News'The End' is nigh for Black Sabbath with US-targeted deluxe reissues
To mark the beginning of ‘The End’ world tour in January 2016, the Rhino label release two-CD and two-LP deluxe editions of Black Sabbath’s first three studio albums – Black Sabbath, Paranoid and Master Of Reality – plus a reissue of the 2002 live collection Past Lives…
Each of the studio album deluxe editions contain the 2012 remastered versions of each album (previously, only available on digital formats) and – fittingly, as Black Sabbath return to North America to launch their farewell tour – additional discs with out-takes that are previously unreleased in the States (although issued on 2009 European deluxe editions).
Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward made their debut as Black Sabbath in 1970 with the band’s self-titled album. The new deluxe edition contains outtakes from the 1969 recording sessions, alternate versions of Black Sabbath and N.I.B., plus two versions of the UK single Evil Woman (Don’t Play Games With Me).
The follow-up album, Paranoid, also released in 1970, achieved staggering success, going four-times platinum and this reissue includes alternate lyric versions of Paranoid and the dreamily psychedelic Planet Caravan, plus instrumental versions of War Pigs and Iron Man among others.
The expanded edition of Master of Reality (first released in 1971) presents eight studio out-takes including alternate takes on Solitude (featuring different guitar tuning), Sweet Leaf and Children Of The Grave.
In addition to these studio album reissues, comes Past Lives, a compilation of live performances recorded between 1970 and 1975 that was originally released in 2002. This is also available in two-CD and two-LP formats and includes live versions of 18 Sabbath tracks.
All the CD sets are presented in digipaks with artwork similar to the ones that were previously released outside North America and with the same liner notes. The double LPs are pressed on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl and delivered in gatefold sleeves.
Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality and Past Lives are reissued on 22 January 2016, two days after The End tour kicks off in Omaha, Nebraska.
Black Sabbath 2CD deluxe
Black Sabbath 2LP
Paranoid 2CD deluxe
Paranoid 2LP
Masters of Reality 2CD deluxe
Masters of Reality 2LP
Past Lives 2CD
Past Lives 2LP
Black Sabbath
Disc One:
1.Black Sabbath
2. The Wizard
3. Wasp/Behind The Wall Of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B.
4. Wicked World
5. A Bit Of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning
Disc Two:
1.Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)
2. Black Sabbath – Studio Outtake *
3. Black Sabbath – Instrumental *
4. The Wizard – Studio Outtake *
5. N.I.B. – Alternate Version *
6. Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me) – Alternate Version *
7. Sleeping Village (Intro) – Alternate Version *
8. Warning (Part 1) – Studio Outtake *
Paranoid
Disc One:
1. War Pigs/Luke s Wall
2. Paranoid
3. Planet Caravan
4. Iron Man
5. Electric Funeral
6. Hand Of Doom
7. Rat Salad
8. Jack The Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots
Disc Two:
1. War Pigs – Instrumental*
2. Paranoid – Alternate Lyrics*
3. Planet Caravan – Alternate Lyrics *
4. Iron Man – Instrumental*
5. Electric Funeral – Instrumental*
6. Hand Of Doom – Instrumental*
7. Rat Salad – Alternate Mix*
8. Fairies Wear Boots – Instrumental
Master of Reality
Disc One:
1. Sweet Leaf
2. After Forever
3. Embryo
4. Children Of The Grave
5. Orchid
6. Lord Of This World
7. Solitude
8. Into The Void
Disc Two:
1. Weevil Woman ’71*
2. Sweet Leaf – Studio Outtake*
3. After Forever – Studio Outtake Instrumental*
4. Children Of The Grave- Studio Outtake*
5. Children Of The Grave – Studio Outtake Instrumental*
6. Orchid – Studio Outtake*
7. Lord Of This World – Studio Outtake*
8. Solitude – Studio Outtake*
9. Into The Void (Spanish Sid) – Studio Outtake*
* Tracks previously unreleased in North America
Past Lives
Disc 1:
1. Tomorrow’s Dream
2. Sweet Leaf
3. Killing Yourself To Live
4. Cornucopia
5. Snowblind
6. Children Of The Grave
7. War Pigs
8. Wicked World
9. Paranoid
Disc 2:
