Black Sabbath - The Best of Black Sabbath

Specially priced two disc set featuring 32 classics from the world's greatest heavy metal band of all-time, Black Sabbath! Spanning 1970-1983, it contains the best from their first 11 albums, including 'Paranoid', 'Black Sabbath', 'Iron Man', 'War Pigs', 'Sweet Leaf', 'The Dark/ Zero The Hero', 'Supernaut', 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' & 'Heaven And Hell'. While the emphasis here is on their historic years with Ozzy Osbourne at the helm (widely regarded as their finest period), it also contains a handful of the standout cuts from the records the group cut with Ozzy's first two successors, Rainbow's Ronnie James Dio & Deep Purple's Ian Gillan. Digitally remastered from original tapes. Deluxe packaging including a limited edition slipcase also featuring a 4000 word essay by Hugh Gilmour and rare photographs. Digitally remastered. Slimline double jewel case. Album Description

a few questionable song choices

If you're like me and all your old Black Sabbath is on vinyl, then this digitally remastered collection is definitely worth the purchase. The band has never sounded better. I do quibble with some song selections, however. While virtually all the classic Ozzy-era songs are here, "Evil Woman" (from the UK release of the first album) is largely forgettable and hardly one of Sabbath's best; the same goes for "Planet Caravan," "Don't Start (Too Late)," Am I Going Insane" and "Dirty Women." At the same time, the Dio era is barely represented at all ("Neon Knights" doesn't even make the grade!), there's just one tune featuring Ian Gillan, and there's nothing at all from the vastly underrated album The Eternal Idol featuring Tony Martin. Omitting some of those less-than-stellar Ozzy-era tunes and adding a few more from the 80's would have allowed for a more balanced representation of the band's career. At least with the Dio Years compilation now out, some of that imbalance has been addressed. March 15, 2008

The Best Sabbath Compilation

Starting with the first album and ending with Mob Rules this includes nearly all of the early Sabbath classics with Evil Woman, which was previously unreleasd in the US and even includes Zero The Hero from the Gillan period. Of all the compilations out ther this is the one that I always come back to. All these songs on 2 discs. Not perfect but better than the rest. August 31, 2007

Why Compare?

Reading reviews of this collection, which incidentally is fantastic, I find a lot of people comparing Black Sabbath to Led Zeppelin. I find the comparison unfair, and indicative of inferiority. Personally, I believe the two bands are completely different and I enjoy both.

When I want to listen to some heavy rock, I don't think "Do I want to listen to Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin". When I want really heavy, sludgey rock, I think of Sabbath. When I think of intelligent and experimental rock, I think of Zeppelin.

I found the same comparisons being made between Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, with Heep fans always comparing their band to Purple. I rarely saw Purple fans making the same comparison. It's the same here: read Zeppelin reviews and you won't see a mention of Sabbath. Because Zeppelin, like the Beatles in a different context, are completely untouchable. Both bands also had the foresight to quit at the top of their game giving them the status of "legends".

Sabbath always gives me a special thrill when I listen to them, quite different to any other band. I don't listen to them that often, but almost alone among the music I have (and it's a lot) Sabbath is never background music. I don't listen to it while I work, read or have a shag. I just LISTEN to it. It grabs your attention. I only own the first four recordings, and now this compilation, and haven't felt the inclination to go further than, say, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

July 26, 2007

A few good tracks on this cd...two and a half stars out of 5

Hopefully this review will be mercifully short, unlike my usual windbaggery. Anyway, I made a belated decision to review this album after doing the same for Iron Maiden...this should round out my forays into metal.

Basically, I started listening to heavy metal after seeing a docu on Metallica and started buying some albums of theirs that were not too expensive. Since Black Sabbath are a 'name' act, I thought I'd take a punt by buying this compilation.

So, I pretty much REALLY like three songs on this album..."Iron man" [which is a great song, I think], "Paranoid", and the wonderfully trippy "Planet caravan". From the Dio period, I don't mind "Heaven and hell". Of these songs, "Iron man" has a great, Vikingy melody going for it, if you know what I mean. It has a great singalong feel to it, especially the intro "Is he alive or dead? Does he have any thoughts inside his head?" [or something like that]. "Planet caravan" is ethereal and dreamy. Love it, despite it not really being a rock song, let alone a metal song. "Paranoid" would be their best known song, I think.

The reason I don't give this album a higher rating than two and half stars is because it lacks catchy [to me] songs that complement the great songs. This is unlike the songs of Deep Purple [another putative father of Heavy Metal]-which is grounded, probably, in a different musical tradition to Black Sabbath...more bluesy, perhaps. Deep Purple's 3 cd best of compilation, especially the first two cds in that, have a really listenable quality to it...i.e. it might not be chock a block with great songs, but I don't mind listening to the cd from start to finish or could handle that. Even though I haven't reviewed that album here, I would give it around 4 stars out of 5.

Despite my lack of awe at Black Sabbath, I think I can hear their influence on Metallica. I haven't researched who influenced Metallica [they do mention Motorhead as an influence, I think] but to me Black Sabbath's influence can be heard in the tolling of bells in a Metallica song in their cd "Ride the lightning" or the trippy nature of "Orion" in their album Master Of Puppets. I'm guessing that they may have sampled the exact same bell sound that Black Sabbath did for their song which featured bells.

Lastly, for the unitiated, "Black Sabbath" seems to have Satanic connotations. To me at least, there is nothing dark about this band. They are HIGHLY MORAL, lyrically speaking. Especially in their song "War Pigs", which, if you are sceptic of President George W Bush's "war on terror", could be about him, or British P.M. Tony Blair [n.b. this song was released ages before the current 'war on terror' but, as they say, "the more things change..."].

I do have one accidental criticism of this compilation...I happened to listen to a mainstream classic/contemporary radio station here in Australia [Vega] where a listener requested a Sabbath song..."Changes" I think it was called. I didn't mind the song...it seemed 'real', if you know what I mean. It's not on this compilation, unfortunately. If I hadn't have listened to that request, I'd never have know about it!

P.S. I've also reviewed the following metal acts on this site:

Metallica [x4]
Megadeth
Iron Maiden

P.P.S. Here are some songs I consider to be classics of the metal genre:

Metallica: Fade to black

Megadeth: Prince of darkness

Iron Maiden: Run to the hills [though it doesn't have the quality of the other two in terms of me being willing to listen to it over and over and over again in a short period of time]

AC/DC: Hell's bells March 30, 2007

Appears to be a good collection...

However, most significantly, it's missing the song Solitude from Master of Reality. I just wanted to take this opporunity to dote on that underappreciated mood-piece, thanks. March 17, 2007

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