Greatest Hits

if you want an ozzy sabbath collection without any filler, this is the one to get. it is simply the cream of black sabbath during the ozzy period. every song is a killer - but i think you already know that. if you want a more extensive collection with detailed notes, photos etc look elsewhere. for me this works! i first had this on tape 15 years back and was lucky to get this on cd as well. at its price you can't get a better deal!

I'm not a Black Sabbath historian or really a fan. Just a classic rock enthusiast and a casual album collector. I liked their singles, so bought the CD. If you fall in that category as well, this should fit the bill!

I would have paid a couple bucks just for the 7 or 8 minutes of "War Pigs" bliss. But liked all the tracks at least a little. There are the hit singles, an instrumental, a couple of slower songs, a bit of cartoon-y Satanism perhaps. (Tame and inoffensive by today's standards I assure you.)

Yes, the serious collector should know that there are NO liner notes to speak of. However this is a good sound quality CD from a groundbreaking band at a good price!

I'll admit it..I was NOT a Black Sabbath fan. I'm not really interested in hearing the same 3 chords played brutally loud over and over while some guy in S&M gear bleats lyrics about Satan and his minions. Certainly the band had never really tried to present any OTHER image, so for an outsider like me, it was hard to imagine they'd do songs about: love and loss or the fallacies of war to name two. My wife, however, had this CD as part of her collection so when I "inherited" it post-marriage, I gave it a chance. I have to admit I was (happily) surprised. You do NOT have to be a "turn it to 11!" kinda guy (or gal) to appreciate BS.

In response to other reviewers, the sound quality is great for the vintage (I didn't hear any horrible hiss or distortion...actually, it seemed very clear for an obviously budget CD), I had zero problem getting it to play in my CD-ROM drive, and I think (short of the 2 I mention below) that the track selection is very good (for the band's early material). What the reviewer says about the liners being non-existent and the spine upside down IS correct...it's obviously a budget release and not the "official" Warner Brothers greatest hits.

As to it being a "collector's" item, I think that's overly optimistic: At least in the U.S. where I live this has been readily available in the big chain record shops for around $5 or so new.

For those not that familiar with the band, this English group more or less created the heavy metal genre. The band (as heard on this CD anyhow, the lineup has changed over the years) is Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums).

HIGHLIGHTS:

"Paranoid" opens the disc with a straight ahead rock and roll blast about feeling isolated and unhappy, complete with a great fuzz guitar solo. "N.I.B." has a very odd experimental intro with a brief somewhat funky bass solo that completely fades out, then the main guitar riff comes in to establish the song. (This one and "Black Sabbath" are the only songs that actually deal with the occult). The song actually incorporates sections that are spare with only a tambourine and a bass that sound as "heavy" as the moments driven by the electric guitar. Piano/organ ballad "Changes" tale of love lost is actually haunting...very pretty. "Iron Man" is a comic book style fantasy about a metal man who brings on the apocalypse. "War Pigs" is a great anti-war song that pictures a terrible end for the architects of armed conflict (And as God has struck the hour/

Day of judgement, God is calling/On their knees the war pigs crawling/Begging mercies for their sins/Satan, laughing, spreads his wings"). "Laguna Sunrise" is a pretty acoustic guitar instrumental (with strings!)

LOW SPOTS:

"Black Sabbath", unfortunately, was everything I had in my worst fears realized: stupid melodramatic plodding "Satan coming to get you" boring heavy metal. It's doubly sad that THIS is the cut they take their name from because it was easily my most disliked one on the disc. "Sweet Leaf" was decent musically, but the pro-marijuana ode's lyrics weren't up to snuff.

BOTTOM LINE:

You don't have to be able to make the "devil horn" sign or bang your head to enjoy this. Despite the image they tended to portray, only 1 song here really deals with Satan/Lucifer/the Dark Lord/fill in your nickname here...albeit a creepy one as Ozzy Osbourne decides to sing the song from Old Scratch's point of view. For the price, it's a bargain.