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Album Details

• Artist: Black Sabbath
• Album: Reunion
• Label: Sony
• Year of Release: 1998
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-02-11

This album was recorded during the reunion event of the original members of Black Sabbath. It was the first time they had performed as a unit since 1979. The album is a two-disc set that consists of concert recordings from December of 1997 teamed with two new studio cuts. Although it wouldn’t last long, the band was back at their full glory. Anyone who is turned off by profanity should stay clear of this disc due to Ozzy`s onstage adlibs. The musicians on the disc are Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Keep in mind that, there is a Sabbath reunion underway as I write this, but that reunion does not include Bill Ward. So, if you want the latest thing from the real original Sabbath, this is still it.

One can quibble about which classic song was missed in the set-list or which ones shouldn’t have been included. Really, with any live performance or live album, that’s going to come up in the conversation after the fact. The truth is, ultimately each fan will have different “essential” lists of songs for an ultimate setlist, so it’s kind of a moot point. The truth is, personally, I would have probably traded a few tracks here out, but ultimately this live set is quite effective. They put in some strong performances and as one might guess, the recording quality is great.

The two new tracks are well worth addressing.  “Psycho Man” features an introduction that has a definite early Sab feel, and menace and darkness abounds. The first couple verses feel like the more mellow Ozzy Osbourne  solo work, and much of the rest of the song seems to merge both of these sounds. As for “Selling My Soul,” it’s a new Sabbath song very much in the mode of classic Sab (ala the Paranoid album era). The bridge has a more modern mode, but still not past the late Ozzy era. This is another strong cut. Overall, I find the album to be quite satisfying and I saw them several times on the various tours that followed. The disc captured the best of that period and I would have loved to have heard more new material from this time period.

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