Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Black Sabbath
2. Wizard
3. Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B.
4. Wicked World
5. Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village Warning
6. Evil Woman

Disc 2:

1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Planet Caravan
4. Iron Man
5. Electric Funeral
6. Hand of Doom
7. Rat Salad
8. Fairies Wear Boots

Disc 3:

1. Sweet Leaf
2. After Forever
3. Embryo [Instrumental]
4. Children of the Grave
5. Orchid [Instrumental]
6. Lord of This World
7. Solitude
8. Into the Void

Disc 4:

1. Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener
2. Tomorrow's Dream
3. Changes
4. FX
5. Supernaut
6. Snowblind
7. Cornucopia
8. Laguna Sunrise
9. St. Vitus' Dance
10. Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes

Disc 5:

1. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
2. National Acrobat
3. Fluff
4. Sabbra Cadabra
5. Killing Yourself to Live
6. Who Are You
7. Looking for Today
8. Spiral Architect

Disc 6:

1. Hole in the Sky
2. Dont' Start (Too Late)
3. Symptom of the Universe
4. Megalomania
5. Thrill of It All
6. Supertzar
7. Am I Going Insane [Radio Edit]
8. Writ

Disc 7:

1. Back Street Kids
2. You Won't Change Me
3. It's Alright
4. Gypsy
5. All Moving Parts (Stand Still)
6. Rock 'N' Roll Doctor
7. She's Gone
8. Dirty Women

Disc 8:

1. Never Say Die
2. Hard Road
3. Junior's Eyes
4. Shock Wave
5. Johnny Blade
6. Air Dance
7. Breakout
8. Swinging the Chain
9. Over to You

Disc 9:

1. Black Sabbath [DVD][Live]
2. Paranoid [DVD][Live]
3. Iron Man [DVD][Live]
4. Blue Suede Shoes [DVD][Live]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24164 in Music
• Released on: 2004-05-17
• Number of discs: 9
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered, Import
• Dimensions: 2.33 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Decades after Black Sabbath laid down the commandments of heavy metal--lyrically, not for the squeamish; musically, dynamic and resolutely heavy--their impact remains improbably undiminished. Black Box includes the eight albums recorded between 1970 and 1978 by the founding line-up--Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler--in one suitably weighty package. Forgoing bonus tracks (aside from an entertaining but brief four-track DVD extra), the box is rounded off with an impressive 80-page booklet. While the foursome were considerably less fearsome by the time they checked out with Never Say Die, more than half of this collection represents heavy metal with a lasting impact. --Steven Stolder, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Simply stunning...
If you're interested in getting into Sabbath, get this. If you already have the 96 Castle masters (or the even earlier first issue CD's), you still need to get this.

For some, increased volume is a dirty word, as is compression. And lets be honest, the very best experience will be had with original Vinyl copies - this is obvious.

Taking an analog master and slapping it onto a CD just doesn't work well enough. When you're trying to capture a true analog recording on a format like CD (which does have much lower dynamic range), clever control of this EQing and compressing process is essential. And that is exactly what has happened here.

The guitars sound familiar - almost exactly as they do on the Castle masters - but the rest is a LOT nicer. The drums are much more clearly defined and have better tone, as does the bass guitar, which creates a noticably tighter sound (the Castle masters make the first 3 records sounds pretty muddy, with intricate drum parts getting lost - not here!) And the vocals are a great improvement - smoother and less grating when they're nasal, and generally clearer. Whether the better sound quality is due to better mastering or better source tapes is hard to say, but I care not a jot.

If the mastering bothers you (and you're sure its not just about 96 Castle Master elitism), enjoy looking at your spectrometer; if you need me for anything, I'll be in the corner rocking out to a newly-revitalised Children Of The Grave... Awesome!

The DEFINITIVE version of the first 8 Sabbath albums!
My name is Joe Siegler and I run "Black Sabbath Online". I have a much longer review of this disc at my site, but I had to crop it down to make it fit within Amazon's 1000 word limit, so if you want to read my full review, hit www.black-sabbath.com.

What is Black Box? It's a 9 disc collection (8 audio CD's, one DVD) comprising all the of the songs the original Black Sabbath released from 1970-1978.