1. Hand Of Doom
2. Hole In The Sky
3. Symptom Of The Universe
4. Megalomania
5. Iron Man
6. Black Sabbath
7. N.I.B.
8. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
9. Fairies Wear Boots
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Hello: I Have Questions Regarding The Black Sabbath Dio Era CD Remasters “Mob Rules” Universal #680889029851 & “Heaven & Hell” # 680889029837 Who Remastered Them, & How’s The Sound Quality? Thanks!
Can anyone answer the question Justin asked (my apologies if already answered but If so, I missed it) is the unreleased material on these remasters different than what was on the UK remasters a few years back? I want to get all of the goodies I can without buying it twice. Also, can anyone tell me why the remaster of “Master Of Reality” still seems to be recorded at very low levels, to the point where I can’t even turn it up enough to suite my desires without running out of volume control?!? Very annoying! Also, I have to disagree somewhat with Chudbeagle’s opinion about the Dehuminizer demos- while sound quality isn’t stellar, it is certainly more than listenable, and is well worth checking out. In any case, what he said about Ozzy singing a few H&H songs really got my full attention- am I correct to assume these tracks would be demos laid down right before Ozzy was fired from the band? Have these ever seen the light of day on a bootleg or traders tapes? I would love to get my trembling hands on those babies to put it lightly! Thanks everyone!
Some good news too on the horizon, as there were a number of Sabbath fronted singers besides Ozzy, as we all know we have the Dio, Tony The Cat Martin, Glenn Hughes, and i guess to a lesser extent, Ray Gillan. From my perspective there is some pretty good material in some of those records, although they may not scale the heights of the Ozzy era, they are worth looking at.
Over the next few months will see The Headless Cross & Tyr just around the corner followed
by Cross Purposes & Forbidden.
Will more reissues be coming out in the US?
As I understand it, the alternate mixes & in-progress versions added to “Black Sabbath”, “Paranoid” & “Master of Reality” were supplied to Universal on DAT by a fan. Neither Universal nor Warner Bros. has access to the multitracks or unreleased songs from the Ozzy Osbourne years.
Britain’s “Record Collector” magazine once made mention of some unreleased Black Sabbath songs, as well as early attempts[from the “Paranoid” sessions] of some of the “Master of Reality” songs, but, though the recordings exist, those who hold them won’t permit Universal or Warner Bros. to have them. There are also unreleased tracks recorded when the group was known as “Earth”.
And I mentioned that one additional Black Sabbath album was mixed for Quadrophonic, but the mix was never released. It is “Sabotage”. As with the quadrophonic “Paranoid”, it was mixed by engineer Spock Wall.
Incidentally, when Universal announced their expanded editions of “Black Sabbath”, “Paranoid” & “Master of Reality”, the members of Black Sabbath initially wanted to stop these releases, then relented and/or found that they couldn’t stop the releases.
The access to unreleased material is still tied up in Black Sabbath’s various changes of management, as well as the murky contract which perpetually brought many of Vertigo Records’ artists to Warner Bros. Records in The U.S.A. regardless that for some of these artists, Vertigo were themselves a licensee, not owner.
The prime Black Sabbath vault materials may be permanently off-limits.
There’s virtually nothing in the vaults. Yes, they were some unfinished ideas and different gos at songs like Ozzy singing a few of the Heaven and Hell songs, and the David Donato material from 1984 with Bob Ezrin producing, and the Dehumanizer demos with Dio including “Bad Blood” but the quality is abysmal.
Iommi never wanted to stop the remasters, he just didn’t know where the bonus material came from.
As for Earth, there’s nothing but barely listenable recordings when Jim Simpson was managing-not even worth hearing.
All that’s left is the I.R.S. albums.
Agree with Phil Cohen. Would love a good release of that quad mix.
