| The Sabbath Stones | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 29 April 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1983–95 | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 79:59 | |||
| Label | I.R.S. | |||
| Producer | Various (see below) | |||
| Black Sabbath compilations chronology | ||||
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The Sabbath Stones (1996) is a compilation album of Black Sabbath songs taken from albums ranging from 1983's Born Again to 1995's Forbidden . It was never formally released in the US or Canada, and was the last album to be released by Black Sabbath with I.R.S. Records.
The album was created solely to fulfill Black Sabbath's contract with I.R.S. It included a short story about Black Sabbath which had some mistakes, including the misspelling of Vinny Appice's name on the front cover of the CD as "Vinnie", a mistake which also appeared on both the Mob Rules and Live Evil sleeves.
This compilation features at least one song from each of the eight Black Sabbath albums released from 1983 until 1995. This period covers all five studio albums released by the band with lead singer Tony Martin, one studio album with lead singer Ian Gillan, one with Glenn Hughes and one with Ronnie James Dio.
The version of "Headless Cross" that appears on this album starts with the last few seconds of the track "The Gates of Hell" (Which precedes "Headless Cross" on the Headless Cross album) before the opening drum line.
‘Loser Gets It All’, according to the liner notes in the album, was supposedly one of Tony Iommi’s favorite tracks to both perform and write. It was recorded during the Forbidden sessions, but only appeared on the Japanese version of the album.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Headless Cross" | Tony Iommi, Cozy Powell, Tony Martin | Headless Cross (1989) | 6:32 |
| 2. | "When Death Calls" | Iommi, Powell, Geoff Nicholls, Martin, Brian May | Headless Cross | 6:57 |
| 3. | "Devil & Daughter" | Iommi, Powell, Martin | Headless Cross | 4:43 |
| 4. | "The Sabbath Stones" | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Martin, Neil Murray | Tyr (1990) | 6:48 |
| 5. | "The Battle of Tyr" (Instrumental) | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Murray | Tyr | 1:08 |
| 6. | "Odin's Court" | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Martin, Murray | Tyr | 2:42 |
| 7. | "Valhalla" | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Martin, Murray | Tyr | 4:41 |
| 8. | "TV Crimes" | Ronnie James Dio, Iommi, Geezer Butler | Dehumanizer (1992) | 4:01 |
| 9. | "Virtual Death" | Iommi, Butler, Martin | Cross Purposes (1994) | 5:46 |
| 10. | "Evil Eye" | Iommi, Butler, Martin, Eddie Van Halen | Cross Purposes | 5:57 |
| 11. | "Kiss of Death" | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Martin, Murray | Forbidden (1995) | 6:09 |
| 12. | "Guilty as Hell" | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Martin, Murray | Forbidden | 3:30 |
| 13. | "Loser Gets It All" | Iommi, Powell, Nicholls, Martin, Murray | Japanese issue of Forbidden | 2:57 |
| 14. | "Disturbing the Priest" | Iommi, Butler, Bill Ward, Ian Gillan | Born Again (1983) | 5:49 |
| 15. | "Heart Like a Wheel" | Iommi, Glenn Hughes, Nicholls, Jeff Glixman | Seventh Star (1986) | 6:37 |
| 16. | "The Shining" | Iommi, Bob Daisley, Ray Gillen | The Eternal Idol (1987) | 5:55 |
Black Sabbath were an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with releases such as Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971). The band had multiple line-up changes following Osbourne's departure in 1979, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout their history.
Headless Cross is the fourteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Released on 24 April 1989, it was the group's second album to feature singer Tony Martin, the first to feature drummer Cozy Powell, and the only album with bassist Laurence Cottle.
Dehumanizer is the sixteenth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released on June 22, 1992.
Mob Rules is the tenth studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in November 1981. It followed 1980's Heaven and Hell, and was the second album to feature lead singer Ronnie James Dio and the first with drummer Vinny Appice. Neither musician would appear on a Black Sabbath studio album again until the 1992 album Dehumanizer.
Live Evil is the first official live album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. The previously released Live at Last (1980) was not sanctioned by the band. Live Evil peaked at number 37 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
Strange Highways is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Dio. It's also their first album since Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice's reunion tour with Black Sabbath. The European release was on Vertigo, in October 1993; the U.S. release was on Reprise Records, in January 1994.
