Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Neon Knights
2. Children of the Sea
3. Lady Evil
4. Heaven and Hell
5. Wishing Well
6. Die Young
7. Walk Away
8. Lonely Is the World

Disc 2:

1. Turn Up the Night
2. Voodoo
3. Sign of the Southern Cross
4. E5150
5. Mob Rules
6. Country Girl
7. Slipping Away
8. Falling off the Edge of the World
9. Over and Over

Disc 3:

1. E5150 [Live]
2. Neon Knights [Live]
3. N.I.B. [Live]
4. Children of the Sea [Live]
5. Voodoo [Live]
6. Black Sabbath [Live]
7. War Pigs [Live]
8. Iron Man [Live]

Disc 4:

1. Mob Rules [Live]
2. Heaven and Hell [Live]
3. Sign of the Southern Cross/Heaven and Hell [Continued][Live]
4. Paranoid [Live]
5. Children of the Grave [Live]
6. Fluff [Live]

Disc 5:

1. Computer God
2. After All (The Dead)
3. TV Crimes
4. Letters from Earth
5. Master of Insanity
6. Time Machine
7. Sins of the Father
8. Too Late
9. I
10. Buried Alive
11. Time Machine [Wayne's World Version]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56218 in Music
• Released on: 2008-07-22
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered, Import
• Dimensions: 1.16 pounds

Customer Reviews

Great for remasters, rubbish for rarities...
This five disc set contains all four original Black Sabbath albums with Ronnie James Dio as vocalist - "Heaven and Hell", "Mob Rules", "Live Evil" and "Dehumanizer". All are remastered with improved artwork and new sleeve-notes which certainly are revealing - who knew Sabbath had barbecues where Ronnie cooked up his pasta and meatballs for them all?

The albums themselves are all good, with the first two, 1980's "Heaven and Hell" and 1981's "Mob Rules" being the real classics. However, 1982's "Live Evil", which has always suffered from a rather flat mix, benefits greatly from the remastering. It has also been spread across two discs, so you get the entire, unabridged album (the 1996 Castle Records edition chopped out almost all between-song banter and most of the song "Fluff" to squeeze it onto one CD). 1992's "Dehumanizer" comes in the American edition, which means you get a bonus track - the "Wayne's World" version of the song "Time Machine".

Unfortunately, the "Wayne's World" song is the only rarity on the entire set, a state of affairs which certainly doesn't call for "party time" and is far from "excellent", as the hapless heroes of said movie might say. What's even more galling is that the sleeve notes to "Mob Rules" keep telling you how much better the demo version of the album's title track (recorded for the soundtrack to the film "Heavy Metal") is than the version you've just purchased! Also, Rhino released a superb live album by the Dio-led Sabbath - "Live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1981-82" - last year through their limited-edition Handmade label. Putting a copy of this in the box wasn't too much to ask, was it? Well, yes - it evidently was.

Still, what is here has been remastered superbly and these are definitely the best versions of these records available. It'll probably make Ozzy Osbourne talk a lot of rubbish about how there's "only one Black Sabbath" and go out on another farewell tour. We can all stay at home and listen to this to prove him very, very wrong.

The Real Best of Black Sabbath
This is a fantastic collection from Black Sabbath's second coming. While always a fan of the early material I've come to love the Dio era much more - preferring this incarnation's metal approach to the blues rock outfit fronted by Ozzy.

This collection really does add some extra bite to Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules and even improves the still somewhat ropey live set. Dehumanizer seems to be one of those albums that's got better with age.

If you love songs such as Neon Lights, Sign of the Southern Cross, Children of the Sea etc. these are the best versions you'll find thanks to the remastering.

Now if only they'd re-release the Tony Martin albums, Headless Cross is all kinds of awesome.