Ozzy's New Box Set - Details Released

As you may or may not know, Ozzy has a 4 CD box set coming out early next year. Titled "Bible of Ozz", this 4 CD set covers all of Ozzy's solo band, and surprinsingly no Black Sabbath songs (save for that cover he did of Changes with his daughter Kelly). This covers all the studio albums Ozzy has released, and even has tracks from the 1986 album "The Ultimate Sin", which Ozzy had deleted from his product line.

Anyway, the four CD set has the first two discs with demo and live versions (mostly) of various tracks Ozzy has released. Disc 3 is oddball things, like Ozzy's cover of Stayin Alive, as well as his duet with Miss Piggy on Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild. Disc 4 is newly recorded covers like 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson, to a Beatles song to Sympathy for the Devil by the Stones.

The set is due in February of 2005, and I have more details on it here.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:31 PM

Sabbath Crosses

Back in late July, Blackstar Productions in Argentina sent me a copy of their Black Sabbath tribute CD called "Sabbath Crosses". I haven't had a chance to give it a proper listen until now (for that Fernando, I'm sorry). I shouldn't have waited so long, it's a wonderful CD! I'm here with a track by track review of the CD, plus a giveaway! Here's my review:

In writing this review, it didn't occur to me how much a cover song being close to the original is to me. I can't say I'm a huge fan of a cover straying too far from the original. Having said that, this CD is a good tribute CD, and worth your attention. I think my all time favorite Sab tribute is the original NIB tribute, but this one is very close. I rather like the deviations for the most part on this tribute. It is a cool tribute CD in that it has songs from every (released) vocalist Sabbath has had: Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, & Tony Martin. For that alone, it's worth checking out, as most tributes only do Ozzy only material. I can't say I'm familiar with the bands, as they're all Argentinean, and I personally haven't heard any of them before.

The CD has a video file on it of Glenn Hughes with Rata Blanca performing No Stranger to Love, as the CD is a CD Extra disc. The booklet that comes with the CD is very nice, with some really good looking use of color and photography - it's got a nice striking look and layout. Additionally, there's website and email information for each of the bands in here, a nice touch. I also saw my name in the thank you section as well (which was totally unnecessary, but cool nonetheless).

As of the writing of this in October 2004, there is no US distribution. If you'd like a copy (and you should have one), you can buy it from Blackstar here: http://www.blackstar3.com/buy.htm

I heartily recommend this to every Sabbath fan. Plus, if you're one of those fans who think that Sabbath stopped after Ozzy left in 1979, you should check it out, you might discover some songs you wouldn't normally listen to. :)

A breakdown of the songs on the CD:

1. War Pigs - Fairly standard cover, obvious English isn't the native lanugage of the singer, though. I'm also fairly bored with this song as a fan, though. I've heard it way too many times. :)
2. Heaven & Hell - Not in English, so couldn't directly understand it, but a cover that doesn't stray too far from the original yet still sounds slightly different. It was interesting "singing" the song in my head with it to follow along to vocals I couldn't understand.
3. TV Crimes - Well, it's awfully close to that gravelly "Death Metal" sound in it's vocals. It does make the original song heavier though, and that's pretty cool, could have done without the death growl vocals, though.
4. Anno Mundi - Very faithful replica, in my opinion. It's not 100% accurate, but it's awfully close, one of my favorites, as it was a surprise choice to see on a tribute CD.
5. No Stranger to Love - As Glenn Hughes signs it, it's hard to describe this as a true cover, since he was the original vocalist. Anyway, it is a very good recording of the song, very faithful - a definite high point on the disc. Glenn does scream more than any other recording of this song than I've heard before. ;)
6. Zero the Hero - Seems to be the most covered song of the non Ozzy material on tributes for some reason. They got the main riff right, but the surrounding instruments sound off for some reason. The vocals are in the "Death Metal growl" area, but not as harsh as they normally are. This was probably my least favourite on the CD.
7. Children of the Grave - Sounds a bit like the cover that White Zombie did of this song a few years back on the NIB tribute CD. This isn't bad, I liked that, and I like this. Has an interesting vocal dynamic in a few spots, as there's two singers on this, and one sings in English, and the other does not during certain verses.
8. Supernaut - Loved the crowd interacting with the song. This is such a cool song, it's hard to screw up the cover. :) And O'Connor didn't, it's a great cover, one of the better ones on the CD for me.
9. Die Young - What makes the original work for me is the atmospheric keyboards in the song. They keyboards aren't properly matched here, they add a vocal chorus to the keyboard intro too which sounds odd. Once we get by the extended intro, the main part of the song is also changed a little, but musically is a lot more close to the original than the intro is. Despite these remarks of mine, I liked the song.
10. Paranoid - Well, when this started I was ready to blast the cover. There's an intro to the song in this cover which isn't necessary. It kind of sounded like the totally unlistenable cover that Type O Negative did of Sabbath a few years ago. Anyway, once the main part of the song gets going, it's a pretty decent cover, it's pretty authentic until the end when they add an outro and a repeat verse that isn't normally there.