Tyr is the fifteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in August 1990 by I.R.S. Records.
Heaven and Hell is the ninth studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released on 18 April 1980. It is the first Black Sabbath album to feature vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who replaced original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in 1979.
Vincent Samson Appice is an American rock drummer best known for his work with the bands Dio, Black Sabbath, and Heaven & Hell. Of Italian descent, he is the younger brother of drummer Carmine Appice.
Cross Purposes is the seventeenth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released through I.R.S. Records on 26 January 1994. The album marked the return of Tony Martin as the band's lead vocalist, after the second departure of Ronnie James Dio.
Forbidden is the eighteenth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released in June 1995. This recording saw the reunion of Black Sabbath's Tyr-era line-up from 1990, with the return of Neil Murray and Cozy Powell. It was the last album to feature Tony Martin on vocals and Geoff Nicholls on keyboards, and the last by the band until 2013 when Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler returned for the album 13. The album sold 21,000 copies in the US in its first week and as of 2013, Forbidden has sold 191,000 copies in the US.
The Best of Black Sabbath is a double CD compilation album by Black Sabbath released in 2000 on the Sanctuary Records label. Its 32 songs are presented chronologically from the band's first 11 albums, spanning the years 1970 to 1983. Black Sabbath's classic six-album run, from 1970s debut Black Sabbath through 1975's Sabotage is celebrated with three to six songs from each album. Original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne's subsequent final two albums with the band, 1976's Technical Ecstasy and 1978's Never Say Die!, are represented by one and two songs, respectively. Replacement Ronnie James Dio's early 80's stint fronting the band on two albums is acknowledged with the title track of 1980's Heaven and Hell and a track from 1981's The Mob Rules. The compilation closes with a song from 1983's attempted rebirth, Born Again, former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's sole album with the band. The Best of Black Sabbath does not include any later material with vocalists Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin (1986–96) or the returning Dio.
Anthony Philip Harford, better known by his stage name Tony Martin, is an English heavy metal vocalist, best known for his time fronting Black Sabbath, initially from 1987 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1997. Martin was the band's second-longest-serving vocalist after Ozzy Osbourne. He has since been involved in many other projects.
Heaven & Hell was a British-American heavy metal supergroup active from 2006 to 2010, featuring guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, vocalist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinny Appice.
Black Sabbath: The Dio Years is a 2007 compilation CD of material recorded by Black Sabbath during vocalist Ronnie James Dio's tenure in the band. The CD contains remastered tracks taken from the studio albums Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981), and Dehumanizer (1992), as well as a live version of the song "Children of the Sea" taken from the live album Live Evil (1982). It also contains three songs that were recorded in 2007: "The Devil Cried", "Shadow of the Wind", and "Ear in the Wall".
Live at Hammersmith Odeon is a live album by Black Sabbath recorded at three concerts between 31 December 1981 and 2 January 1982, during the Mob Rules tour. It was released by Rhino Handmade on 1 May 2007 in a limited edition of 5000, which sold out immediately.
The Black Sabbath Story Vol. 2 - 1978-1992 is a documentary video about the biography of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. It is the follow-up to The Black Sabbath Story Vol. 1 - 1970-1978, and it's about their story from the leaving of Ozzy Osbourne to the recording of Dehumanizer, discussing the line-up changes Black Sabbath experienced during the period between 1978 and 1992. In addition to comments by the storic members Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi, there are interviews with other people that have been in the band, like Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Cozy Powell and Vinny Appice. There are also live clips and video clips of various songs. In 2002 a DVD Version has been released, with 19 min of never-seen footage, not included in the previous VHS Version.
The Mob Rules Tour, by the English rock group Black Sabbath, began on 15 November 1981 in Quebec City and ended on 31 August 1982 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
WhoCares, full title Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi: WhoCares, is a music project by Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and a charity release by the supergroup WhoCares they had formed with the help of other musicians, to raise money to rebuild a music school in Gyumri, Armenia after the destruction of the city in the 1988 earthquake in Armenia.
