Black Sabbath

Back in 2004, Black Sabbath released "Black Box", the definitive remastering of the original eight studio albums with Ozzy. It was well received, and of course, after release, people's attentions turned to what might come next. There was talk then of a "Black Box II" which would cover the Dio Years. Not much happened then with that because Sabbath was still touring with Oz on the annual Ozzfest into 2005. In 2006, the band was finally inducted into both the UK & US Hall of Fames, and after that, things seemed to settle down, and some folks were thinking that might be "it".

Well, as has happened before, Black Sabbath came back again with Ronnie James Dio, and talks began anew about the box set of the Dio era. While nothing was settled, there was some talk that we would get a box. Then word came down in late 2006 that the "Box" had been whittled down to a single disc, that being "The Dio Years", which showed up in 2007. Great though it was, some folks felt it a letdown after (falsely, most likely) expecting a full Dio era box set. We skip ahead to 2008, and word comes down during the spring that there would finally be the box set of the Dio era albums. That's what this is. Some commentary about the newly released box set, "The Rules of Hell", which comprises the four releases from the classic era of Black Sabbath.

First off, let me start by quoting my own review of Black Box from four years ago. I said then about Black Box.. "if you're looking to buy this based on the recent trend of other box sets to include rare songs and things like that, you WILL be disappointed. But if you're interested in how the songs SOUND, then my god, this is for you." This holds up again for RoH. Lets get into some detail on that.

The first thing you will notice is the box is significantly smaller than the other two boxes (Black Box & Radio City Deluxe). It's not that much larger than the four jewel cases inside there. Check out the picture reference here for comparison. When you take the shrink wrap off of the thing, there's a paper overlay that covers the outside of the box, but is not attached to it in any way, and appears to be meant to be discarded once you open the set. Opening the box reveals the insides to be four jewel cases inside there. Check out a picture:

The physical CDs themselves contain a nice font style writing similar to the fonts used in the original packaging of the particular albums. Black Box did the same thing four years ago, but these feel a bit more readable than those discs. Black on Black is never the easiest thing to read.

What do the discs contain? We have the three studio albums from the Dio era of Black Sabbath. Those being 1980's "Heaven & Hell", 1981's "The Mob Rules", and 1992's "Dehumanizer". The live release from 1982, "Live Evil" is also in this box (in its original two disc configuration). The newer releases (The Dio Years, and the Radio City and Hammersmith releases) are not represented. But that's OK - those are all new releases, less than 24 months old for all of them, so it's probably right that they weren't included.

Which brings us to our next point - the one I quoted from my Black Box review. "Extras". As is the case with most box sets, there's some sort of extras package. The recent Genesis box sets are a treasure trove of extras and whatnot. These things are not here. The four albums are as they were when originally released. The only notable difference here is Dehumanizer. Due to contractual things at the time, Dehumanizer was released worldwide by IRS, but inside the US by Warner/Rhino. The US version of Dehumanizer had a track that wasn't on the general worldwide release, that being the version of "Time Machine" from the movie Wayne's World. But that's it folks. There's no "sixth disc" of unreleased tracks, demos, and all that. If you're familiar with the collector's scene (cough), there are quite a few unreleased and demo tracks from the Dehumanizer sessions that exist (that weren't used elsewhere), so they could have been, but they weren't. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, really. Oh sure, who wouldn't like to see more tunes? The grapevine says that Tony isn't a big fan of that kind of thing, and that's probably why these boxes are the way they are. I did make some inquiries on this subject before the album was released. If you take the "no unreleased demos" as read, there aren't a ton of tracks that could be included anyway (and before anyone else gives me crap about this statement, I'm talking about real extra tracks - meaning STUDIO TRACKS, not B side live tracks, I don't count those as real extra tracks). The only tracks I am aware of were the alternate Mob Rules version from the Heavy Metal soundtrack, as well as an alternate version of Dehumanizer's "Letters From Earth". That track turned up as a "B side" to the CD single for TV Crimes. I know it exists, I bought it myself in 1992. When I checked into these tracks, I was told by someone at the record label that the Heavy Metal version of Mob Rules couldn't be used, since it was on another record label. The annoying part was that the guy didn't even know that version of Letters From Earth existed! It was even on a Warner release - so they have it somewhere in their vaults - that it wasn't even considered was something personally irritating. Additionally, there is no overall "box booklet". There are booklets with each individual album, but no overall booklet - something that was in the Black Box set. There are jewel case insert booklets with each of the four albums. Each of THOSE has a new story about that particular album's story as it were. These new stories comprise about 90% of the booklet space, so there is some good reading material. Anyway, that's enough of the griping. I do admit I tend to be the kind of person who gets worked up over their own little pet minutiae when it is not being served, so I need to let that go. Lets get to the music, which is by far the strongest point of this set.

A little history on Sabbath remastering. In 1996, Castle Records released new remasters of all the Black Sabbath albums from 1970-1987. This included two of the three Dio studio albums (and Live Evil). Those masters were from the European master set, not the "Warner Brothers original" (as I've come to understand it). These were needed upgrades at the time, and while better than the original CD releases, probably not what I could call "definitive". Fast forward to 2003, and there was a package named the "Dio Anthology" that covered Ronnie James Dio's career from Elf through to Black Sabbath and the Dio band. There were a handful of Black Sabbath tracks on this compilation, and they were remastered, as everything else was for that package. Sounded good. Fast forward again to the 2007 release "The Dio Years", and Dehumanizer tracks were added to the remastering party. This stuff sounded quite good. Was much cleaner than any release at that time. Then we get 2008's Rules of Hell. This is of course the first time that the entire Dio studio catalog (plus Live Evil) got the full remastering treatment. If you recall, shortly before Black Box came out, there was a two CD greatest hits of the Ozzy era called 'Symptom of the Universe", and both Black Box and Symptom were from the same remastering session. Rules of Hell is different in that the remastering work done for this box set was an even NEWER version than the work done for the tracks released just last year! The recordings in Rules of Hell are QUITE fantastic!

Heaven & Hell: Well, this album by far benefits the most from the remastering work done for this set. This is probably due to the fact that it is the oldest album in the catalogue here, being 28 years old at this point (ACK!). I will say that this is by far the cleanest version of the album I've ever heard. It has a freshness that is totally new to me. I know this album very well, it is a metal classic, and even the most ardent "Ozzy only" fan tends to think this is a pretty decent disc. I say that because I think it's the one most people are familiar with. The single biggest thing here is Geezer Butler's bass. It's far more noticeable than it EVER had been before. Oh sure, you knew it was there, but it never stood out. I have a great subwoofer system on my computer at work, and this is where I listen the most. It is REALLY noticeable, and that's without maxing the bass on the woofer, too. :) This is a great mix, and it makes me wonder why this kind of stuff couldn't be done before? By far the highlight of the box set for me. The booklet has an new story, and also has some artwork I have not seen before. It's done by Lynn Curlee, the guy who did the original artwork for the Heaven & Hell album cover (although it wasn't done specifically for Sabbath). I am unclear as to whether this is truly new artwork, or another of Lynn's older pieces. Either way, a nice surprise to see in the booklet.

