Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (2015 Edition )

...delivered ahead of time in good condition. All good.

Great pressing and great sound. What more do you want? Better than the original! All of the Sabbath re-issues are in my opinion. Due to commitments (Royal Navy) I missed the original release of Vol. 4. Arriving home on my first leave I bought Vol. 4 and this at the same time. I played them back to back. I doubt many people would have been in a position to do so. It felt like a double album. Unlike a lot of bands at the time, Sabbath were able to get better and better. Not once do I recall thinking, "It's not as good as........". They always managed to produce something different whilst retaining their identity. Remarkable really.

A great, almost experimental, album at a time when the winds of change were starting to blow. This showed Sabbath coming to the end of their down-tuned, doom-riffery and exploring the realms of modern and (now) classic rock; even easy listening and jazz on later albums. The darkness still remained however and it is that which added shade to the difference of some of the more upbeat tracks.The title track is rightfully considered a classic, but to any new listeners it may be bewildering as to why? It needs a couple of spins before the lumpen riffs and tunes kick in. Great opening. 'A National Acrobat' is possibly the only filler track here. On its own it is ok but compared to the rest it's an also-ran. 'Fluff' blew me away completely. Not musically, as a feather could split it in 2!, but because of its placid, entirely serene notes. It is a 4 minute acoustic equivalent of laying in a grassy field by a river and a wood, maybe some hills, on a sunny day just after you've retired at the age of 30 with millions of pounds to do nothing with for the rest of your life - and it's sunny every day. As you can probably tell from my covert ironic-ese, it's a waft of a song. But it is beautiful. Will later appear on an album containing tracks that don't sound anything like they've been written by who they've been written by. On the down-side, it kind of sounds like the musical accompaniment to the viewers' gallery on the old Tony Hart children's art TV programme. But, actually, that isn't a bad thing. 'Sabbra Cadabbra' is more of an upbeat, traditional rock and roll tune. It's very good and is considered by many (including Metallica, who covered it very boringly) to be a classic. It's fun and breezy and tuneful and very good indeed, but it doesn't reach the heights of the title track or indeed other later tracks of other albums like 'Symptoms of the Universe'.'Killing Yourself to Live' is great. Again, no classic but a very worthy and catchy track. It has a great opening riff. 'Who Are You' is also very good but is one of the more experimental additions. It revolves around a synthesised keyboard riff and is actually all the better for it. Much better than 'Am I Going Insane' from Sabotage, which was similar in execution. 'Looking for Today' is as 'Killing...' is. It is a great track, albeit slightly throwaway. 'Spiral Architect' is a great closer. Close to a classic it has a very infectious tune, is understated and quite sophisticated.It may be a classic because of its stature in the Sabbath canon but musically it is only really a 4 star effort. This is not a criticism however as it is definitely a favourite of mine. But, in all honesty, later albums that many deride, like Tyr, The Eternal Idol and even Dehumanizer, are of equal, if not better quality.

Like a lot of other people I am slowly building up my Vinyl collection again, last year I treated myself to the first four Black Sabbath albums, then earlier this year I got the album 13, but this one was way down my list of must replace albums, but last week I bumped in to an old friend and he told me I needed to get Sabbath bloody Sabbath, I'm glad I listened to him, it arrived this morning and I've played it three times already, I had totally forgotten just how good this album is!!!

Arrived perfectly. Case is gorgeous. Still my favourite album and a great addition to the cd collection.

The sleeve notes say that at the beginning of recording their fifth album, the boys were bereft of ideas, even the metronimic Tony Iommi was blank as to riffs, but after moving into a castle to record it ideas came flooding, and boy, the result is excellent.I would have to say that I view this as a better album than Volume 4, it seems more complete somehow. When Iommi comes up with a riff he delivers big time, and the opening (title) track is no exception, an absolute killer riff and as a complete song, probably a little fuller than previous Sabbath recordings."Fluff" is a beautiful little accoustic track, I swear if you played this to anyone who did not know Sabbath they would never guess who it was, it is so out of character (and I include "Embryo" and "Orchid" in that statement as interesting as they are, they are little more than curios, this is the real thing). This leads on to "Sabra Cadabra" one of my favourite tracks that amply demonstrates what a brilliant bass player Geezer Butler is and carries on through such tracks as "Killing Yourself To Live" to the excellent "Spiral Architect" which concludes the album.A Sabbath classic that should not be missing from any collection.

Ok insert embarrassed emogi here. This album is a total classic for sure.'What you didn't know? Call yourself a Sabbath fan since birth?'....yes it's true I never owned this album. But it's never too late as they say. Growing up on a diet of their brilliant debut, and the timeless Paranoid and Master of Reality albums you would think I'd know better.But yes after these I kind of stuck with various best ofs and some of the other albums. So Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage and believe it or not Vol.4 all got ignored. Til this year.They are all great. Don't leave it too late and buy all the first 7 albums. One of the greatest bands ever. Period.