Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978
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Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978) is a collection of the first eight albums by the popular heavy metal band. The set contains the albums recorded with original (and most popular) frontman Ozzy Osbourne, who was fired following completion of the eighth album's supporting tour - breaking the original Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward lineup. All eight albums are digitally remastered and repackaged in mock vinyl LP packaging, along with an 80-page booklet and a four song DVD containing the infamous Beat Club footage from 1970. The only Osbourne-era Black Sabbath music not included comes from 1998's 'Reunion' album which put the original lineup back together.
The eight albums included in the set are:
- 1970 Black Sabbath
- 1970 Paranoid
- 1971 Master Of Reality
- 1972 Volume 4
- 1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
- 1975 Sabotage
- 1976 Technical Ecstasy
- 1978 Never Say Die!
They are represented as they appeared when first released, with the exception of the debut album, which has a new track order and the inclusion of songs that were limited to alternate versions. They are kept in digipak cases, with all original LP artwork intact. The CDs themselves are entirely black, but retain the lettering used for each individual release, as opposed to a uniform stylized font.
True to its title, the nine discs are housed in a solid black case, complete with gothic imagery and lettering. Inside, there are two smaller boxes containing four CDs each. Also enclosed is a booklet, which contains the DVD in a sleeve attached to the inside back cover. The booklet traces the entire history of the band, with essays, interviews, timelines, and the lyrics to every song personally checked by Geezer Butler, the band's main lyricist. The DVD contains live footage of the band playing the songs: "Black Sabbath", "Paranoid", "Iron Man", and the Carl Perkins' classic "Blue Suede Shoes".
Previously, a 1996 remastered box set was issued by Castle Communications. This set used unknown source tapes and did not involve any input from the band. For this boxed set, issued by Rhino, all of the songs have been digitally remastered from the Warner Bros. tape archives, as was the previously released Rhino compilation Symptom Of The Universe. The result of Rhino using the original masters for this set is that the sound quality is noticeably superior to the Castle discs.
This box set has only been released in the United States, Australia and Canada.
