The mother@#*&% of all album reviews!

                When I was young, there were four records (and I mean actual vinyl) that shaped my musical taste forever.  My parents had just received a stereo from my grandmother for Christmas (or some other present-giving holiday), complete with a record player.  This meant that all of the records that they had sitting in boxes in a closet were no longer useless.  Ergo, my listening experience was transformed from “whatever was on the radio” to full recordings, including all of the “album filler” that you never get to hear, all in their original form.  Those four, life altering  albums in no particular order were Led Zeppelin IV, Aerosmith’s Rocks, Alice Cooper’s School’s Out and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. 

                I told you that to tell you this:  June 11, Black Sabbath makes their triumphant return with an all new studio album.  This is big news for a number of reasons. 

1.       It’s been rumored since they first got back together at Ozzfest way back in 1997.

2.       It’s the first new music as the original Black Sabbath since two tracks on the Reunion concert album (1998), and their first full album since 1978’s Never Say Die.

3.       It gets the band back together (almost).  Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne are back together with Bill Ward the only original member that did not take part. 

4.       After a few sub-standard solo albums from Ozzy, hopefully we can get some good music!

5.       It’s new Black Sabbath!

So, in honor of this momentous occasion, I will be dipping back into the vault and doing small reviews of Black Sabbath’s discography for the next five weeks.  Here is the schedule and the guidelines:

Guidelines:

                Because the new release is the original Ozzy-fronted Black Sabbath, those are the only albums I will be reviewing.  I have nothing against the Dio years of Black Sabbath, in fact I love those three albums (plus the latest release when they changed their name to Heaven and Hell) and I may review them in the future, but this is a singular mission to pay tribute to one of the most influential bands of all time and its original iteration.

                I will not be reviewing “Greatest Hits” collections, only regular albums and two live albums (see list below). 

                All of this will be followed by a review of the new album 13 upon its release.

Schedule:

May 7, 2013 – Black Sabbath     

May 9, 2013 – Paranoid

May 14, 2013 – Master of Reality

            May 16, 2013 – Volume 4

May 21, 2013 – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

            May 23, 2013 – Sabotage

            May 28, 2013 – Technical Ecstasy

May 30, 2013 – Never Say Die

June 4, 2013 – Reunion (Live)

            June 6, 2013 – Past Lives (Live)

June 18, 2013 – 13

                I hope you join me on this look back and I would greatly appreciate any feedback or comments on your own Black Sabbath experience (either live or in album form).