Mob Rules: This album holds a special place for me, because it was the first Black Sabbath album I ever got. As frequent visitors to my site know, I bought this album solely on the cover art. At that time I didn't know about Black Sabbath, and I saw the cover art in Hit Parader magazine, and thought.. "I wonder what their music sounds like if their cover art looks like THAT!" So I ran out and bought it, and was instantly hooked by the opening riff of Turn up the Night. While I could never recapture that feeling, the new RoH remaster of Mob Rules is a definite improvement over the previous CD versions of the album I've owned. This album always (to me) had meaty, somewhat muddled sound. Now this isn't a bad thing - normally muddled means bad, but this had a heavy low end sound that wasn't "crisp", if you know what I mean. This new version keeps that feel I'm having issues describing, yet notches up the clarity. The bass isn't as noticably pronounced as it is in the new version of Heaven & Hell, but it is most definitely an improvement. Of course, I'm somewhat biased about this disc, because of what it means to me and Sabbath in general, it's hard for me to be totally objective about this one.

Live Evil: When this album was released on the original Warner set of CD's it was a double CD. Was one of those "fat" double CD cases from years gone by, if you remember those. The kind now that hold like five discs in the same space. Anyway, when Castle did their remastering in 1996, Live Evil was butchered. Was cut down to a single disc, and almost 100% of the crowd banter was gone. Fortunately, this release restores the album to its original configuration of two discs, allowing for everything to be put back. The problem for me is that no amount of remastering can help this one. When it was BRAND NEW in December of 1982, it was pretty cool. The problem is it feels overproduced to me - the band sounds "flat", it has no bite, and no crispness. Heck, Geezer Butler himself referred to this album as "Live in the Studio Evil" on a 2007 TV interview. I've seen Black Sabbath live a ton of times, and I've always wondered where the band's live energy went on this disc. This is not a complaint about the remastering, but the original release itself. I've always felt that Live Evil was an inferior live recording, and while I've checked it out as part of my reviewing duties, I cannot say I will honestly listen to this much. The limited release "Live at Hammersmith" from last year beats the crap out of Live Evil. It wouldn't have happened obviously, but I wish that Hammersmith was included in this package over Live Evil. Having said that, it is nice that its original release format of two discs was included, so in that regard, it is an improvement over the 1996 Castle release by miles.

Dehuamanizer: This is the album that benefits least from the remastering. This is probably because the album is the most recent of the studio work in here. I really love this disc, there's some absolutely stellar tracks on here. It's not like the remastering work produced NO difference, it's just the differences are far less noticeable than the other studio albums in here. I'm going to say the least about this one for that reason.

If you look at this review on my Black Sabbath site, it's enhanced with pictures. These will show you that the inside of the box is four CD jewel cases, and that's it. Unlike Black Box or the Radio City Deluxe release, there's no real reason to keep the actual box this comes in if you don't want to. Since these are just CD jewel cases, and not some custom molded digipak or something, the exterior "box" in the box set can be discarded, and you can put the jewel cases with all your other jewel cases. I'm not advocating throwing it in the trash, as that doesn't seem right either - it's just odd that the box set is just that - a box. Some box sets have the "box" be part of the packaging, and it all comes together in a nice presentation so to speak. Not here, the box is just "a box". The exterior has some artwork on it, but it's that kind of "black on black" that Black Box featured, so it doesn't really stand out, either.

If you're still with me, you might think that I'm dumping on this box a lot, and that I don't like it. That is definitely not the truth. If you get all hung up on extras, packaging and the like, well, then you may not like this set. But if you're like me, and like Black Sabbath for the right reasons, that being the music, then you will absolutely love this set. Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules are seriously improved. Dehumanizer less so, but it does sound better than before, and Live Evil? Well, it's Live Evil. The pricing on this set is quite nice, too. If you're a Black Sabbath fan that knows these albums well, you'll find a lot to like about the remastering. If you don't have these albums, it should be a no brainier - go get them. They're classic pieces of metal, and the remastering does wonders for them. You'll enjoy it.

Some other notes. I've been told that this is a North American release (like most recent Rhino stuff). I did inquire as to whether or not it will be released outside of North America, and I cannot get a concrete update on that. It would have been nice if the three studio tracks from the Dio years package could have found their way onto here. They actually are, if you buy the box set from a digital format (such as Amazon's MP3 store, or iTunes or the like), but the physical disc version does not have them. Geezer Butler has said that the title of the box is not for the obvious "Hell" connection, but it's a play on the names of the first two albums with Dio. Granted, Sabbath has never been above playing the "Satan" angle for marketing (look at the box cover art), but I personally find these kinds of album names tiring. Yawn. It's Satan again. Can we move on to something more important than that?

That's it for me and my review of "The Rules of Hell". Hope to see you back here again before too long with a review of "Black Box 3: The Everything Else" box set. Oh, you can see my photo gallery of the images used in the review here, which includes a couple of others not used in the review.

OK, three different releases of The Dio Years is starting to get a bit silly. First we have the standard release, then the "Tour Edition" (second disc with some live tracks), and now a third "MVI Edition". It too has a second disc, but the second disc has some decent content on it.

First off, let me say that Disc 1 is the same as the standard release. I'm not going to rehash my review of the original again. As I said for the Tour Edition review, you can just go read my review of the original for that. I'm just going to talk about the new disc here.

Here's what Rhino Records says about the release.. MVI is an innovative DVD-based music format that, in addition to offering all the benefits of an audio disc, delivers leading-edge video and interactive extras, plus a one-click capability to save digital music files onto a hard drive. Choice video content on BLACK SABBATH - THE DIO YEARS (MVI) includes footage of live performances of "Neon Nights" and "Die Young" from 1980 and a promo clip for 1992's "TV Crimes." The MVI Disc also features the URTone ringtone application and ringtones for "Heaven And Hell" and "The Mob Rules," plus a photo gallery, buddy icons, wallpapers, weblinks/ROM and a complete booklet PDF.

