Big Black Shape With Eyes of Fire (Reunion: Limited Edition - Black Sabbath)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Reunion: Limited Edition - Black Sabbath
Date:	21/02/08 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads and loads of Sabbath classics from the original line-up.

Disadvantages: New studio tracks are rubbish, but they're only tagged on as an extra.

On the 5th December 1997, the original line-up of Black Sabbath reunited for a show in their native Birmingham, recorded as this double album and the finest official live album the band has released. While this and subsequent reunions with classic line-ups effectively ended Black Sabbath's studio career as they became fundamentally a live testament to their early material, the gimmick of sticking firmly to the Ozzy Osbourne years for this live show gains from the benefit of hindsight, as a more concise and entertaining setlist can be chosen than on previous tours designed to promote admittedly below-par Sabbath studio recordings. With only eight albums to draw material from, the choice is less daunting than a span of an entire career, and though there are inevitably a few strange oversights (nothing from 'Sabotage,' but a track from bleeding 'Technical Ecstasy?'), the bulk of the list is absolutely perfect.

This original Sabbath line-up of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward has always been my favourite, which might seem like a disappointingly obvious opinion to have so I'll confound you with the statement that my favourite albums were the couple that followed 'Paranoid,' though that one's excellent as well. Thus, I lost count of the number of times I excitedly realised they were playing yet another of my favourites from 'Master of Reality' or 'Vol. 4' that I'd naïvely perceived as too obscure for an album like this. Well alright, it happens about four times - but from a sixteen track album with a responsibility to all the obvious classics from the first two albums, it's fantastic to see an enthusiastic response to songs like 'Spiral Architect,' 'Into the Void,' 'Snowblind' and 'Lord of This World,' all of which rank among my very favourite from the band alongside others also represented here.

The band is on fine form as ever, unsurprising considering Iommi had been continuously touring with Sabbath since the early seventies, Butler and Ward had dropped in every so often, and Osbourne had been enjoying an even more successful solo career, but Ozzy's energy and enthusiasm here is really pretty fantastic, from his opening cry of "yeah, you f***ers!" to the credit heaped on Birmingham and feeble impressions of the band members he's happy to be playing with again for the first time in seventeen years. He wastes no time bringing the vocals in far too early in the first song, either to cut to the chase or because seventeen years is a long time, and as he tries and sort of fails to replicate his successor Ronnie James Dio's trend of singing over the lead guitar towards the end, it only serves to remind why this shrieking lunatic is the perfect frontman for this band. His enthusiasm brings a fair amount of crowd interaction, though not in an overly distracting way and there are thankfully no tediously extended solo sections, and the only slightly weird bit occurs when an ecstatic (perhaps in a literal sense) member of the crowd works his way onto the stage at the end of 'NIB' just to proclaim that the band is ace. We already knew, silly.

This really is a fantastic setlist across the two albums, with all of the band's monstrously heavy songs sounding just as good (perhaps better) than ever in the great production job, and there's a reasonable degree of variation (though not much) with some less dirgey songs from later in the seventies thrown in. Highlights include the excellent 'Electric Funeral,' a song only Ozzy should ever be allowed to sing, the epic 'Spiral Architect' and 'Snowblind,' the incessantly catchy 'Into the Void' and 'Iron Man,' and all of the other songs for reasons I can't be bothered to contrive. Apart from 'Dirty Women,' that one's fairly rubbish. As a bonus treat, as if a unique ninety minute performance wasn't enough, the band also hastily recorded two brand new songs that fans shouldn't get too excited about, as neither is very good even by nineties Sabbath standards. Even with these slight disappointments which can easily be avoided by stopping the album after 'Paranoid,' this is a great way to hear the majority of Black Sabbath's finest work without resorting to some cheap Best-Of, and to pretend you were present at this historically significant event. This could have been really disappointing, but it's completely great.

Disc 1

1. War Pigs
2. Behind the Wall of Sleep
3. NIB
4. Fairies Wear Boots
5. Electric Funeral
6. Sweet Leaf
7. Spiral Architect
8. Into the Void
9. Snowblind

Disc 2

1. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
2. Medley: Orchid / Lord of This World
3. Dirty Women
4. Black Sabbath
5. Iron Man
6. Children of the Grave
7. Paranoid
8. Psycho Man
9. Selling My Soul

Summary: Reunion of the classic line-up (1998).