Black Sabbath to reissue five deluxe albums from back catalogue

Godfathers/fathers/just plain gods of metal and heavy blues-rock, Black Sabbath are to re-issue five albums from their back catalogue, with all five being made into deluxe editions with spangly extras and incentives to purchase such as brand new liner notes.

The albums to get the re-issue treatment are:

• Vol 4.: Originally released in 1972 and, as you may well know, their fourth studio album. It features the original version of 'Changes' (see 2000s version below) as well as the cocaine classic 'Snowblind'.

• Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath: Out for the first time round in 1973, on here is the puntastic 'Sabbra Cadabra' on which Rick Wakeman played piano. True facts.

• Sabotage: Originally released way back in 1975, the best cut from this one is clearly 'Symptom Of The Universe', which The Melvins covered later - a version which was approximately 0.95 times as good as the original.

• Techincal Ecstasy: Possibly earmarked as the point when Black Sabbath started going downhill, to be honest, culminating in Ozzy leaving the band briefly.

• Never Say Die!: The last of the Sabbath's 1970s albums, released in 1979. Probably not even as good as Technical Ecstasy, though.

All five of these come out on September 21. So, if you've not blown all your money on the Beatles re-issues and re-masters which come out a couple of weeks before you could go for some of this lot. More info on their official website.

There was a previous batch of Black Sabbath reissues earlier this year. Bill Ward talks about the re-releases below.