The second disc is pretty good in regards to value added content. I personally don't care about the ringtone stuff, but I can see where others would want it. Inclusion of music videos is cool. Higher quality versions of the audio tracks are a nice bonus if you have a good home theatre system to play 'em on. It's hard to get excited about it despite all that. The reason is this is the third release of the album in a year. I heard from a friend at the record label that this was supposed to be what the original release was, but due to legal issues, it didn't happen then. Shame, as if this was the FIRST Dio Years release and not the third, it might have gotten more noticed.

Here we go again. This is the new "thing" in CD releases. Take your release, and then put it out 6-7 months later with a few additional tracks, and call it the "Tour Edition". While I won't rag on them as hard as I did for the "Greatest Hits" release in 2006, this does have a bit of a "why" feeling to it.

This is a two disc release. The first disc is the same as the original release from May 2007. Disc two has four live tracks, culled from the Live at Hammersmith release from this year as well. That release was limited to a run of just 5,000 copies, so these four tracks are not all that common.

The "tour" this release refers to was the final leg of the Heaven & Hell 2007 tour in the UK. To that, this version of the Dio Years was not released in the US. It was in the UK only - my purchase link here is to the Amazon UK store. If you didn't get Dio Years the first time, this is probably the version to get. If you did get it before, then it's probably not worth the pickup.

Read my review of the original version for my thoughts on the music itself.

First off, I want to state that I am aware this album is "officially" by the band "Heaven & Hell", and not Black Sabbath. Screw that. It's Black Sabbath. Besides, I didn't want to create another category just for this album, so it's going to be in the "Black Sabbath" category, where it belongs.

Anyway, after recording the new tracks for the Dio Years compilation, Heaven & Hell Black Sabbath go out on the road. The initial leg of the tour was in Canada, and the final date on that leg was in New York City at Radio City Music Hall. This concert was filmed and recorded for this album (and the corresponding concert DVD that is also available).

The music is all the Dio era of Black Sabbath. No Iron Man, Paranoid, or War Pigs here. w00t! As classic as those songs are, I'm grateful to not have to hear them again. We get a mix of the hits (and some obscure tracks) from the Dio era of Sabbath, with a couple of the new songs mixed in, too. These guys still have some serious power, and given their ages (especially Dio's at 65), it's amazing they can still play like they're a lot younger.

If you got to see them on this tour (or even if you didn't), it's a cool disc to pick up. ESPECIALLY if you were at the Radio City show. Below is the official trailer from Warner for the CD/DVD release.

I'm a Black Sabbath fan, and have been for a very long time. When I started listening to the band, the first thing they released was the "Live Evil" album with Ronnie James Dio, shortly before he left the band the first time. At the time it was cool - Dio sings Ozzy's Sabbath tracks. I enjoyed it, but as the years went on, it felt flat, and somewhat lifeless. I rarely listen to that, and I kind of was resigned to the fact that the Dio era of Sabbath would never have an official representation of it's touring efforts in the early 80's.

Fast forward to early 2007, and we find out that as part of the Dio mania that is sweeping Sabbath fandom again due to the band touring with Dio again (although under a different name; that's a story for another time) that we will get the good live album. Turns out the band through a small subset of Rhino/Warner records (Rhino Handmade) was to release a live album of the band during the Mob Rules tour. It was "Live at Hammersmith Odeon". And it was good. It was everything that Live Evil was not. Powerful, to the point, not terribly plodding like LE was. This was a great version of the Dio era Mk I. It also included a few oddball live tracks that were generally not played everywhere, like Country Girl & Slipping Away. It was a great live album.

The problem with it is that Rhino Handmade only makes EXTREMELY limited editions of their releases. This was no different. They made a grand total of 5,000 copies, and sold them direct through their website. That was it. They were available pre-sale, but all the copies were sold on day of release. You can still get it, but you're gonna pay out the nose for a copy on Ebay. I'm not sure I understand the logic of these limited releases.

But if you can get one, you won't be disappointed. The Dio era of Black Sabbath sounds awesome on this!

OK, anyone reading my CD blog here should know I like Black Sabbath. When I started listening to them in 1981, Ronnie James Dio was the current vocalist, and Mob Rules was the current album. So I'm familiar - very familiar - with the first 13 songs on this CD. When Black Sabbath got back together with Ozzy in 1997, I figured that was pretty much it, the Dio Years (and the others, too) would be gone forever. Well, fortunately in 2006, the word came down that there would be a compilation CD (this one) in 2007 based off of "The Dio Years" of Black Sabbath. Dio's two previous tenures in the band produced three studio albums, and one live album. This CD is a decent cross section of the tunes from those three albums.

Like any other compilation album, there's always someone's personal choices as to what they think should have been left off, and put on. I would have personally left off "I" and replaced it with "Computer God", which is a far better song. I also would have put the studio version of "Children of the Sea" on here, instead of the version from "Live Evil". Perhaps also replacing Lonely is the Word with "Time Machine". But that didn't happen. The 13 older songs here are all great (except for maybe the live version of Children of the Sea). You can't go wrong with this compilation.

But this isn't just a simple compilation. There's three new songs. They are "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall". During Interviews, Tony Iommi said of the three new songs "There's one for everybody - a medium one, a slow one, and a fast one". He's right. The songs are that distinctive to me. Ear is my favorite of the three, it evokes memories of "Neon Knights", one of the best Dio era tracks. Shadow of the Wind is your usual slow powerful Black Sabbath track, and "Devil Cried" is a good track as well musically. I'm not terribly fond of the lyrics, though. They cross the line into cheese for me, but the song behind them is quite good. It's a mixed bag, that one.

As a whole, this compilation is well worth it, especially for the remastered versions of the tracks. The three albums that the compilation draws from were from 1980, 1981, & 1992. The Dehumanizer stuff from 1992 doesn't sound a whole lot different to my years, but the Heaven & Hell stuff from 1980 sounds miles clearer than the old print, and the Mob Rules stuff from 1981 is much cleaned up too. Then you add in the three new tracks, and it's a good compilation, not just a shovel job to fill out a CD.

In fact, if you couple this CD with two other Black Sabbath compilation CD's, you can get a very good cross section of the whole of the entire history of Black Sabbath. The other two would be "Symptom of the Universe", a 2 CD package that covers the 8 studio Ozzy albums from 1970-1978, and then "The Sabbath Stones", a 1996 compilation that mostly covers the Tony Martin Era from 1987-1995, but also touches the Ian Gillan album in 1983 (Born Again), and the Glenn Hughes album in 1986 (Seventh Star). Take the three of these together, and you will get an extremely good cross section of the 18 studio albums Black Sabbath has released over the years.

