1975 was the peak year for Black Sabbath. Five years in and another four till Ozzy derailed. Sabotage was a strange album with some classic hits but at the same time, the band was going musically in different directions. They were starting to lose their identity. Personally, riff wise I love this album. My favorite song is Symptom of the Universe. It has so many guitar sounds that explore different experimental tunes. The next two albums Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! with Ozzy were horrible with very few gems to be found. This is my favorite Black Sabbath album when it comes to artistic cover art. The inverted mirror concept was conceived by Graham Wright, Bill Ward’s drum tech, who was also a graphic artist. At the time it was considered the worst cover. The album’s title was inspired by legal woes with management, the band felt that they were sabotaged by their management.
The 1975 Black Sabbath album, Sabotage, will be reissued as vinyl and CD super deluxe edition box sets, in June. The band’s sixth studio album was recorded amidst legal wranglings with their former manager – which is how the title came about.
The both box sets feature a newly remastered version of the album paired with a complete live show recorded during the 1975 tour. 13 of the 16 live tracks included are previously unreleased.
The four-CD box set features the studio album and live concert across three CDs with a fourth disc effectively a CD single. It features the single edit for ‘Am I Going Insane (Radio)’ and ‘Hole In The Sky’.
The vinyl box set features the same content across four vinyl records and those two extra tracks feature on a bonus seven-inch single, with artwork replicating the rare Japanese version of the single.
All this music is accompanied by sleeve notes in a 60-page book (CD version – the vinyl is a 40-pager) that tell the story of the album through quotes from band members and the music media along with rare photos and press clippings from the era.
Also included in both packages is a 1975 Madison Square Garden replica concert book and Sabotage 1975 tour poster.
Sabotage is released on 11 June 2021, via BMG.