The Sanctuary/Universal remasters were awesome and I am one of the biggest Sabbath fans alive. To have ANY bonus tracks was great and these delivered sonically (remastered by Andy Pearce).
The 2 CD versions were Black Sabbath, Master of Reality, Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, Born Again, Seventh Star, Eternal Idol, Past Lives (useless) and Dehumanizer. 1 Cd versions were Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Sabotage, Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die. 3 CD was Paranoid.
We still await the I.R.S. albums to be handled. This batch is just Rhino going on the cheap and trying to fool any US fans who were unaware of the UK remasters.
If you want the real deal, get the UK ones. Yes, there are alt versions and instrumental takes, but all the b-sides appear (live and studio) and they’re worthwhile.
I got some of these deluxe reissues in 2009 when they came out and to be honest theyre not great.Some good stuff but lots of tracks given as instrumental version but that is just the album track with no vocals !
The Heaven and Hell second disc with live recordings was terrible as Dios vocals sounded like he was singing in the room next door !!! The sound mix for this bonus disc was terrible.Live Evil was somehow made into a deluxe edition by making it a double disc package even though the original was a single disc !
Mob Rules had a great bonus cd with a live concert from Hammersmith in 1981 and is well worth the money.
Born Again has a great bonus cd with a live concert from Reading’83.
I would say to SD readers that the reissues with the exception of Mob Rules and Born again arent great.Also the sound on the original remastered cds stands quite well.
You’ll note that Warner Music’s edition of the expanded “Paranoid” omits the Quadraphonic mix(found on Universal’s European edition). The Quadraphonic mix was commissioned by Warner Bros. Records, and they hold the only tape. Without access to that tape, Universal dubbed from vinyl. Now, if only Warner Music could license out the Quadraphonic version for a proper reissue by Audio Fidelity. And Warner may hold an unreleased quadraphonic mix of one other Black Sabbath album.
(999)? Oooo, you got stung on the Led Zeppelin sets too.
Yes the Zep reissues were for the most part a letdown but the 3 disc Coda did a great job of making up for what was lacking in bonus audio of the rest of the discs.
Probably because someone is holding out for a re-issue of some sort in the future. Probably on some different format. I also hate digi-packaging. I feel like that is a dead give away of the intention of re-issuing the product in some other package in the years to come which hopefully won’t be a bad thing but until it is done it is.
Does anyone know how the newer releases stack up against the big “Black Box” from the early ’00s when it comes to sound quality?
The extra contents in these deluxe editions is tempting, but not if the sound quality isn’t an upgrade on the box set.
I’m normally a sucker for outtakes but I’m underwhelmed by the selection of alternate takes and instrumental mixes. It’s amazing to me how so many bands in the 70’s went into the studio with about 8 or so songs and had no outtakes. I guess my problem is that alternate takes are usually interesting from a historical perspective but rarely merit repeat listening, whereas some bands occasionally have an unreleased nugget that manages to surpass the songs that were released on the original album. I’m getting bored with the scraping of the barrel that seems to be happening on many of these expanded reissues. I miss the mid-90’s CD reissue heyday when we were getting about 7-10 unreleased tracks from the vaults on reissue campaigns like the Who and the Byrds.
Totally agree with your comments, Nick Lowe. Here is my ranking of reissue bonus audio material from most to least desirable:
(1) Non-album single (both A-side and B-side)
(2) Unreleased track (assuming it’s at least “good” or interesting if not a bona fide classic)
(3) Demo or live recording that sounds different from the album version
(999) Alternate mix, outtake, or live recording of an album track that sounds nearly identical to the version that appears on the album proper
The instrumental outtakes on albums like Masters Of Reality are a big part of the appeal, to me. Hearing the riffs and arrangement without Ozzy, they sound utterly contemporary, not like 40-year-old castoffs. Most are on YT, if you want to demo them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWOUEYRn6JQ
I wonder if these are basically the same as the 2009 deluxe editions but with 2012 remastering? What really puts me off though is their digipak packaging. Also, does the UK really only get one date on their tour?