Black Sabbath
★★★★
Vol 4: Super-Deluxe BMG.
CD/DL/LP.
Four discs and 10 vinyl sides’ worth of doom and gloom from 1973.
IN MAY 1972, Black Sabbath holed up at the Record Plant in Los Angeles to make their fourth album. Created amid a blizzard of cocaine (the song Snowblind was aptly titled) and pranks gone wrong (sleeping drummer Bill Ward’s naked body was spray-painted, Goldfinger-style, resulting in a violent seizure), it remains a high watermark, despite the surrounding bedlam. Remixed by studio guru Steven Wilson, every bowelchurning riff and bass lick on Wheels Of Confusion, St Vitus Dance and Tomorrow’s Dream has
been tweaked to perfection. It all sounds immense. Extras comprise alternative mixes and outtakes – including a fluffed stab at Supernaut and a guide-vocal version of Under The Sun – plus a live set assembled from Sabbath’s 1973 UK tour, which is really 1980’s unloved and unlovely Live At Last, fleshed out and given a new studio paintjob.