The albums themselves have an unbelievable sound quality never heard in these recordings before. It's not like we have new songs here - these are after all the same songs released before. But they've never been heard like this before. I cannot stress how great these discs sound. I've been listening to Black Sabbath since 1981. I know these songs extremely well - EXTREMELY well. So much so that the slightest change is noticeable. Well, the sound range here is far more powerful than I've ever heard it before. Ever put in an old CD in your player, and it sounds flat, and a newer one you put in has a really rich, vibrant range? That's the kind of thing I'm talking about here. In addition to the songs just sounding more powerful and cleaner, individual instruments are more noticeable here. There's tons of places where I've heard drum fills by Bill Ward that I've never heard before. It's very cool finding bits in songs you've heard God knows how many times over the years. Coupled with the fact that the albums have a sonic power that I can't recall the songs having before make this by far the version to get - even if you already own all these albums.

That brings me to another point. The notion that Black Sabbath is just "out for money" by releasing this set without a ton of extras. In running my Black Sabbath site at www.black-sabbath.com I see a lot of feedback on various things, and ever since Black Box was originally announced ages ago, the #1 thing I think I've heard is something along the lines of "Where are the rarities? Where are The Rebel, and Song for Jim? What kind of cheap ass set is this without the extras?" No, they're not here. In fact, the only "oddity" songs on this set are "Evil Woman" from the first album, and "Blow on a Jug" from Sabotage. If you're looking to buy this based on the recent trend of other box sets to include rare songs and things like that, you WILL be disappointed. But if you're interested in how the songs SOUND, then my god, this is for you.

And that's just the music. There's other stuff here, too. The ninth disc is a DVD which contains what's known as the "Beat Club footage", which comprises four songs. The four songs are "Iron Man", "Paranoid, "Black Sabbath", and the rather loose cover of "Blue Suede Shoes". This footage (well, not Blue Suede Shows) is also used on MTV as "videos" and the like, most of this stuff won't be new to most people, but it's nice to have it here. It does appear to be a bit cleaner than the VHS release of this stuff that happened some time ago.

The packaging itself is rather Black. I say that because the box itself is Black, and the writing on the box is also black, so it's not terribly visible when viewed straight on. Inside the box are two smaller boxes, each containing four CD's. Each of those four CD's are the 8 individual Sabbath studio albums with Ozzy. Each is in it's own digipak style packaging - it's not jewel case packaging. On the front and back sides of the individual CD cases are the original front and back cover art that appeared on the albums as they were released ages ago. Inside the digpaks are art that I believe appeared on the original print vinyl sleeves as released originally. So much so that albums that had lyrics on their original vinyl sleeves are reproduced here, too (much to small to read without hurting your eyes). I haven't seen a vinyl print of Sabotage in ages, and it was funny to see the guys backsides again like that. :) The CD's themselves have the same kind of "black on black" print that the exterior of the box has. The logos on the individual CD's match the lettering used on the original artwork for the albums, a nice touch - it's not standard lettering across all of them. Overall, nice packaging of the albums - no complaints here.

Anyway, the biggest "new" item would be the booklet. It's a 77 page hardcover booklet, which is covered in black velvet. Let me say this. When you pick up, don't have your hands dirty. It looks like it'll pick up dirt pretty easily. It's got a very nice feeling in your hands. It's got no writing or lettering on the outside, save for that Sabbath flying angel logo we've seen many times before. There's a few portions to the book. There are two stories of the band, a Sabbath timeline, and finally, some "official" lyrics. This should put to rest some long standing debates over some Sab lyrics. There's much goodness in here.

This is a wonderful package, both from the looks to the sounds, to the booklet. Get it. Your ears will thank you.

MAKE NO MISTAKE. Black Box is the most definitive version of the original eight albums by Black Sabbath. PERIOD. END OF DISCUSSION.

Joe Siegler
http://www.black-sabbath.com

AMAZING
Wow,What a set,
BLACK SABBATH,PARANOID (THE BEST), MASTER OF REALITY, VOLUME 4, SABOTAGE, SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH, TECHNICAL ECSTASY (SOUNDS AMAZING, SOME HOW!), AND NEVER SAY DIE. It is the definitive box set for any black sabbath fan and is newly remastered,though the diffirence is very profound, they sound better than ever due to the professional bursting of your ears by the amazing warner brothers team.
This set unlike the others is band sponsored and is remastered from the source tapes and sound very good especially on a home theatre system. The DVD was the only thing I really didn't pay attention to since it didn't work on my player and neither on my computer (since I region locked it to 2), but is the same footage as the musikladen dvd footage except for the promo clip.
Over and above excellent but should have been made to resemble the LPs (for nostalgic purposes) but nevertheless 5 STARS.