Paranoid is the apotheosis of the Sabbath sound, as five minutes on any classic rock station will attest. Almost 40 years later, the music is still able to evoke this mood perfectly. It's campy as hell, but they play it straight, and it works. Iommi plays a few notes, Bill Ward crashes his cymbals, Ozzy offers some stanzas concerning devil worship, and cathedrals in fog emerge from the speakers. (That the compilers saw it fit to indiscriminately chop two minutes off of "Iron Man" is just another strike against this disc.) The group's Gothic interpretation of the blooze is all but perfected on the track which inspired their name. Iommi must have brought a few extra virgins to the crossroads when he met up with old Lucifer, as the leads to songs like "War Pigs", "Black Sabbath", and "Iron Man" are inescapable and eternal. From the first bell toll of "Black Sabbath" until "Supernaut" fades to black 11 tracks later, the band's greatness is unmistakable. Regardless of how the compilers try to ruin the party, there's no denying what Sabbath once was. I guess listeners should be happy Rick Wakeman's contributions to the band's gradual decline or the group's foray into new-wave what-the-fuckness aren't included. Which is a sight better than Sabbath doing their best Cheap Trick impersonation ("Never Say Die"), or Sabbath trying to one-up Blueshammer (as on "Rock 'N' Roll Doctor" and "Dirty Women," both from the misnomered Technical Ecstasy). Tracks like the turgid "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "Hole in the Sky" sound like watered down Sabbath, especially following various Vol. Such a demarcation means folks who bought this comp could cut bait with the awesome-beyond-words "Supernaut" and display their devil horns with pride. Were I in an Old Testament mood, I'd simply draw the line at Vol. On this greatest hits collection, the ratio's less favorable- out of 16 total tracks, three are turds from the post- Sabotage era, plus one underwhelming track each from both Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage. Twenty-nine total tracks a mere four from the final two Ozzy albums, and only 10 from the latter half of Ozzy's tenure. Rhino knew this back in 2002, when they compiled two discs' worth of Ozzy-era goodness. If you want the best, then you want Ozzy Osborne cribbing notes from Hammer Studio horror flicks and/or his own experiences with various controlled substances. After all, only dedicated spelunkers are going to want to venture into the depths plumbed by Black Dio and Black Purple and Tony Iommi's Traveling Sabbath of Ebon Darkness. Something like: Thou shalt not plucketh tracks from any Sabbath album past Sabotage when compiling a one-disc greatest hits collection, and thou shalt choose very carefully from both Sabotage and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, lest ye disenfranchise Sabbath neophytes. Supersonic Years: The Seventies Singles Box SetThere ought to be a law, or a commandment. Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978īlack Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978 "-" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. Formats: CD, 2xCD, 2xLP, digital download.Formats: LP, MC, 4-track, 8-track, reel-to-reel.After 49 years together, Black Sabbath announced their breakup in March 2017. In June 2013, a partial reformation of the original line-up released 13, which was the first album to feature Osbourne on vocals since 1978's Never Say Die!. The 2007 sessions were deemed a one-off which led to the Heaven and Hell side project, resulting in a new studio album in 2009 titled The Devil You Know. Though the second most recent line-up of the band to work together were Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice, Iommi, and Butler, for three new songs for a compilation in 2007, the original line-up was still considered the "current" lineup at the time and had been since their reunion in 1997. The band has undergone multiple lineup changes. ![]() The band was formed in 1968 by John "Ozzy" Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (lead guitar), Terence "Geezer" Butler (bass guitar), and Bill Ward (drums). The discography of Black Sabbath, an English heavy metal band, includes 19 studio albums, eight live albums, 16 compilation albums, seven video albums, one extended play and 30 singles. The original Black Sabbath from left to right: Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne
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