Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970–1978)
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| Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970–1978) | |||||
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| Box set by Black Sabbath | |||||
| Released | April 27, 2004 | ||||
| Recorded | 1969–1978 | ||||
| Genre | Heavy metal | ||||
| Length | 323:28 | ||||
| Label | Rhino Warner Bros. |
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| Black Sabbath chronology | |||||
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Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970–1978) is a collection of the first eight albums by the heavy metal band. The set contains the albums recorded with original singer Ozzy Osbourne, who was fired in 1979 after completion of the band's Never Say Die! tour. This marked the end of the group's original line-up that featured Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. All eight albums are digitally remastered and repackaged in mock vinyl LP packaging, including an 80-page booklet with liner notes written by Henry Rollins, Chris Welch and Brian Ives and a four song DVD containing vintage Beat Club footage from 1970. The eight albums included in the set are:
- 1970 Black Sabbath
- 1970 Paranoid
- 1971 Master of Reality
- 1972 Volume 4
- 1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
- 1975 Sabotage
- 1976 Technical Ecstasy
- 1978 Never Say Die!
They are represented as they appeared when first released, with the exception of the debut album, which has a new track order and the inclusion of the song, "Evil Woman", which originally was not released in North America due to copyright problems. They are kept in digipak cases, with all original LP artwork intact. The CDs themselves are entirely black, but retain the lettering used for each individual release, as opposed to a uniform stylized font.
True to its title, the nine discs are housed in a solid black case, complete with gothic imagery and lettering. Inside, there are two smaller boxes containing four CDs each. Also enclosed is a booklet, which contains the DVD in a sleeve attached to the inside back cover. The booklet traces the entire history of the band, with essays, interviews, timelines, and the lyrics to every song personally checked by Geezer Butler, the band's main lyricist. The DVD contains live footage of the band playing the songs: "Black Sabbath", "Paranoid", "Iron Man", and the Carl Perkins' classic "Blue Suede Shoes".
Previously, a 1996 remastered box set was issued by Castle Communications. This set used unknown source tapes and did not involve any input from the band. For this boxed set, issued by Rhino, all of the songs have been digitally remastered from the Warner Bros. tape archives, as was the previously released Rhino compilation Symptom of the Universe. The result of Rhino using the original masters for this set is that the sound quality is noticeably superior to the Castle discs.[citation needed]
[edit] Personnel
- Dan Hersch, Bill Inglot – remastering
[edit] Release history
| Region | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | April 27, 2004 | Rhino Records |
| United States | 2004 | Warner Bros. Records |
| Canada | ??? | Warner Bros. Records |
| Australia | ??? | Warner Bros. Records |
