Review of Black Sabbath Story, The Vol. 2 (1979 to 1992)

Introduction

In the seventies, British rock ruled the world, with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple selling millions of records on both sides of the Atlantic, and both groups ultimately utilising a broadly similar pool of artists during their long careers.

The Black Sabbath Story is split over two separate volumes, and this disc contains the story of the band from 1979 to 1992 with various lineup changes as the band went through a mid-eighties dip before a small resurgence at the end of the decade. The first disc looks at the first eight years of the band, during which time they established their reputation and were very successful.

Video

As with Volume 1, the video comes in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of variable quality - the modern interview segments are excellent, with no grain or dirt, and a detailed image; however the quality of the live/performance footage is variable and ropy at times; however this does not detract from your enjoyment of the songs.

Obviously, this volume contains newer footage than volume 1, so the overall picture quality is slightly better.

Audio

Again the soundtrack comes in both Dolby Digital 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is adequate, however it sounds totally flat and lifeless compared to the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.

The sound is again quality is dependent on the source material, but luckily as the material is a lot newer, the overall sound quality is far higher, with the songs very well reproduced.

The vocals during the interviews are very crisp and easy to understand, but again the archive interviews are again of variable quality.

Features

As with the first volume, the extras include: "The Story of" which provides direct links to the interview segments in the main feature - although again unfortunately there is not a "play all" feature, you need to select each individually; track selection - to get to each song in the main feature; "Band History" - a number of extra interviews covering the period of the second volume and an album gallery (with links to interview segments for the albums).

Although not as comprehensive as the extras on the first volume, again, this disc is well above par. The nicely animated menus from volume 1 have luckily been retained.

Conclusion

Overall, Volume 2 is an excellent disc, not as good as Volume 1 in terms of music or extras, but still very interesting, and well worth watching.

As I said in my review of Volume 1, my only grumble is that both Volume 1 and Volume 2 should be packaged together for £19.99, rather than £15.99 each, which smells of profiteering in my opinion - but said that, each one still represents excellent value when compared to other music DVDs on the market.

Once again, if you`re a fan of the band, this is a recommended disc.