Black Sabbath - Which Versions To Look For?

I'm seriously lacking any Black Sabbath in my collection (only looking for the recordings with Ozzy singing though) and am curious as to which are the best sounding CD versions to be on the lookout for. Any recommendations/feedback sincerely appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

 

Hav a look atSleeping Village to see a detailed comparison of the various versions. My own view is the Castle remasters are very good, except Live Evil which is exceptionally crappy compared with the Warners double CD
John Buchanan

 

Thanks for the link. I just picked up Volume 4 on Castle. In the link, they explain that the re-issues without live cuts are very rare. This is the version I have. Is this really the case??

I never had the Warner Bros. version of this, but if you've ever heard "We Sold Our Souls" on Warner, than you know how bad the sound is. I would agree that the remaster sound is better than what I heard on Warner's WSOS. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there is much to work with on a remaster job, you just have to turn the volume up on "Supernaut" and go with it. This was never meant for audiophiles!

 

The original Warner Brothers issues of Black Sabbath & Paranoid sound great

 

The Warners issue of Paranoid has a faulty transfer during War Pigs - some sort of intermittent connection caused odd volume shifts in one channel. The vinyl also sounded like this and was always inferior to the Vertigo - the Castle CD sounds like the Vertigo. The Warners is also duller than the Vertigo vinyl/Castle CD
My CD catalogue # of Paranoid is ESM CD 304 and has a silver "remastered from original master tapes fathfully restored artwork" sticker and has no live tracks. I think they may be referring to the penultimate mastering in that section. AFAIK, all the Castle BS remasters have the original track listing and no extras.
Avoid Live Evil on Castle - it's really bad.

 

The 2 BS CDs I mentioned are flat transfers and I enjoy them.

 

Paranoid may be a flat transfer of the Warners tape, but the tape copying (ie Vertigo to Warners) is and always was faulty. So yes, it sounds like the Warners vinyl did originally, but that is not the original Vertigo sound. Put the headphones on and listen to War Pigs. Do you notice that the image is unstable through that song in particular? The Vertigo vinyl and Castle CDs have a stable image throughout.
As for Black Sabbath, I can't say as I never did any comparisons on that one.

 

The WB CDs sound great but DO have many problems. It's the Castle remasters that DO sound great. Live Evil I'd have to agree with too. Not like you can't find a WB double in a used record shop.

This may be a no-brainer, but just keep SO far away from the budget Sabbath releases made by Dorchester Holdings. Bad transfer, bad mastering, bad karma, bad bad bad.

 

I'm partial to the Castles also.

 

I picked up an 8 CD box set from Castle - The Complete 70s Replica Collection - in the mini LP sleeves and box for £29.99 - just bought a mate of mine a set as well for his birthday - a nice way to get an early Sabbath collection up and running quickly It contains

Back Sabbath
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Vol 4.
Sabbath bloody Sabbath
Sabotage
Technical Ecstasy
Never Say Die

All the best - Andrew

 

A little OT; has anyone tested the new 180 g vinyl releases of all
black sabbath albums with ozzy on them? Are they as good as the originals? Do they sound "pure analog"?

 

I have all of the Castle remasters in the mini-LP packaging except for Never Say Die. Highly recommended.

 

I have all of the Black Sabbath remasters on Castle, up to and including "Sabatoge", and think that they are the way to go. Excellent sound and packaging.




Ed Hurdle
HeavyDistortion

 

Where did the Japanese version of parnoid come from in the 90's?

 

Stay away from the Warner issue of "We Sold Our Souls". It's missing two tracks; Warning and Laguna Sunrise. I'm sure the UK remaster has all the songs.

I have the Castle mini-LP sleeve versions of Paranoid and Master of Reality. I also have a great two CD, 32 track Castle remastered compilation from 2000 called The Best Of Black Sabbath. It nicely covers the Ozzy years plus tags on a couple of Ronnie James Dio tracks amd The Dark/Hero The Zero with the great Ian Gillan from the often overlooked and underated Born Again album. The two disc package is spot on except they missed Neon Nights, an excellent song from the Dio years. This is a good starter set for someone just getting into Sabbath. The booklet has a long essay covering the band from the early years right up to 2000 including the reunion of the original lineup.

Cheers.

 

The Cat No. on the double Castle import "We Sold Our Souls..." I just got is ESD CD 605 - GAS0000605ESD.

This is the one to get! It does sound much better than the Us release and it also has all the same tunes that the US warner has +PLUS+ some extra tunes that the warner doesn't. On disc one: "Warning" and "Wicked World" and on disc 2. "Laguna Sunrise".

My only complaint is that the N.I.B. bass solo intro seems to fade in, so the drumming prior to the solo has been edited out. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm so used to hearing N.I.B. w/ that drum intro that it sounds wierd that it was taken out! Still well worth the extra $$.

 

Adding my 2 cents on the Castle remasters: SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH is a great sounding disc. It's the only Sabbath album I have, or want to own, frankly. It got me through my first year of college and imo is the only record they did that is great all the way through. Tuneful, melodic, heavy and you can understand what Ozzy's singing too!

 

Are the Castle Mini-LP's limited editions?

I've bought two at my local store.

I might want to get all of the first eight and I don't want to see them
disappear before I can buy all of them!

Thanks

Joe

 

The 8-CD Castle box is definitely the way to go, and it's reasonably priced for what you get. This is if you want all of the Ozzy period in one shot. The replicas of the LP art are excellent. The only disc that doesn't sound so great to me is "Technical Ecstasy", but I have heard that the WB is far worse.
On "We Sold Our Souls...", the artwork from the inside of the LP is included. If you were to get only one Sabbath, this is the one, IMO. Every version I have heard of this has the faded bass intro on N.I.B. The drums before N.I.B. are actually the end of "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" (on the 1st album). I also miss them on this compilation.
Get the Castle Box!

 

What's with the new "Past Lives" CD thats out? Is it legit? It's not on Warners so I didn't pick it up thinking it's a grey-market release with near-bootleg sound. Anyone hear it?

 

Sharon Osbourne helped put that together from what I've read so it would certainly be legit.The first disc is Live At Last.

 

Well unless Best Buy and Circuit City are in the bootleg business now, "Past Lives" is most definitely a legit release. Haven't heard it myself but I put it on the want list.

 

I was in a local record/cd store yesterday and they had a large, poster size, heavy cardboard copy of the "Past Lives" cover, evidently to be used for promotional purposes. Therefore, it must definitely be a legit record company release.



Ed Hurdle
HeavyDistortion

 

The record company is Sanctuary...

 

Ed,

There are 2 releases out there!

One has cardboard/digi-pack packaging and is priced higher...though you get some extras, like a full sized poster.

There is also a standard jewel box version that is priced better, but has no extras.

Yes, this is legit...isn't it on a Sanctuary subsidiary label?!

Sorry, Claus already had this covered...oops!