Anyway, Fernando Serani over at Blackstar in Argentina was kind enough to send along five copies of the CD for me to use as a giveaway.

If you are interested in being in the drawing for these CDs, pease submit your name and address for this giveaway to sabbathcrosses@black-sabbath.com with your name and address (if you don't include your name and address, you're disqualified). Please note that ANY EMAILS SENT ANYWHERE ELSE THAN SABBATHCROSSES@BLACK-SABBATH.COM WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE GVIEAWAY, AND WILL BE DELETED. The contest will run through Wednesday October 20th, 2004.

For further information (including an mp3 download sample of No Stranger to Live), please visit my discography page for this album.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:31 AM

Tony Iommi & Jethro Tull

Back in 1969 befre Sabbath released their first album, Tony Iommi was briefly in Jethro Tull. It didn't work out, but during that time, Tony made an appearance that was recorded and was used in the "Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus". Well, that has been released on DVD now. If you're interested, Amazon.com has it available. Keep in mind Tony doesn't actually play in this, he's just miming. But I've been told he is on there.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:30 PM

Some Backstage Information

Got a pretty good link via email today. It's the tour rider information for Black Sabbath. You can see what each of the Sabs had for their dinner order, as well as what drinks were in their rooms. Ozzy has more than one dressing room (including provisions for his kids). You also find out how much/little stuff the other bands besides Sabbath get - or at least I thought that.

Anyway, check out the info over at thesmokinggun.com here.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:29 PM

Interviews

All of a sudden, I got a bunch of interviews sent to me all at the same time. I've read all of them, and I have to say, there's some really good stuff here. Make sure and check them all out:

• Rock Confidential interview with Ronnie James Dio
• Metal Shrine.se interview with Tony Martin
• Kerrang Radio with Tony Iommi & Glenn Hughes

Check them all out. You'll be glad you did.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:25 PM

Master of the Moon Reviews

Got a couple of Master of the Moon reviews too, check 'em out:

• Metal Invader - They give it 5/6, rating it "Buy or Die".
• Electric Basement - They give it 4.5/5.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:15 PM

Iommi's DEP Sessions is out - Go Get it!

The album formerly known as Eighth Star has now been released! Available legally as "The 1996 DEP Sessions", this solo album from Tony Iommi was originally recorded in 1996 (from July to December). It features Glenn Hughes on vocals. Glenn has made a previous appearance in Sabbath's back history, that being the 1986 Sabbath album Seventh Star (oddly enough that was originally supposed to be an Iommi solo album).

Also making appearances on the album are Sabbath veterans Don Airey & Geoff Nicholls. Also here is Jimmy Copley on drums; Jimmy played on Tony's 2000 solo album, "Iommi".

The album was released in the US on September 28th, in the UK yesterday (the 4th), and the rest of the world will get it on October 11th. You can order it with these links:

Order from US	Order from UK

I very highly recommend this album. I was a fan of it in it's bootleg form for many years, and now that it's cleaned up and professionally released, it sounds much better, and can be obtained by a far wider audience - something this music really deserves.

You should also check out this page on Tony Iommi's site. It has an interview with Glenn & Tony where they talk about various aspects of the album. Most definitely worth a listen.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 5:52 AM

Tony Iommi's Daughter

Something that's always come up over the years is questions of the various Sab member's offspring. Ozzy's are rather well known, but the other guys are more secretive. I know of Bill Ward's kids, but at the request of Bill, I don't talk about them. Tony Iommi has also been pretty secretive. He mentioned in an audio interview a couple of months ago about "my daughter". Well, recently a news story popped up saying that Tony Iommi's daughter's band will be out on tour with Glenn Hughes.

The band is named LunarMile, and Tony's daughter is named Toni-Marie. She handles lead vocals in the band. The band has a website, and you can reach it here: http://www.lunarmile.com. Check out the website, it has pictures of the band as well as some sound samples.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:03 AM