As an added final note to this hardcore Sabbath fan, I loved the fact that the drum kit on the tracks used to belong to Cozy Powell. Vinny Appice plays on the tracks, but the kit used belonged to Cozy - these were recorded in the studio in Tony Iommi's house. I liked that. A lot.

UPDATE March 2008: I also received a surprise in the mail from a friend of mine at Rhino Records. I was sent the Japanese version of this album. It's musically exactly the same as this standard release, but it's in Japanese. So yeah, I have a second copy of this with Japanese writing on it. Still sealed. :)

Why does this exist? Who is the target audience here?

I would think that the newcomer to Sabbath is the target audience here, because if it isn't, I don't know who the target for this is. Sabbath has a boatload of "Greatest Hits" albums. There's several unofficial ones, plus this one, this one, this one, & the Black Box set which are all official, not to mention this one, which is pretty close (in my opinion) to being official too. (Official meaning band sponsored and not some record label only thing that the band had no input into). That's a lot of Greatest Hits albums, guys. The problem is it's been done so many times, I can find little good to say about this. Since Sabbath put out their last studio album in the Summer of 1995, they've had three greatest hits albums, two live albums, and a box set. Put out something new, or stop please.

The music itself is fine - if you are looking to introduce someone to the band, this is a good starting place for them, but long time fans will have a hard time getting excited about this at all. I strongly recommend the two CD Symptom.. set over this one easily. The only reason I have this is one of my connections at a record label hooked me up with a copy. Otherwise there'd be no way I'd buy this myself.

This Tuesday brings the release of the Black Sabbath box set "Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978". What is it? It's a 9 disc collection (8 audio CD's, one DVD) comprising all the of the songs the original Black Sabbath released from 1970-1978, which is considered by a lot of music fans to be some of the most dominating and creative albums ever released by anyone ever.

I know a lot of people are going "What? Another Box set?" Well, let's examine that.

A little background. In the United States Black Sabbath's record label was Warner Brothers from 1970-1987. When CD's started showing up in the 80's as a commercial product, Sabbath's Warner Brothers albums were put out on CD (well, most of them - but that's the non Ozzy stuff, a story for another time). As the format was new, it was great! Folks loved them. I loved them. There were also some CD releases by Castle Communications in Europe, with some extra live tracks on them (which were taken from the Live at Last unofficial album). In 1996, Castle Communications released their own remasters. These releases had a few minor problems (a 1 second sound dropout in the song Fairies Wear Boots is the most notable). These remasters were "remastered" from an unknown source, and while they were sonically better than what was out before, I always felt that a definitive version was to come, from the Warner originals. In 2002 we got a glimpse of that with the 2CD set "Symptom of the Universe". That was a remaster from the Warner original source. And it never sounded better. It was tantalizing thinking what a full set of Black Sabbath albums would sound like completely remastered like they deserved to be.

What's this have to do with previously released box sets like "The Ozzy Years" or "The Ten Commandments" or any other number of releases? Well, none of them were "Official Band sponsored items". Black Box is the first box set released under the guidance of the band itself, and wasn't something put together by a record label person. That's one of the beefs I have with all those "other" releases - it confuses the average fan into thinking "Sabbath is just out for the cash, with all these releases", when Sabbath themselves didn't have anything to do with the vast majority of these things.

MAKE NO MISTAKE. Black Box is by far the most definitive version of the original eight albums Black Sabbath has released. PERIOD.

The albums themselves have an unbelievable sound quality never heard in these recordings before. It's not like we have new songs here - these are after all the same songs released before. But they've never been heard like this before. I cannot stress how great these discs sound. I've been listening to Black Sabbath since 1981. I know these songs extremely well - EXTREMELY well. So much so that the slightest change is noticeable. Well, the sound range here is far more powerful than I've ever heard it before. Ever put in an old CD in your player, and it sounds flat, and a newer one you put in has a really rich, vibrant range? That's the kind of thing I'm talking about here. In addition to the songs just sounding more powerful and cleaner, individual instruments are more noticeable here. There's tons of places where I've heard drum fills by Bill Ward that I've never heard before. It's very cool finding new bits in songs you've heard God knows how many times over the years. Most of the more noticeable stuff for me is Bill, although there's new things noticeable on the other instruments, too.

I could go into a specific list of new items here, but there's just too many of them. Just understand that on Black Box, I've heard things in these songs I've never noticed before. Coupled with the fact that it's got a sonic power that I can't recall the songs having before make this by far the version to get - even if you already own these albums.

That brings me to another point. The notion that Black Sabbath is just "out for money" by releasing this set without a ton of extras. In running my Black Sabbath site at www.black-sabbath.com I see a lot of feedback on various things, and ever since Black Box was originally announced ages ago, the #1 thing I think I've heard is something along the lines of "Where are the rarities? Where are The Rebel, and Song for Jim? What kind of cheap ass set is this without the extras?" No, they're not here. In fact, the only "oddity" songs on this set are "Evil Woman" from the first album, and "Blow on a Jug" from Sabotage. In fact Blow on a Jug isn't listed anywhere - it's just tacked on the back end of the Writ. Which it's always been - BOAJ has never been it's own listed track ever (it wasn't on all releases of that album). Anyway, if you're looking to buy this based on the recent trend of other box sets to include rare songs and things like that, you WILL be disappointed. But if you're interested in how the songs SOUND, then my god, this is for you.

And that's just the music. There's other stuff here, too. The ninth disc is a DVD which contains what's known as the "Beat Club footage", which comprises four songs. The four songs are "Iron Man", "Paranoid, "Black Sabbath", and the rather loose cover of "Blue Suede Shoes". This footage (well, not Blue Suede Shows) is also used on MTV as "videos" and the like, most of this stuff won't be new to most people, but it's nice to have it here. It does appear to be a bit cleaner than the VHS release of this stuff that happened some time ago. Blue Suede Shoes in particular looks a lot better, since it's not subject to the "blue screen visual effect blurs" the other three songs have. Might have been nice to have a formal DVD video release of the Paris 1970 bootleg. Now *THAT* would have been badass. ;)

The packaging itself is rather Black. I'm reminded of the bit from Spinal Tap when they were going "How much more black can it be?" :) I say that because the box itself is Black, and the writing on the box is also black, so it's not terribly visible when viewed straight on. When you first take it out of the shrink wrap plastic, there's a piece of paper on there so folks can see what's on it without opening it up. That paper is not connected to anything, and isn't part of the actual box. Inside the box are two smaller boxes, each containing four CD's. Each of those four CD's are the 8 individual Sabbath studio albums with Ozzy. Each is in it's own digipak style packaging - it's not jewel case packaging. On the front and back sides of the individual CD cases are the original front and back cover art that appeared on the albums as they were released ages ago. Inside the digpaks are art that I believe appeared on the original print vinyl sleeves as released originally. So much so that albums that had lyrics on their original vinyl sleeves are reproduced here, too (much to small to read without hurting your eyes). I haven't seen a vinyl print of Sabotage in ages, and it was funny to see the guys backsides again like that. :) The CD's themselves have the same kind of "black on black" print that the exterior of the box has. The logos on the individual CD's match the lettering used on the original artwork for the albums, a nice touch - it's not standard lettering across all of them. Overall, nice packaging of the albums - no complaints here.

