Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath tabs Black Sabbath discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Black Sabbath guitar tabs

CD reviews

Reunion [2-CD SET]

Black Sabbath - Reunion [2-CD SET] Audio CD

A fair review of the Black Sabbath "Reunion [2-CD SET]" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Black Sabbath reviews here, or go back to the Black Sabbath tabs.

Band: Black Sabbath
Title: Reunion [2-CD SET]
Rating:

Release Date: 1998-10-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: War Pigs 2: Behind the Wall of Sleep 3: N.I.B. 4: Fairies Wear Boots 5: Electric Funeral 6: Sweet Leaf 7: Spiral Architect 8: Into the Void 9: Snowblind 10: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 11: Orchid/Lord of This World 12: Dirty Women 13: Black Sabbath 14: Iron Man 15: Children of the Grave 16: Paranoid 17: Psycho Man 18: Selling My Soul

Old School Heavy Sound.... Live!!
E. Black Sabbath "Reunion" is one of the best live Sabbath's records available, maybe the best! Recorded live at the N. C, Birmingham; England during the 1997's Reunion Tour (Dec 5 1997). This 2 cd set have the best live sound recording until today with the classic line up. . .
This is the first "official live record" of the band. . . and after 17 years of their breakout in the late 70's for any Black Sabbath fan this is a very emotive record set. . . and the most important musical moment on the last 20 years. If you have Past Lives or Live At Last cds (or any live bootleg) you can hear now the difference between the past and the present. . . this olds live records are great but. . . this one is really better!
The dream of any Black Sabbath Fan; a special show with the original line-up recorded live with a high quality sound, 16 great songs includes War Pigs, Snowblind, Into The Void, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Black Sabbath, Iron Man, Children Of The Grave, Paranoid. . . and new recorded of classics songs never available before in their live versions like Spiral Architect, Dirty Women, Electric Funeral, Behind The Wall Of Sleep, Lord Of This World.
There are two versions of this concert; the special deluxe limited edition (discontinued) with a special packaging and the standard version in a regular jewel case available now, both with the same sound quality and songs selection. The booklet comes with great rare photos and extensive notes about the band history and members anecdotes.
The show is amazing, the band sounds great. . . features Tony Iommi "the black master" on guitar, the "thunder god" Geezer Butler on bass, "the monster" Bill Ward on drums and the "Evil Madman" Ozzy Osbourne on vocals
The best of this set are the "rare" songs like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Electric Funeral, Into the Void and The Spiral Architect never available before on others semi-official live recordings, killer versions with a doomy sound!! . . . but the classics like Black Sabbath, War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid are great too! A solid performance with a great set list, strong musician friendship and the band totally out of their heads!
Geezer Butler rocks! with his amazing bass lines, Iommi show his power like no other guitar player can do (no doubt, he's master of metal sound). . . Bill Ward plays the drums with passion and Ozzy's vocals sounds like the old days. . . Great!
The beauty of the old school heavy sound!
The two studio cuts are great too but the live show is the best part of this 2 cd set!
Play it Loud! Long live to Rock & Roll

.

Best Live Album I Have Ever Heard!
When I first heard it, "War Pigs" just shocked me. This album was the best! All their greatest songs put into one cd without any lousy songs! It's great for cranking in the car. I personly thought "Paranoid" was their best song. But Ozzie really needs to put a sock in it because he talks too much. I thought it was a great album.

Great Instrumentation......Totally ruined by Ozzy
The first real live album from the original four members . . . . Tony, Geezer and Bill really lay it down heavy, sounding as tight as ever. . . WAR PIGS, the opener, is terrific and spine-tingling until Ozzy opens his mouth. . . . . "F"-bomb after "F"-bomb, seems like every 4th measure, Ozzy shows how light-weight and totally vacuous this guy's head is. . . . Believe me, folks , he was not like this in the 70's. . . . Where for aught thou, friend Ozzy???

I was really looking forward to this release, originally, but one listen and it went on Ebay. . . . . .

I have heard that there was going to be a cleaned up version because of all the complaints the label execs received. . . But I've yet to hear anymore about this. Be warned. . . Profanity galore, and way off key vocals completely ruin this noble effort from 3 of the 4 members.

The overdue reunion album, still waiting for more.
All the classics with Ozzy. This was a great disc I picked up on the day of release, new black sabbath with the original line up, unthought of for so long. Now I keep waiting and hoping someday they will get together and do a new full album, but hope is shrinking. The two new songs are OK, Pscyhoman sounding more like recent Ozzy songs, but Selling my Soul sounds more like the Iommi riffs of past. Must have CD for the sabbath fan, the first official live release endorsed by the group with Ozzy on vocals. . . 20 years after his leaving. Live at Last has been around for years, but was never endorsed by the band, and Live Evil, although good in its own right for DIO fans, just is not Ozzy. So Get this, its Sabbath at its best.

It's SABBATH!

First of all, just the thought of these four guys being together again, and playing the songs they wrote before Tony dragged Sabbath out over decades of bad power metal---some of the greatest songs ever made, and no less---is incredible. This is one of those releases with some serious disappointments and some serious pluses, that make it confusing to judge as a whole. Can they live up to that hype, though? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Ozzy usually sounds great, although sadly he can no longer hit the high notes on "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. " Bill Ward is solid, but he's stripped a lot of the jazziness and busy-work out of his drumming, and sounds a little too streamlined for me at times. Tony and Geezer, however, are consistently jaw-dropping: Iommi's guitar carries all the bulldozer power of the original records, Butler pounds his bass with all the fury he's known for, and both of them play with all the fire and inspiration one could hope for. (And, in fact, more than I hoped for or expected!)

I embarrassed myself by going to Ozzfest in 2005 just to catch these guys before they hung it up again. The real satisfaction was just knowing I'd seen the almighty SABBATH. The performance was exactly like this record: Occassionally breathtaking, and at other times, slightly disappointing. For example, Ozzy and Bill's inability to keep time with each other during the vocal breaks in "War Pigs. "

There are, however, some very strong points to this album that make it, in my opinion, essential for any fan of the original Sabbath. "Electric Funeral" is one. I always thought that was the weakest track on "Paranoid," but when I saw them, and on this disc, the song sounds positively apocalyptic, at least twice as ominous and heavy as it was originally. "Dirty Women" is the same deal---the "Technical Ecstasy" version is so-so, but live, it becomes one of my favorite Sabbath songs, a juggernaut of a song that plows through with massive force before giving way to one of the most gorgeous and emotional guitar passages ever performed.

Another quick highlight is the braekdown after the solo in "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" - Ozzy doesn't even ATTEMPT to sing it, but the band nails it with a force unapproached by the studio original.

I do recommend buying this, just for its historical importance, and for those highlights. Just don't expect perfection throughout.

You can see a complete list of all Black Sabbath discography, or go back to the Black Sabbath tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.