Customer Reviews

Black Sabbath 4 (Dig)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't listened to the Black Box 2004 remaster of Vol 4, but I am familiar with the old Castle Communications CD release that was etched in the 1980's. This 2009 remaster has a noticable volume drop in the right channel at 4 minutes 52 seconds into "Wheels of Confusion". I'm quite surprised this "glitch" was allowed to slip past quality controls and it leaves me wondering if the original master tapes are simply getting too old and brittle.

I've pondered the notion of ripping the track to WAV and performing a decible boost to the right channel in the damaged area to correct this problem. If I do, I'll keep you posted on my findings and methods.

This album has been a part of my Black Sabbath collection since 1975, when I was first introduced to and became a fan of their music. Having had to replace my albums numerous times during the years of transition from vinyl to mp3, I long hesitated to purchased a remastered edition. A remastered edition of Vol. 4 is definitely needed, but this is not that edition. The sound quality on the original recording of "Wheels of Confusion," "Supernaut," and "Snowblind" is actually superior to that which is offered on this remastered album. The only tract that I can confidently say is improved in sound is "Laguna Sunrise."

I have to agree with the review about not wanting to give this album/cd a bad review. The album itself is one of the greatest of all time. It's the description that falls way short. I bought Vol.4 and the other four re-issues from another site because they were only ten dollars apiece. They are worth less than that. I was expecting as it said a DIGIPAK tri-fold like that of Past Lives or all The Beatles Remasters. Instead there is a booklet that has no new pics. A plastic holder for the cd and nothing new. At least if they were re-issuing they could have enhanced it even a little. Black Sabbath should request these be taken off the market or sell for something like $5.99.

I grimace to not give this great album a five star rating, but if I gave it five stars i would grimace at that too. This is the first sabbath album that you can start to see the cracks. The first three sabbath albums are amazing from begginning to end, and though this has some genre defining greatness that would inspire for generations, there is also some filler. It seemed that this is when the Ozzy era sabbath started to pace themselves. I can understand that there was a need to get out albums quickly but that also leads to sloppy tracks. Supernaut and Snowblind are two of my favorite tracks of all time, but I look at my real player score based on how I rate each song and it comes out to less than four stars, and I can't help but wonder if that is fair considering how great the good songs are. It is also evident in the next two albums, with Sabbath bloody sabbath being the only great song off that album and though there are good songs, the album seems lacking to me, and sabatage lacks even one great track, then you get into the death throws of the band with their last two albums with ozzy. I can only wonder what would have happened if they just toook their time or stayed away from the inspiration for Snow Blind but in a lot of ways, I wouldn't want to change anything, because when this album gets cooking, there is nothing in all rock and metal for this to be compared to.