Anyway, the biggest "new" item would be the booklet. It's a 77 page hardcover booklet, which is covered in black velvet. Let me say this. When you pick up, don't have your hands dirty. It looks like it'll pick up dirt pretty easily. It's got a very nice feeling in your hands. It's got no writing or lettering on the outside, save for that Sabbath flying angel logo we've seen many times before. There's a few portions to the book. First is a piece called "Lords of this World" by Chris Welch. The second is "A Hard Road" by Brian Ives. Finally there's a "Sabbath Timeline" which has dates for various events, releases, and whatnot in the history of the band. There's also lyrics for all eight albums. Finally, some "official" lyrics. This should put to rest some long standing debates over some Sab lyrics. The booklet has some nice stories that I haven't heard before, as well as some photos I've seen before, and a lot I haven't. There's much goodness in here. Oh, BTW, the bonus DVD is in a sleeve attached to the inside back cover of the booklet. It was hard to get out without putting my fingers on the disc itself, which is something I try never to do. That's my only complaint - the DVD is hard to get out of the sleeve easily.

That's about it for this set. I have to say, even if you own all these albums (and who doesn't), it's worth picking up. As I said before, these albums have never sounded better, both from a sonic clarity standpoint, to hearing things in the songs I've never heard before - you cannot go wrong here. This is a wonderful package, both from the looks to the sounds, to the booklet. Get it. Your ears will thank you.

I just hope we don't have to wait for "Black Box Part 2: The Non Ozzy Years". :)

When I first heard about this, my thought was "Big deal - yet another packaging of the same old Iron Man / Paranoid / War Pigs collection - who needs that?" BOY WAS I WRONG.

Normally I don't like packages like this, because it strikes me as an attempt to get folks to just buy the same songs again. However, this time it's most definitely worth it. This isn't just a standard repackage. This set does have the songs that we know well, but these are a new remastering of the songs. This has nothing to do with the 1996 Castle Communications remaster of the albums from 1970-1987. These are NEW remasters taken from the original Warner Bros Master tapes (indeed, this bears the Warner Bros logo as well as the Rhino one). In fact, I was informed this week that the 96 Castle remasters were not "authorized" by the band - it was one of those record label things. It's not like they're illegal or something, but not a "band sponsored" item.

Anyway, the fidelity on these is quite quite spectacular. I've been listening to Sabbath since 1981, so I'm familiar with the songs, and I have to say, I've heard some bits on here that I've never heard before. They're quite astonishing. I'm not normally one to recommend a package such as this, but I can wholeheartedly recommend this package - even if you own the Castle remasters. Also, while I've not been given any formal information stating as such, one can speculate that since the songs have been remastered again from the Warner masters, you have to wonder if a reissue of the albums themselves are on the books? I don't have any info that says they will, but if so, I'll be sure to pass it on. If the studio albums are remastered and re-released again in the same method that this is, it might very well be worth it to pick 'em up again!

And that's just the songs. The packaging itself is quite good, too. There's two individual sleeves for each CD, as well as a booklet. This isn't standard jewel case packaging. And this thing is loaded, and I mean LOADED, and I mean loaded with pictures I have never seen before. I've been involved with Sabbath as a fan for a long time, and I've read numerous interviews, and seen tons of photos. Now, I do not claim to know everything about Sabbath - I'm not that foolish or naieve. However, over time, you tend to hear the same stories, and see the same promo photos. I have to say - about 90% of the photos in here I have never seen before. Some are quite QUITE awesome.

I have to say, I cannot speak more highly about this package. I got mine free as a comp from the record label as part of the group that I'm giving away next week in a contest, but even if I didn't, I would happily buy this - it's quite good. If you want to buy it yourself, click on the cover art here with the story. Major kudos to all involved in putting this together - and let's hope the apply the same quality treatment to the Ozzy era studio albums should they too be remastered and re-released!

Update: The albums were later released in the package "Black Box". In fact, the remastering work done for Black Box resulted in this album. So basically if you don't want to spend the $90 or so for Black Box, get this. It's a cheaper alternative, and you get the best of the 8 studio albums with Ozzy.

Uh, OK. Of the last five albums Sabbath has released, three of them are live albums (with a fourth being a Greatest Hits album). This is starting to reek of "Milk the back history of the band". They need new material. Having said that, this isn't totally worthless. Disc 1 is just the old Live at Last album finally "formally" released, and Disc 2 is made up from some cuts from some popular bootlegs that have been floating around. I would have bought this for just Disc 2 - the tracks from Sabotage on there are worth the cost of the CD alone.

A sequel to the first NIB tribute, 6 years later. Overall it's not bad, but the first one was far superior. This second one does have an absolutely horrible, and I mean HORRIBLE DREADFUL cover of Iron Man by Busta Rhymes. Blech - the worst cover I've ever heard, and I've heard some bad ones (like Type O Negative's Paranoid). On the positive side, it does touch on the Never Say Die album, which is rarely done, so it gets points for that alone with me. :)

Again, another CD single. Nothing really noteworthy here. If I didn't get this as a record label comp for running the Sabbath site, I probably would not have gotten it.

The original Black Sabbath reunited for two shows at the NEC in Birmingham England in December of 1997, and this album was recorded at those shows. This is Sabbath's third official live album, and the first with Ozzy. There's some great versions of songs here, and it's nice to have a well produced live album with Ozzy finally. Plus, Bill Ward fulfilled a dream of mine, and put my name in the liner notes for this album! :) The video from this was later released under the title "The Last Supper" on VHS & DVD.

Sabbath's second official Greatest Hits album. This one covered the "IRS label" era of Sabbath (Headless Cross through Forbidden), plus a couple of extra tracks going back to Born Again. Basically, this is a Greatest Hits album of the lesser known Sabbath albums from 1983-1995. It was never released in the United States, it was only available here as an import. A bit hard to find now, but if you'd like to hear some great stuff from these eras, and you can find it, it's a very worthwhile purchase.

