BLACK SABBATH
HAND OF DOOM 1970-1978: SUPER DELUXE EDITION BOX SET
BMG £275
metal swanky vinyl reissues may already be frothing uncontrollably in response to this latest repackaging of the Ozzy-era Black Sabbath catalogue. The facts are simple enough: the British legends’ first six albums are untouchable, and the next two, not so much. But when repressed together in a riff-drenched extravaganza of eye-delightingfind wildly desirable is just silly. This is metal’s most fundamental architecture, presented in a coolly macabre black and purple box, and with a large poster of the Sabs as a potentially wall-covering bonus. From the epoch-walloping mastery of 1970’s to the monstrous grandeur of and on to the patchy but occasionally killer these records will all be mandatory listening forever.
