Customer Reviews

The Best of Black Sabbath ( 32 Tracks)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

...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!

I love Black Sabbath. Always have. Probably always will. Trust me, this is the best Sabbath compilation that you'll probably ever stumble across, and is one overall of the finest CD compilations ever. If you're a rock or a metal fan, do yourself a favor and track this down. You will NOT be disappointed.

Even with the release of the 2-disc "Symptom Of The Universe", I still think this is better. It's remastered, it's cheaper, and it's longer. It's also in a slimcase, not that cardboard packaging. But what matters is the music. This includes everything huge like "Iron Man", "Paranoid", and "War Pigs", plus killer tunes like "Into The Void", "Supernaut", and "Symptom Of The Universe", among others. The only thing really missing is "Changes", but seeing that it was recently covered by Kelly Osbourne, that's fine with me. If you don't know yet that "Black Sabbath" are the godfathers of metal, this will show you the light, or maybe the darkness.

If you're not the completist type,of course.I like this band very much but don't like every song on every album,nor every period of this seminal metal band.This comp is a double disc (79'+ each,no kiddin !) covering songs from all of their albums until Heaven And Hell (1980),that is to say,the worthiest Black Sabbath from my point of view.The song choice is as good as if I myself had picked them,and the remaster is so perfect you'd swear the tracks have been recorded in the 21st century !!! I want to also strongly recommend getting Heaven And Hell,their first album with Dio,and the DVD Never SAy Die-Live,which shows them in 1978,at their peak and with their original lineup.

Black Sabbath is one of the best bands in the world! They have a great song line up! The songs are great on this CD, Black Sabbath, the Wizard, the whole CD is awesome. And the best part is there are 32 tracks (2 CDs)! Even if you don't like Ozzy Osborn you'll like Black Sabbath! I prefer Black Sabbath over Ozzy, but that is just my opinion!

There is lots of great stuff here. And this is worth it for the re-mastered versions of War Pigs and Paranoid alone. Those have been two of my favorite tunes for years, and yet they really never sounded right on the old cd's. The intended crankability power of these tunes (and all the others) is finally here. I still want to get the individual albums re-mastered on cd, but this is a great collection of tunes and will receive a lot of playing time in mine and many other cd players. Its even good enough to burn another one to have in the car.

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.

Great double album with the best of the four guys that started all , the seed of Heavy Metal, many people gives the credit to other bands like Blue Cheer and Led Zeppelin great bands but these are Hard Rock bands and Heavy Metal the concept as we know in this days we owe to no other than Black Sabbath, they where ahead of many peace and love bands , they got the nerve to be different and provides rock and roll a new genre very popular in this days Heavy Metal would never exists without the masters: Black Sabbath
HM