An unofficial Greatest Hits album. Was put out under the Castle label (the same folks who did the 1996 remaster series). Was the first greatest hits album to cover both Ozzy, Dio, & Ian Gillan material, so I snapped it up. I never listen to it anymore though. At the time I got it, I enjoyed it, though.

This is the Japanese print of the Forbidden album. Like the Cross Purposes Japanese print I have, this was mostly the same as the US release. The differences in this were that the liner notes were in Japanese. There was an extra track entitled "Loser Gets it All" which also appeared on the 1996 Greatest Hits album. Thirdly there was a window sticker which had a copy of the cover artwork. If I want to listen to the physical CD version of this album, I usually pick this one because it has an extra track.

However, the morons who decided on track arrangement for this version really botched it. The "regular" final track on this album is 'Kiss of Death', which is probably the single best Tony Martin era track Black Sabbath has done. However, it ends with a sound effect that quite distinctly sets mood and makes you feel like the album is over. On the Japanese print, they just stuck the extra track on the end. What they should have done is stuck it before Kiss of Death for a proper feel. Oh well.

A much maligned Sabbath album. Most people think it's by far the worst in Sabbath history, and I can understand why they think this. However, I was enamored with this album. Most of the songs have an emotional tie for me, as a bad relationship I had that year - and the lyrics from this album spoke volumes to me. I've even written Tony Martin and told him that - I really enjoyed the work on this album, even if most people did not.

Even my local record store had no respect for this release. The day it came out, I was there when the doors opened. No copies on the shelf. I then went and asked about it, they looked in their computer, and apparently the store had only ordered a single copy. According to inventory it hadn't sold, so I made them find it. It was still sealed in a box waiting to be stocked. I had them retrieve it, and I bought it.

In the summer of 2004, I wrote an essay as to why I like this album and what it means to me emotionally. Here it is:

I like the Forbidden album. Now before you start laughing at me, I wanted to say why I like this album. Back in 1995 I was "dating" a woman, who was living with me at the time. Long story short, but a lot of the lyrics on the Forbidden album (in particular the songs Can't Get Close Enough & Shaking off the Chains) really spoke to me a lot on a personal level. The lyrics speak of relationships, and endings and troubles, and my life was a big mess in 1995 emotionally.

I recognize that most people don't like the album, and that's fair enough - I'm not here to make everyone like it. I know it's reputation, and most people consider it the weakest/worst studio album of the 18 they've put out over time. Nor do I think it's the best. But I've always maintained that in the darkest hour of anything, you can find a gem or two. I don't think this is Sabbath's worst album - I don't know if they have a truly "bad" album, just ones that are better than others.

As I write this I'm listening to Forbidden, and at the moment I'm listening to "I Won't Cry For You", and I have to say that I truly enjoy the album. To my ears, the album isn't as bad as it's reputation is. Outside of the emotional attachment of the songs, I have to say that the songs themselves are actually quite good. I think part of the perception problem people have with Forbidden is that everyone always hears "Ah, it's their shittiest album", and slag it off. Again, that's fine, but I'm here to say WHY I like the Forbidden album - song by song.

There's been plenty of stories about the production of the album - from Ernie C's (mis)production, to IceT's guest apperance, to the cover art, to bla, bla, bla. I'm not here to talk about that stuff. I'm here to talk about Forbidden as a positive album, and something you should check out.

Keep in mind, I'm not a musician, and I know some folks tend to analyze songs based on whether the drum fills are in the right place, or the song has 3/4 timing, or the bridge is proper between this verse and that verse. I don't give a [censored] about any of that. Something Ozzy said in an interview back in the mid 80's has stuck with me ever since. And that's "All that should matter to you is whether a song makes you want to get up and stomp your feet." He's right. All that should care is whether YOU like the song - nothing else. I realize that most people don't like Forbidden - but [censored] IT. I do, and here's why:

01) The Illusion of Power - This is the only song on the album that doesn't really do a whole lot for me. It's not exactly "bad", but this song strikes me as the one most heavily influenced by IceT & ErnieC. It's also the answer to a trivia question; being "What is the only song in Sabbath's history with a guest vocalist"? IceT's "rap" in the middle of the song is interesting from a novelty standpoint, but not much else. I honestly wish they had picked a different song as the first one on the album.

02) Get a Grip - This song had commercial potential, and was the only song from the album that had a video made of it, and it was cartoon, no less. The song isn't the most inventive musically in the band's history, but for me, the simple riff works. Having said that I really enjoy the last minute of the song, as it goes into a kind of riff that I really like - it's a hard driving simple one, but is really effective in conveying "power" and speaks to the mastery of Iommi's licks, in that something so simple can be so damn effective. The song is about anti violence if I understand the lyrics properly, although I still don't know what "Get a grip & shake the can" means lyrically.

03) Can't Get Close Enough - This is the first of the super emotional songs for me. At the time, I was trying to get close to this woman, and it didn't seem like anything I could do worked. Tried and tried (although Lord knows why, she was all wrong for me), and eventually broke through briefly, but I spent most of my time trying to convince her that she was worthy mostly of herself (as she had no self esteem, was not totally a very "with it" person). The music in this song is mostly pedestrian as Sabbath goes, but for me, it's the lyrics of this song. It could be Iommi farting in tune with this one, and I'd love it because of the lyrics. This song *REALLY* hits home with me.

04) Shaking off the Chains - The flipside of the last song. This too speaks to me about my relationship in 1995, but on the back end of it. Without boring you with my entire life story, when the relationship ended, it ended in a way that I couldn't find anything left of my feelings for her (turned out she was pregnant by someone else when she left me). This song speaks more towards my anger and disappointment at what didn't happen between us. Musically, it has a nice churning riff which I think goes well with the negative emotions displayed in the lyrics.

05) I Won't Cry For You - Another moody mostly slower song. It's not a true "slow song", but the understated but effective use of Tony Iommi's guitars on here coupled with Tony Martin's vocals make for a nice tapestry of emotion for me. This didn't directly tie in to my emotional attachment to the songs on the Forbidden album, but it's in the neighbhorhood. "Can't Get Close" & "Chains" are the closest for me, but this sorta feels that way, but I think it's more the music in this one than the lyrics.

06) Guilty as Hell - This is one of the weaker songs on the album for me. Nothing terribly special goes on lyrically for me here, and the song is just kind of "there". Most people would probably call it a filler song; I don't know if I'd go that far. I do like Cozy's drumming in it for some reason. It's not his best moment either, but it's cool, and I do like the last thing you hear, the guitar "outro" thing at the absolute end of the song. Guilty as Hell does have one novel moment - it's one of the two songs that I'm aware of in Sabbath's back catalog that has the word "[censored]" in the lyrics.

