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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Lopsided but Comprehensive Overview of Prime Sab, February 18, 2002
This review is from: The Best of Black Sabbath ( 32 Tracks) (Audio CD)
If you are trying to find an overview of the largest part of Black Sabbath's career in as few discs as possible, then this package is for you. These two discs are packed to the max with 79 minutes of material each, adding up to over 2.5 hours of prime Sabbath, covering the band's history until 1983. Here you can track Sab's development from the slow and sludgy piledrivers of the early albums, to their peak of creativity and complexity in the mid-70's, to their late 70's decline - both before and after Ozzy got canned. This collection in fact contains just three post-Ozzy songs (two with Dio and one with Gillan) before avoiding Sab's complete early-80's downfall altogether. However, I would mostly recommend this for non-collectors who are not too attached to the original albums. This is because diehards will probably gripe about the song selection. This always happens with compilations anyway, but here there's a reason to be concerned. Disc A, with 16 tracks, covers just the first three Sab albums, with a whopping six tracks from *Paranoid* alone (out of the original eight). Meanwhile disc B, also with 16 songs, covers eight original albums, with some albums getting just one song each. Sure most fans prefer those early albums anyway, as the early years are piled up with more bonafide Sab classics. But the album considered by many fans to be their best, 1974's *Sabbath Bloody Sabbath* is woefully underrepresented with just three tracks here. This is curious because of the inclusion of the mostly disposable (and chintzy) acoustic numbers "Embryo" and "Don't Start (Too Late)" which are taking up space that could be used more wisely. So if you're looking for a comprehensive overview, you're still getting your money's worth with this package, but the lopsided selections will deprive you of a large part of the band's history, if you're the analytical type. But if you can forgive that problem, and if you're not a diehard Sab collector, you'll be happy with this gigantic collection.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy NOW, January 16, 2002
This review is from: The Best of Black Sabbath ( 32 Tracks) (Audio CD)
One look at the unsettling gorgeous cover tells you all you need to know about this CD. That contain herein is some of the most deliciously evil sounding music ever produced by man. This best of CD concentrates on the Ozzy era of Sabbath. A great many Sabbath fans maintain that only the Ozzy era that counts but I disagree with that. I truly enjoyed Sabbath in all its incarnation and believe that the addition of a third CD to cover the Dio, Ian Gillan and Tony Martin era would of made one truly wicked compilation. One can only dream but reality as represented by this compilation happens to be quite satisfying. Anyway if you are interested in post Ozzy era Sabbath give the "Sabbath Stones" compilation CD a try. It's far from perfect but its still very good. As to song selection the usual culprits from the Ozzy era such as Black Sabbath, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, The Wizard, War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Fairies Wear Boots etc... have been included. Extremely hard to quibble with the track selection but unfortunately there are some terrific songs that did not make the cut, such as National Acrobat and Sabbra Cadabra. Although I think it's inevitable that some great songs are missing considering the overall quality of Sabbath's output. As I mentioned earlier this CD is Ozzy heavy and only three songs do not feature him on vocals. Two songs including the incredible Heaven and Hell represent the Dio era Sabbath. The Born Again CD with Ian Gillan on vocals is represented by the terrific Hero the Zero. Those of you who are unaware of who Black Sabbath are and how their music sounds I pity you. Stop reading this immediately and buy this CD as fast as you can. Black Sabbath is considered one of the pioneering bands of Heavy Metal. They have influenced a countless number of Heavy Metal bands and are legends in their lifetimes. The music is dark and captivating. The guitar licks are heavy and haunting and the vocalists are amazing. The songs on this CD have been remastered and I must say it truly adds a new dimension to most of them. Classics like Iron Man and Paranoid just explode out of your speakers. The remaster of the old songs alone makes it worthwhile for any Sabbath fan to purchase this CD. As to be people who hesitate between buying the "Best of..." or "We Sold Our Sold For Rock and Roll" the other best of CD. Its no contest buy "The Best Of". It's got 32 classic Sabbath tracks and with the exception of "Changes" includes all the tracks on "We sold...". The remastered tracks on the "Best of..." sounds much better than the original recording improving on already terrific music. Plus the "Best of..." includes in the linear notes an interesting history of Sabbath that "We Sold..." completely lacks.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tops Rhino's two disc set, but..., August 18, 2006
This review is from: The Best of Black Sabbath ( 32 Tracks) (Audio CD)
...it isn't perfect. Still, it's the best one if you're looking for a Black Sabbath overview, with it's great sound quality and two packed CD's (79+ minutes) you can't go wrong. This one tops the Rhino two disc set.
As for this collection, my only complaint would be a little less material from the 1975-1978 Ozzy period and more from the Dio and Gillan albums. Born Again (with Ian Gillan) for example, is one of the most underrated Sabbath albums and the only song they used wasn't even one of the better ones. I think "Disturbing the Priest" would have been a better choice to close out this collection, not to mention "Trashed" or "Born Again" would have been good if they had given more time for the other singers. Anyway, most people aren't buying this for the Gillan or Dio selections but rather Ozzy, even if it isn't good Ozzy, because the media tells them Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy.
Also not good, was the booklet's printing, which was rather small and hard to read. But maybe that was just my copy. If you are looking to have a good overview of Black Sabbath, save money and buy this collection over Rhino's two disc set. Oh, I'd love to see something like this for the classic Deep Purple lineup. After all, they are one of the big three: Purple/Zeppelin/Sabbath. Case closed!
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