Black Sabbath crucifix-shaped vinyl box set unveiled

A picture of the Black Sabbath The Ultimate Collection 'crucifold' edition
Black Sabbath The Ultimate Collection 'crucifold' edition

A new Black Sabbath collection will be available in a crucifix-shaped vinyl package in November.

BMG will release Black Sabbath The Ultimate Collection on CD and digital formats on October 28, with the limited-edition ‘crucifold’ 4LP heavyweight vinyl version available from November 18.

The Ultimate Collection is curated in conjunction with the band and features 31 songs remastered by engineer Andy Pearce.

Black Sabbath are currently on their farewell The End world tour. The road trip comes to a close with two dates in their home city of Birmingham, UK, in February 2017.

On the prospect of Black Sabbath’s career coming to an end, frontman Ozzy Osbourne previously said: “We started off as four guys from Aston who had a dream, and it came true beyond our wildest dreams.

“We were manipulated, ripped off, conned. We lost each other within each other. But it’s great to have got this back just to end on a high note.”

Sabbath’s use of an inverted crucifix on the artwork for their self-titled debut album was described as a “promotional ploy” by former drummer Bill Ward recently.

Ward said: “I think there were some wise guys who deliberately put that together as a ploy – as an advertising, promotional ploy, or who had seriously misgauged us as a band.

“There was no collaboration so I don’t know who was responsible for it. I guess someone thought it would be a good idea and thought that was what we represented.”

Black Sabbath The Ultimate Collection ‘crucifold’ vinyl tracklist

Side 1

1. Paranoid

Side 2

  1. Children Of The Grave
  2. Fairies Wear Boots
  3. Changes
  4. Rat Salad

Side 3

  1. Sweet Leaf
  2. War Pigs
  3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Side 4

  1. Hole In The Sky
  2. Symptom Of The Universe
  3. Spiral Architect
  4. Rock ‘N’ Roll Doctor

Side 5

  1. Dirty Women
  2. Evil Woman, Don’t Play Your Games With Me
  3. A Hard Road

Side 6

  1. Lord Of This World
  2. Into The Void
  3. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
  4. Snowblind

Side 7

  1. Tomorrow’s Dream
  2. The Wizard
  3. N.I.B.
  4. Electric Funeral

Side 8

  1. Embryo
  2. Killing Yourself To Live
  3. Am I Going Insane
  4. Wicked World
  5. It’s Alright

Black Sabbath The End tour dates 2016⁄2017

Sep 15: Oakland Oracle Arena, CA
Sep 17: Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, NV
Sep 19: Hollywood Hollywood Bowl, CA
Sep 21: Phoenix AK-Chin Pavilion, AZ
Sep 24: San Manuael Amphitheatre & Festival Grounds, CA
Nov 08: Oklahoma BOK Center, OK
Nov 10: Houston Toyota Center, TX
Nov 12: San Antonio AT&T Center, TX
Nov 16: Mexico City Foro Sol, Mexico
Nov 19: Santiago Estadio Nacional, Chile
Nov 24: Cordoba En El Orfeo Superdomo, Argentina
Nov 26: Buenos Aires Estadio Velez, Argentina
Nov 30: Curitiba Pedrerira Paulo Leminski, Brazil
Dec 02: Rio Praca Da Apoteose, Brazil
Dec 04: Sao Paulo Estadio Do Morumbi, Brazil
Jan 20: Dublin 3 Arena, Ireland
Jan 22: Manchester Arena, UK
Jan 24: Glasgow SSE Hydro, UK
Jan 26: Leeds First Direct Arena, UK
Jan 29: London O2, UK
Jan 31: London O2, UK
Feb 02: Birmingham Genting Arena, UK
Feb 04: Birmingham Genting Arena, UK

Black Sabbath Quiz

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.