good news is that Evil Dead has released Diary of a Madman: USA 82’ Tour just recently, and I finally decided to get a couple copies and see what they are all about.
As I have mentioned in the past, I can be a sucker for “variants” when they look nice. In the case of this release, it’s available in blue, smoke/clear, black (with a lithograph numbered out of 66 copies) and a black test pressing. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a seller who can even offer you all the different colors, as apparently manufacturers usually send based on quantity rather than color. I was able to find someone who got me all three colors, but I passed on the test pressing. I think I only own two test pressings. One is from an official release that I really love and collect multiple copies of, and the other is from an Ozzy boot that sold out all the standard copies. Otherwise, they are one aspect of hard-core record collecting that I am, thankfully, not interested in.
All three colors of wax look great, even though the blue turned out to be a little more “drab” in person than it did in the ad copy. The labels appear to be standard for Evil Dead, and there is nothing printed on them telling one release apart from another. No writing on them at all, aside from the labeling of sides. The jackets are absolutely stunning and have a bit of texture to them. The colors are very sharp and clear, and the printing is outstanding. This is a gatefold jacket, and the inside lists all the song lyrics. An odd choice for an unofficial record maybe, but I think it’s a nice touch. The only issue I found with the pressing and packaging at all was the smell. I guess it’s the ink or something, but when I opened the package, the smell was strong enough to give me a headache. This is no big deal of course, as you can easily air the stuff out, but it was odd enough that I thought I would mention it.
As far as the lithograph goes, I think it’s really nice. It’s the same artwork as the front cover of the record, and the paper and printing are high quality. It is hand numbered, and you could certainly frame it and have a unique unofficial Ozzy collectable that’s pretty limited. I believe the character in the artwork is based on the executioner from the live Diary shows, and the cross is certainly a famous Ozzy prop. Is the art AI generated? I would imagine so, but it looks way better than most of the other AI based covers I have seen. This one could go either way, but I have doubts that a bootleg record label would employ an artist to do covers for as many records as Evil Dead puts out. There was, of course, an additional cost to get the version with the lithograph, but surprisingly, it was pretty negligible. If you can find a seller than has one, I actually recommend this particular “extra”.
For listening, I decided to go with the blue copy. I did clean and check the black and smoke variants as well, and all three were flat, clean and free of defects. I gave them a cleaning anyway as I usually do, and sat down to experience the 1982 Mid-South Coliseum show yet again. If you have been reading this site for a while, you might remember that I covered this show once before when it was released by Antenna. If you want some in-depth commentary on the actual performance as well as some history, you can do so back at the original article. For this review, I’m mainly covering the pressing itself. The “need to know” info here is that Brad Gillis is the guitar player for this show, which is always a treat as far as I’m concerned.
Live Recording (Soundboard/Radio Broadcast) – Mid South Coliseum – Memphis, TN USA – 28th April, 1982
A1 Over The Mountain
A2 Mr. Crowley
A3 Crazy Train
A4 Revelation (Mother Earth)
B1 Steal Away (The Night)
B2 Suicide Solution
B3 Guitar Solo
B4 Suicide Solution Reprise
B5 Drum Solo
C1 Goodbye To Romance
C2 I Don’t Know
C3 Believer
D1 Flying High Again
D2 Iron Man
D3 Children Of The Grave
D4 Paranoid
The audio for this pressing is taken from a broadcast recording, so the source material is outstanding for an unofficial release. Long time fans may get a weird feeling at Ozzy’s lack of swearing, but it makes sense since the recording was going out on the radio. The pressing itself is nearly flawless and I couldn’t hear any surface noise at all on my copy. So far, so good right? Well, there are some issues here, and you’ll have to decide whether you can live with them or not.
First of all, there are around one second gaps between all the tracks. Obviously, this show was ripped from a CD and then pressed onto vinyl. With live shows, you usually want to make sure everything flows like one continuous and uninterrupted track. Obviously, this preserves the feeling of being at the concert, and limits breaking the experience up to just the necessary points of changing sides or changing records. Sometimes, this is the case with studio albums as well. If you have ever ripped a copy of The Dark Side of the Moon from a CD, for example, you may have noticed annoying and distracting gaps if you tried playing the album back on your computer or burned those files to a CD. These issues are often present even with modern day streaming of continuous track type of albums.
Without getting too technical (which would go well beyond the scope of this website), these problems can be easily avoided by using a proper program to rip the CD, and a little bit of knowledge to make a cue sheet for the files. Basically, a cue sheet is just what it sounds like. It’s a tiny file that tells the program burning or playing the files to leave that tiny gap out and just go right into the next song. If a company is pressing records that are as nice as Diary of a Madman: USA 82’ Tour, I would think that this would be an easy step for them, and one they would see as necessary. I guess not a lot of people are “pros” anymore at dealing with ripping CDs, but that bit of dead space every few minutes is very distracting to me.
Along the same lines, there is also the issue of fading in and fading out of tracks. In this case, there are no fades on any side (except the last one that was apparently present on the original CD), and the music starts and stops very abruptly. As you can imagine, it’s kind of starling to be listening to a live show, and all of a sudden, it’s like someone pulled the plug on you. Once again, this is a problem that can easily be avoided by editing the first and last tracks on the LP in a basic audio program and applying a simple fade. A ton of labels seem to ignore this issue, and the ones who care enough to take the time to smooth out the tracks really stand out. Free programs like Audacity have this capability and it is an easy fix with can be applied in minutes.
So, would I recommend you pick up this pressing? If you can only buy one version, I would say the Antenna Box Set is the better option. It’s not entirely without its issues, but I like the box packaging better, and it also comes with an extra Speak of the Devil show. That being said, it is quite a bit more expensive and harder to find. I think the physical production quality of the Evil Dead version is actually much better. If the issues I have mentioned here don’t bother you (and there are a lot of people who aren’t annoyed at all by such things), this set is definitely a great buy. If you take the gaps and fading issues out of the equation, this is a phenomenal and definitive edition of this show.
Overall, I would give the audio source a 7/10. If it didn’t have the gaps and had been faded out at the beginning and ending of the LPs, it would be an easy 9/10. Not completely perfect since it is a radio broadcast, but certainly about as close as you can get. The artwork and packaging are a 10/10. If you are a collector like I am, you’ll probably want this version anyway since it looks so cool. Obviously, the price will vary depending on who you get a copy from and what version you decide on, but my copies were very affordable and great value in my opinion. Even with the issues I mentioned, I won’t hesitate to pick up other releases from Evil Dead if they put out more Ozzy material in the future.