Black Sabbath
Reunion (Epic)
by Martin Popoff
Black Sabbath‘s live history is patchwork at best. We have Live At Last (only semi-official, sporting poor sound quality), Live Evil (great record, maybe even better than this one, but with Ronnie), Ozzy’s Speak Of The Devil (also great, but Ozzy plus band doing Sabbath), and Cross Purposes Live (’nuff said). So to get an official, original four document like this is the culmination of a long, loud journey. And the results are palpable, for nobody does Sabbath songs better than the original four. And nobody does them better than the original four, relatively sound of mind and body (barring Bill’s mild heart attack shortly thereafter!), with a juggernaut of smart business people and producers crossing the t’s, or crosses as it were. So the record sounds great, everybody is doing their job, with the visceral secret weapon being the rhythm section of Bill Ward and Geezer Butler.
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