BLACK SABBATH
The End
BS Productions Limited - 2016
http://www.blacksabbath.com
As the BLACK SABBATH "The End" tour winds its way down to it's self-described finale, the band wanted to give fans a little something extra it would seem. This extra wasn't to be one last epic studio album.
Instead, an 8 song disc that would be available only to concertgoers on the final tour was announced. The End features four live tracks ("God Is Dead?", "Under The Sun", "End Of The Beginning" and "Age Of Reason") that were recorded in three different international locales.
Those recordings are fine though they really don't do much to enhance the overall album. The odd thing is that unless you are paying enough attention, you wouldn't even think the "God Is Dead?" track was live because there's no ambient crowd noise until the song actually ends. The other three tracks are easy to spot as live cuts with the crowd factored into the song's mix.
In the very brief liner notes, there is a note from the band thanking the fans for their years of loyalty and love. Of course, it costs you 30 bucks to read that note. It's a bit of a nitpick for me because I was going to buy the album regardless but that's a bit steep for an 8 song disc.
The main portion of this release that is relevant to my own personal musical interests is the four studio tracks that were outtakes from the sessions that produced SABBATH's last full length studio album 13.
Each of the four tracks is pretty good in representing the band and make you wonder how they didn't make the cut for the album in the first place.
"Season Of The Dead" has an almost menacing sounding repetitious riff running throughout the song that holds promise to something more. Four minutes into the song, the tempo kicks things up with a great solo. There's a strong anti-war vibe in the lyrics.
"Cry All Night" and "Take Me Home" are strong rocker tracks with the former briefly revisiting that ringing church bell on a rainy night sound effect at the end of the song (similar to how the 13 track "Dear Father" ended). "Cry All Night" also features a great lyrical line in "The politics of love have turned into a conspiracy."
By far, for me at least, the best of the four studio cuts was the song "Isolated Man". Another fast paced track, it is the one cut that seems to make sense as to why it was not included on the 13 disc. It is the thematic cousin to the song "Loner" and I would hazard to guess that the band didn't want two songs that were so similar to each other on the same album.
What makes the song even more strangely familiar, yet winning, to me is how the lyrics are almost perfectly describing my own kind of outlook on things. This is something I said when I wrote about "Loner" as part of a review of 13 that I wrote a few years back.
I kind of chuckled in agreement with the lines "Please forgive me if you think my life is strange / but I just want to spend my life with me". There are other lines in the song that seem to sum me up and with that and the simple fact that the song is just amazingly good, it gets my vote for best of the four studio outtakes.
So the touring career of BLACK SABBATH comes to an end with a heartfelt, if overpriced, thank you to the fans. It's a nice bit of extra material for SABBATH fans to sink their teeth into and enjoy for all the years to come.
4.0 Out Of 5.0
