Captured during what many consider the ‘golden age’ of Black Sabbath, the recordings on Past Lives show a band moving along the fast track like a runaway train. Opening disc one, with ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’, this live collection is both bombastic and unrelenting. In some respects, Black Sabbath classics like ‘Sweet Leaf’, ‘Children Of The Grave’, ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Paranoid’ sound even more haunting and powerful on this set because of the transcendent live energy that pervades these songs. Bill Ward has occasionally referred to a ‘fifth member’ joining them on-stage, a non-literal suggestion denoting the sheer power and energy of the four Sabs on stage together. Tracks 1-5 were recorded at the Hardrock in Manchester on Mar 11th 1973 whilst tracks 6-9 were recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in London on March 16th ’73.Disc two expands the more familiar and available performances on disc one, with further compelling live versions of tracks recorded in Paris at the Olympia Theatre in December 1970 and Asbury Park Convention Hall, New Jersey during August of ’75.For many Sabbath die-hards these additional recordings were tantamount to uncovering the ‘Holy Grail’ and are released here officially having been available originally for many years as the bootleg ‘Live In ‘75’ but never with the sterling fidelity as they now appear on this re-mastered and deluxe edition of the release.