BLACK SABBATH invented the sound of heavy metal across two albums released in a single year. Both have now been issued in the most demanding physical format available, and in tiny numbers.
Rhino High Fidelity has released "Black Sabbath" and "Paranoid" on reel-to-reel, each duplicated in real time from 1:1 copies of the U.S. analog master tapes. The specifications are the audiophile standard: 15 i.p.s. half-track quarter-inch tape, produced to IEC equalization on premium RTM LPR90 stock, wound onto a 10.5-inch metal reel. Each title is limited to 500 copies worldwide and sold only through Rhino.com.
Real-time duplication is the reason these exist. Most tape reissues are sped up in production; copying at playback speed from a first-generation dub is slower, costlier and preserves the dynamics that make the format worth owning. On records this old, and this loud, that difference is the whole argument.
The self-titled debut arrived on Friday the 13th in February 1970, and the Birmingham quartet's sound — Tony Iommi's detuned, crushing riffs, Ozzy Osbourne's primal vocals, Geezer Butler's seismic bass and Bill Ward's swing behind the kit — had no real precedent. "Black Sabbath" and "N.I.B." set a bar the rest of the decade spent chasing. The album reached No. 8 in the U.K. and No. 23 on the Billboard 200, and eventually went platinum in the States.
Seven months later, in September 1970, "Paranoid" made the case permanent. "War Pigs", "Iron Man" and the title track paired unforgettable hooks with unrestrained weight, while "Planet Caravan" showed a band with far more range than the riffs alone suggested. It topped the U.K. chart, peaked at No. 12 in the U.S. and has sold more than four million copies there. It remains, by most measures, the most influential metal album ever made.
"Black Sabbath" (Rhino High Fidelity R2R) track listing:
- Black Sabbath
- The Wizard
- Wasp / Behind The Wall Of Sleep / Bassically / N.I.B.
- Wicked World
- A Bit Of Finger / Sleeping Village / Warning
"Paranoid" (Rhino High Fidelity R2R) track listing:
- War Pigs / Luke's Wall
- Paranoid
- Planet Caravan
- Iron Man
- Electric Funeral
- Hand Of Doom
- Rat Salad
- Jack The Stripper / Fairies Wear Boots
BLACK SABBATH closed a 49-year career in February 2017 with the end of "The End" tour, fittingly in Birmingham. Iommi, diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and since in remission, is no longer able to travel for extended periods — a limit he had already worked around during the "13" album cycle by flying home to England every six weeks for treatment.