07) Sick & Tired - This song starts off with probably the only true "Cozy Powell" moment on the album, a nice drum intro before anything else gets going. There were interviews I read where Cozy said that he didn't feel like this album was his best work, and I'd probably agree with that, but the opening of this song had a moment that said "Hey, Cozy Powell is on this album!". However, what makes this song really great for me is Tony Iommi's guitar solo. For me, this is the most unique guitar solo he's ever done in all the years I've been listening to him. Again, I'm no musician, so I can't tell you technically what it is about it, but the playing - the texture just feels radically different to me, and I really liked it - I also loved the end of the song again, had a similar guitar "ending" like the last song did. At the time this song was new, I wondered if this song was lyrically about the situation Sabbath was in at the time insofar as not getting any attention. I realize that's just me, but that's what I thought.

08) Rusty Angels - Probably the most commercial song on the album - has a great hook. I really wish THIS was released as single instead of Get a Grip. Get a Grip was more simplistic, I feel this is a bit more complex in construction, and the main guitar riff here is very catchy, and I think would have worked better. Probably wouldn't have gotten 'em a lot more attention, but I as a fan think this would have made a better single. I also think if this would have been released on one of the more popular albums, it would be a classic tune - if this song apperaed on Headless Cross, I bet it would be one of the most popular songs to this day. A very overlooked gem in Sabbath's catalog.

09) Forbidden - The title track of the album usually is a song that stands out for some reason. When this album was not yet released, the working title was "The Illusion of Power", and then it was changed to "Forbidden". That indicated to me that the band liked the song for some reason, or at the very least the title. In listening to the song, it's not the best on the album. It's by far not the worst, but I wonder what the attraction is here. It does have a nice sound, especially in the choruses, it's pretty enjoyable. Not my favorite, but when it's on, I like it.

10) Kiss of Death - Oh my god! BY FAR AND AWAY the best song on the album. This is absolutely perfect. It's moody, has a [censored] awesome guitars, great lyrics, and is just for me perfect in every way. There is no comparison to anything else on this album. And for me, this may be the best track in the entire Tony Martin era. I simply cannot say how strongly I love this song - I'd put it up with the all time best of Sabbath's entire catalog. This is a song that in the slow opening and closing parts I can sit there with my eyes closed, and really be into this song. It has a wonderful power to it, that I wish more people could have seen, but it has the misfourtune on being on an album that most people think is total crap. Again, I don't know if I'm reading too much into this, but I always felt the song was big ol' middle finger to those who counted Sabbath out and dead. I really was filled with a pride that I thought was felt by the band members about themselves. Again, that is likely myself imposing my own feelings about the song and the band upon lyrics that may fit that feeling. But dammit, that's what the song means to me, so I'm sticking with it. I was disappointed they didn't play it in the US legs of the Forbidden tour (which I was lucky enough to see). It was added for the European dates, but it wasn't played. If anyone has the Philadelphia bootleg from 1995, I can be heard screaming "Kiss of Death!" a few times on it.

11) Loser Gets it All - To me, this is the weakest song on the album. Nothing terribly excites me here. The only novelty I suppose is that it's a track that most everyone hasn't heard. It was available only on the Japanese version of Forbidden - and it did also turn up on 1996's "Sabbath Stones" (which most people don't even KNOW about). Again, it's not like it's a crappy song, but I don't know if I've ever gone out of my way to say "Yeah - now that's the song I want to listen to". I'm sure some like it, but it doesn't do anything for me. I also feel that as originally constructed Kiss of Death should have ended the album. Loser Gets it All doesn't feel right as the last song on the album - I wish they had stuck it in the middle or something. In fact, as I listen to it now, it's not actually all that bad, I think my irritation comes from the fact that I think Kiss of Death is SO perfect as an end of album song, that having this tacked onto the end annoys me - which means my irritation isn't so much with the song, but with it's placement. I might have to rethink my opinion on this one here.

So that ends my what turned out to be mini-novel length essay on Black Sabbath's (at the moment anyway) final studio album from 1995, "Forbidden". I didn't write this to change the world's opinion here, but hopefully what I've said might make at least a couple people here and there give it a spin when they wouldn't have done so anyway - and maybe see it in a different light.

Sabbath's second official live studio album, culled from the Cross Puposes tour. Tony Martin was ill during some of those dates, and it shows here - his vocal range isn't that great on this release, and that's a shame, because I've seen him live, and he does have a range. This also came with a VHS concert video too - and is extremely hard to find now.

Update: In early 2004, the video portion was released on DVD, but without Sabbath's knowledge. And it was a hack job, too - not all the footage on the original VHS release was on the DVD.

A tribute album to Sabbath - this one came out to much hoopla when it was released in 1994. It was actually quite good, even if they only picked Ozzy era material. Has my all time favorite Sabbath cover on it - Bio Hazard's "After Forever" - I like their version better than the Sabbath original!

This album is identical to the regular version, with the two exceptions of the liner notes being in Japanese, and the inclusion of a track "What's the Use?" which doesn't appear anywhere else on a Sabbath album. A great "lost track", as it's better than anything else on the main album.

Tony Martin returns to handle vocals and we get Cross Purposes. At the time I liked it (I always like new Sabbath), but over time, this album hasn't held up all that well for me. It's not bad, but is probably the weakest of the Martin era Sabbath albums (although most would say the 1995 studio album holds that title). I Witness & Psychophobia are strong points here, but most of Side 2 is fairly weak, in my opinion, although I rather liked Cardinal Sin. The song Evil Eye was co-written by Eddie Van Halen.

TV Crimes was a single from Dehumanizer, and while I liked it, the reason I got this was the rare "alternate version" of the song Letters From Earth. Sabbath never does this, so I had to seek this out and buy it (I had to drive to a used CD store in another state). Lord knows where to get it now.

Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice, & Geezer Butler return to the fold for the 1992 Reunion album, Dehumanizer. I felt this was a very current, very important album for Sabbath to make, it felt (to me) at the time to be a statement album that Sabbath could make something that could compete with current music, and kick it's ass. :)

In retrospect the momentum built up with Headless Cross & Tyr was destroyed, and was never regained.

A CD single from the Tyr album. Normally I don't bother with things like this, but it's so rare to find them in the US, that I bought it. Has some live tracks from a Moscow date on the previous tour, which was nice to hear.

Another "change of direction" album - this album was a pseudo-concept album. Not a concept in the true sense, but in that several of the songs were about Norse Mythology. Another album that doesn't get listened to a lot, but when it does, it's very enjoyable.

