Backtrackin' (Phantom) [IMPORT]

Black Sabbath

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Format: Import
• ASIN: B000009G85
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,151,195 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars To go to the source or the compilation - that is the question!, January 28, 2007

By	Paul Lawrence "'EJL'" (Australia) - See all my reviews

My title for this review is based around the problem that faces everyone that goes seeking out tunes from bands that were before their time. Which, with hard rock and metal having been born circa 1970 and still strolling along, well it's happening more and more. Black Sabbath, who along with Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, get review extraordinaire Martin Popoffs vote for basically inventing the genre logically stand as a band that your going to get around to checking out at some point. And so do you beg/borrow/steal copies of the early stuff or just jump in and get a compilation? Each to his own, but in terms of this slab my two cents worth equate to the following:

This platter (I think that's a term a British DJ would perhaps say around 1970) starts off with Paranoid. Now if you've heard later live versions you've heard better versions. Cos let's face it, the recording on much of these albums sucked pretty bad. But when it's a quintessential metal track like Paranoid even the somewhat creaky and slow feeling studion verion gets the thumbs up from anyone who likes metal. It then progresses to the rather lesser Killing Yourself to Live. Which is still an interesting document. Listenting to tunes such as Snowblind at such incredibly low tones - well you initially thing that something is wrong with your stereo. It's easy to see why these guys were such a big influence on doom metal in later years. I mean just how do you tune a guitar that low?

Regardless this disc then moves on to such celebrated mediocrity as Sweet Leaf. A song about marijuana. Yippee. If I was 15 and heard it perhaps it would mean something to me but hey I just can't relate. Call me too conservative or whatever but I work with mentally ill people on a regular basis and see the effects of the ol' wacky backy. So it's not likely I'd buy into a song about the benefits of it....

But as the tunes here unfold I start to understand the reasons for the respect this mob garnered. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath sounds spooky now, back in 1977 it would of sounded truly frightening. And Symptom of the Universe just rips in a way many later bands would give their eye teeth to have written. War Pigs in it's original form is a far mellower and more stripped down beast than other versions I've heard. And for a lively run through I actually prefer the later Faith No More cover - and hey, both Ozzy and Patton don't fire on all cylinders so it's kind of a valid comparison ya know?

There are some problems with this disc that I'd like to mention however. Not all the 15 tracks here are exactly essential for your life. And really, Planet Caravan is so bad that you may decide to end your life to spare yourself. The good news - it only lasts for 4.24 minutes of your existence here on earth and after that it's over. Presumably it was put here to show the boys could be mellow.

Other lesser lights would include Into the Void (B-O-R-I-N-G) and Electric Funeral (yep it sure sounds like a dirge) and as excellent as some aspects of The Wizard are it doesn't quite gel as a whole.

Towards the end this collection is saved from 2.5 stars by the cutting Sabra Cadabra and almost funky backbeats of St Vitus Dance, both of which deal with more human concerns and the plainly weird Fairies Wear Boots.

Another gripe would be the truly terrible liner notes. No insight, just silly nonsense about the dark one. And seriously, when the collection is only based around the first seven albums with Ozzy on them it's not really a reflection of the band. After hearing this I was still undecided on whether the hype around this band was justified. All of which left me hankering for a double disc version of a best of - one that took in all the guises of Sabbath over the years and didn't just jump on the Osbourne bandwagon. This may be all some people need to make a decision on Sabbaths legacy but for this heavy rocker more research was required.