Customer Reviews

Black Sabbath Anthology

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've owned this sheet music book for a couple of years and I still occasionally reference it. The song selection is actually better than on any of the "greatest hits" albums I've seen.

What disappointed me is how incomplete some of the transcriptions are. For instance at the end of "Snowblind," the caption simply says to improvise something, rather than taking the extra effort to finish the tablation. Certain riffs like Children of the Sea would have been better written-out instead of in "rhythm slash" notation. "A Bit of Finger" is present and seems reasonably accurate, but there's no "Warning" to go with it. It happens to be my favorite track on that side of the album.

Every song in this book is vital and worth learning, and I'd recommend it to any intermediate guitarist who wants to take on some heavy blues and hard rock influences. Its incomplete status and semi-official credibility are my only disappointments.

This collection includes all the familiar Sabbath classics, plus some pieces hard to find in sheet music stores: e.g.: National Acrobat, Voodoo, Country Girl, Hard Road, Supernaut, Neon Knights, Heaven and Hell, Children of the Sea, Etc. Many of the "complete" or "recorded versions" of the same songs had numerous guitar overdubs transcribed and since Sabbath are a one-guitar band, the simplified, one-guitar versions were much simpler to follow and that that was the whole idea. The omitted solos to something like "Snowblind" are just pentatonic and are easy to figure out anyway. So the great thing about this book is the simplicity. It is all well and good for someone to notate every last guitar overdub on an album but it can get confusing when you want a one-guitar version of something. Another advantage to the simplified versions is that it takes less space per page for easier reading. Example: the "outro" solo on "War Pigs" is transcribed on one page instead of 5-10 pages and that way you can play along with the record without having to worry about turning the pages. Well worth the money that I paid for it

This book is great if you want a quick reference on how to play through the classic Sabbath songs. However, some key parts of songs are not transcribed. For example, "Fairies Wear Boots" does not have the opening lick done properly, and the sliding octave runs in intro of this song are left out completely. The true "solos" appear to be done well and that is why this is given 4 stars.

All of the songs that the book list as being tuned to D is in reality tuned to C#. Iron man is tabbed one step higher than it is played, so lower everything by one fret. This is a good starting point but make sure you play along with the recording to match pitch. The rhythms are a little off as well, in heaven and hell they list the intro as just 4 8th notes when it is really a 16th note and 3 8th note triplets. Hopefully one day there will be a more accurate book but this is really the best out there right now and it does have a excellent track listing.

I'm glad I had twenty bucks on me when I found this years ago, otherwise I would have stolen it. I had a guitar for years, but wasn't much inspired because I didn't know any songs from my favorite bands, and Sabbath was the greatest of them all. I soon learned all the songs in this book (and all the original group's mnaterial). Not all the trancriptions are correct, but it is far better than any other books I've checked out. Great song selection of songs, also.

if you wanna play Sabbath then you need sheet music or tabs and this is it... good song selection...

This book is great. It has lots of the classics all in accurate, high quality tabs and notation. The best part is that most of the songs are from the Ozzy years, only a few from the Dio garbage. This has to be one of the best books available. I've seen reviews for others, but they are no longer in print. If you want to learn Sabbath, get this book. Songs tabbed are: A Hard Road, A National Acrobat,Black Sabbath,Children of the Grave, Children of the Sea Country Girl, Dirty Women, Fairies Wear Boots/Jack the Stripper, Heaven and Hell, Iron Man Junior's Eyes, Looking for Today, N.I.B., Neon Knights, Never Say Die, Paranoid, Planet Caravan, Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, Sleeping Village/Bit of Finger, Snowblind, Supernaut, Sweet Leaf, Tomorrow's Dream, Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes, Voodoo, War Pigs, The Wizard

I'm glad I had twenty bucks on me when I found this years ago, otherwise I would have stolen it. I had a guitar for years, but wasn't much inspired because I didn't know any songs from my favorite bands, and Sabbath was the greatest of them all. I soon learned all the songs in this book (and all the original group's mnaterial). Not all the trancriptions are correct, but it is far better than any other books I've checked out. Great song selection of songs, also.

I was looking for that book for a long time. Simply it's the best of the best.