Black Sabbath

Ok first off let's not confuse this release with the single cd available as this is a new remaster and what a remaster at that!
I was a tad skeptical about this release and one reason i didn't rush straight out and buy because i wasn't sure if it was just the same as the single cd,but after reading on the black sabbath forum about the unbelievable quality i had to get it asap.
Ok onto the review.
Well Many cds these days are so poorly re-mastered that great dynamic sounding music seems to be becoming a rarity these days with many artist's back catalogues and indeed new music being butchered and ruined so it fills me with enormous happiness to say this deluxe edition is really quite superb,in fact it's one of the best cds ive ever heard.
Everything about this cd is brilliant,one because it was the first and highly influential album from sabbath and two ive never heard it sound better.
From the opening of black sabbath to the final track of disc one warning i was amazed at how dynamic and powerful sounding this is.
The second cd has outtakes and instrumentals from the album which i found to be excellent especially the studio outtake of black sabbath,at the start you hear ozzy say (and i'll leave out certain words lol) "i dont understand it....i can't remember the words"....it really is priceless and in my opinion worthy of purchase on this reason alone.
Seriously though this is a masterclass in remastering and one that all engineers should take note and learn from.
So if you are a fan of heavy metal or sabbath and you are not quite sure whether to get it then don't wonder anymore just go for it.
Comparing this to the single cd version is like comparing gold to dirt,the single cd is louder,harsh sounding and brittle,this deluxe edirion is pure gold,not at all loud very smooth and rich.
Absolutely brilliant and a pleasure to award it 5 stars!

....'What is this that stands before me......' This album was the type of sound the youth then and now were/are looking for.The lyrics,Ozzy's distinctive voice,Iommi's heavy guitar work-those brilliant rifts-Geezers great bass playing and Wards'thumping drums. Although the lyrics are simple enough,it is clear that they hold great meaning about this 'system'and the evil within said system and within individuals. This album is a work of genius:in all its glorious aspects. this album will be around forever.A definite must for any collector of hard/heavy rock.

Rain pours down outside, and the distant sound of thunder crashes through the sky.
Then, like no moment in music before, the striking of a single guitar chord kick-started a genre. Drummer Bill Ward pounds his drums like a caveman alerting the tribe of something bad, and indeed, something bad does arrive.

John "Ozzy" Osbourne's first impression on the music world was a strong one:
"What is this that stands before me", he barks over the minimalist soundscape, "[a] figure in black which points at me"...
And all this gloom and doom gave legions of angry teenagers something they could relate to, as well as inspiring them to pick up a guitar and start singing about the devil.

"Black Sabbath", the song and the album, is really where heavy metal began. From the imagery to the look and the sound, and to the three-note riff that pours from Tony Iommi's mangled fingers, this album sounds like nothing before it. Distorted, discordant, and ungodly slow, filled with dark, Dungeons and Dragons-like imagery which somehow ends up being much more than just your average heavy metal posturing, mainly because of the dim, suffocating musical atmosphere which is like nothing, literally nothing, anyone had ever heard before.
There isn't much variety in mood or tempo, but that's not the point; Sabbath's slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness.

Black Sabbath's debut album is filled with lengthy songs and suite-like pieces where individual tunes blur together and riffs pound away one after another. And it remains one of the most influential albums ever in popular music, and a must-have for anyone with an interest in heavy metal.
4 1/2 stars.