Another album that did next to zero business in the US. Hell, the tour never even came to the US at all!

Sabbath's first album with Cozy Powell behind the drumkit. Not surprisingly, it has some damn good drum bits in it. Some powerful stuff on it - the title track is one of the best of the Martin era, I believe.

This did incredible sales and touring business in Europe, but died in the United States. I never understood why from a musical standpoint, I really loved this album when it was new. The title track, When Death Calls, Nightwing.. All solid entries in the Sabbath catalogue.

The first Sabbath album with Tony Martin on vocals. This album suffers from being released during what some people call the darkest days in the band's history. At this point, there was only one original Sab left (Tony Iommi). There were two bassists involved in the project, two producers, two drummers (credited, anyway). Due to all this overhaul, people tended to tune out the band. Although this was originally recorded with Ray Gillen (who replaced Glenn Hughes about 5 dates into the last tour), but Tony had to re-record the vocals, because Ray had quit before it's release.

Probably the single most underrated album in Sabbath's history. If you want a quality album, and want something that isn't just the same stuff everyone's listening to, get this one. It's musically solid from front to end.

On a personal note, I got my first CD player for Christmas 1987, and the first CD I went to the store and bought after getting that present was The Eternal Idol.

An album most people either never heard of, or just don't like. Too bad, as there's good stuff here, although I admit, it is a bit "light" in terms of being a Sabbath record. Of course, it was supposed to be an Iommi solo album, so that kind of explains the different feel on the album. A worthy entry, but probably not one of the first you should buy if you're after Sabbath albums. I also have a second copy of this on CD, my original version from the mid 80's when it was only available as a German import.

Sabbath's lone studio album with Ian Gillan behind the mike. This was the first Sabbath studio album to be released after I had got into the band, so it was a big deal for me. It does have the worst album cover Sabbath's ever used, but the music on here is absolutely brilliant. Some awesome tunes, great riffs - unfortunately the band all but ignores that this ever existed, unfortunately.

The only time any music from this album was ever played anywhere else was on the following tour in 1986 when a few bars from Zero the Hero were played. Additionally, in 2005 Ian Gillan released a project to commemorate his 40th anniversary in the industry. Trashed appears on that in a newly recorded version with Tony Iommi on guitar.

I also have a second copy of this on CD, my original version from the mid 80's when it was only available as a German import.

Sabbath's first official live album. Legend has it that the reason this was recorded in the first place was in a direct response to the Live at Last album - Sabbath wanted an official live album put out, so this was recorded. It was quite odd to hear Ronnie do the Ozzy era classics - I had never heard anyone else sing 'em besides Oz at this point. Overall, I felt this album was kind of weak in that it didn't convey Sabbath's power live at all.

Sabbath's second studio album with Ronnie isn't as fluid as the first, but is a bit more like the older Sabbath in that it's a bit "noisier". This was my first ever Black Sabbath album. I bought it when it was new (well, current) in the summer of 1982 after seeing the cover art in a magazine. I did not know Sabbath at all, and it blew me away. This was only my second Rock & Roll album (the first being AC/DC's Back in Black). I credit the Mob Rules album for getting me into Black Sabbath, and in particular, the opening riff of "Turn Up the Night".

An unofficial album - this was released without the band's knowledge and permission by an old manager, I believe. At the time it was a big deal, because Sabbath had never released a live album. I was never particularly fond of this album, mostly from a sonic fidelity standpoint. It was later legally released in 2002, as Disc 1 of the Past Lives package (scroll down a bit for that).

Exit John Michael Osbourne. Enter Ronnie James Dio. Sabbath produces an utter masterpiece. This is by far the best of the Dio era albums, and is probably up there with the best of the Ozzy era albums, too. This is probably a desert island album - if you don't have this, get it. Now. No point in me describing it, just buy it. STOP READING, and buy it!

Sabbath's last studio album with Ozzy is a very mixed bag. Personally, I think it has some of the greatest songs ever of the Sabbath era, and it's an album that's neglected in terms of the Band's legacy. The title track is a fast number, and Johnny Blade has some wicked guitar work. And most people don't even believe "Air Dance" is Black Sabbath. However, Ozzy had quit before this was made, and work was done on this with another singer, which is why there's an instrumental in one place, and Bill Ward singing on another song, as Ozzy refused to sing some of the material written for Dave Walker. I have much more on that over on my Sabbath site in the timeline page.

Sabbath returns with a new studio album, and for me personally, the weakest of the Ozzy era albums. There's some great tracks on here, and there isn't anything really awful, but the album as a whole doesn't do much for me. The cover does have two robots having sex on an escalator, though. ;)

As a side note, I did use this album title as the name of level in a game I helped design some years ago called Rise of the Triad. The level was full of robots, and I named it "Technical Ecstasy".

The first of Sabbath's (official, anyway) Greatest Hits packages. This one summarizes the first 6 Sabbath studio albums, and was probably a great package when it was new. However, now - I never listen to it, I just keep it around for completeness' sake.

Sabbath finally takes a break, and after two years returns with a stellar album, which is at least in part about the real life problems they were having with their management. Some versions of this album have a hidden/unlisted track called "Blow on a Jug" tacked onto the last song. Tends to be overlooked a lot when folks are talking about best Sabbath albums.

Has the epic length songs Megalomania & The Writ on it.

Album #5 in Year #3. Great output both in quality and quantity. Wish they'd put out that kind (or any kind for that matter) of quantity now. Has some very experiemental stuff on it, has a more of a keyboard influence - but that might be because of the presence of Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman on the album. Probably their best mix of material in the Ozzy era when you factor in both the power of the early stuff and the experimentation of the latter stuff.

Sabbath's fourth disc in two years - bands today couldn't do that, and even if they could, they couldn't produce the stellar quality of these four. This is Sabbath's first real attempt at branching out and doing other things with their music. Great stuff here, too. Some totally heavy riffing. My favorite here is easily "Wheels of Confusion".

This is the other album that people say is Sabbath's all time finest. Master of Reality contains many a choice cut, and features probably the only directly religious song in the band's history, a pro-Christianity track called "After Forever". I'm rather partial to Children of the Grave, a Sabbath staple that hasn't bored me after all these years.

Sabbath's second album is considered by many to be their best album of all time. The fact that it was written and recorded in the same year as the first album is quite a feat. This album is the home of many staples of rock. Iron Man, War Pigs, Paranoid. However, my favorite from the album is by far Hand of Doom.

The seminal first Black Sabbath album. It's now in it's mid 30's as I write this, and it still kicks the living crap out of a lot of the new music put out today. The start of something wonderful.