Black Sabbath Deluxe Editions - What's the deal?

Recently I've been acquiring the Black Sabbath Deluxe Editions. So far I have the following:

Born Again
Seventh Star
Eternal Idol
Dehumanizer

I started with those because either I didn't own them (Seventh Star & Eternal Idol) or they had bonus material that looked good, or both. Also, all the remastering was done by Andy Pearce and I really enjoy his remastering work. His remaster of Diamond Head's Lightning To The Nations is the best sounding version yet, and his Dio remasters are very nice. His remasters are NOT victims of the Loudness Wars thankfully.

I did notice something strange though - it appears that only the first three Ozzy Sabbath albums are Deluxe Editions with no other Ozzy fronted albums getting the Deluxe treatment. All of the Dio albums are done, as are the three after that and the Tony Martin IRS records albums aren't done yet - but they are slated to be done in the future. (Here's an article on that - http://www.black-sabbath.com/2013/08/tony-martin-era-deluxe-editions/)

So where are the rest of the Ozzy-era Deluxe Editions? Castle/Essential did remasters of all those albums back in 1996 so obviously they have some type of masters for these. Does anybody have any idea what's going on here?

They were unable to locate(according to them) any bonus material for the last five Ozzy albums.
They were all released as single edition remasters. I am actually a member of the site that you are linking to. There is probably more on this in the forums or on the main site itself.

Thelemech wrote:

They were unable to locate(according to them) any bonus material for the last five Ozzy albums.
They were all released as single edition remasters. I am actually a member of the site that you are linking to. There is probably more on this in the forums or on the main site itself.

That explains it - thanks! It appears that Andy Pearce did all of those remasters as well. I already have the Black Box, so I don't know if I'll acquire them, but they do appear to be fairly cheap on Amazon.

The first 3 albums were recorded in the UK and the masters reside with Vertigo records.  They had access to the session reels so they were able to include bonus material.

Starting with Volume 4 which was recorded in Los Angeles the master tapes became the property of Warner Bros. Records and the original session reels are in their possession.  The deluxe editions are European releases and they had no access to the material in Warner Bros. possession.  All they have for Volume 4 thru Never Say Die is a copy of the stereo master tape.

I do know that the original session reels for Born Again could not be located (Tony Iommi wanted to remix the album) but I'm not aware of the status of the rest of the Warners owned material.

S.D. wrote:

The first 3 albums were recorded in the UK and the masters reside with Vertigo records.  They had access to the session reels so they were able to include bonus material.

Starting with Volume 4 which was recorded in Los Angeles the master tapes became the property of Warner Bros. Records and the original session reels are in their possession.  The deluxe editions are European releases and they had no access to the material in Warner Bros. possession.  All they have for Volume 4 thru Never Say Die is a copy of the stereo master tape.

I do know that the original session reels for Born Again could not be located (Tony Iommi wanted to remix the album) but I'm not aware of the status of the rest of the Warners owned material.

So where did all the bonus material for Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Born Again, Seventh Star, The Eternal Idol and Dehumanizer come from?  I could maybe understand Dehumanizer because it was a joint Warner/IRS release, but those other albums were all Warner Bros releases, right?  I'm assuming that something changed contractually in 1980 that allowed greater access to those albums.  It's also strange that they didn't fashion Deluxe Editions for those Ozzy albums by using live material, which is abundant.

Also S.D. - any thoughts on Andy Pearce and his remastering jobs?

But if you look at the bonus material offered on all those records it's primarily live radio broadcasts that had previously been available in bootleg form for years, there isn't much session material.  

The alternate version of Mob Rules on that record is from the Heavy Metal soundtrack.  The bonus disc had previously been released by Rhino in a limited edition form.

The bonus material from Born Again was a stolen cassette dub of a rough mix, the urban legend was the Ian Gillan himself leaked that to the world, with a radio broadcast added to fill out the disc.  

The rough mix of The Eternal Idol was another leaked cassette dub, it was available as a bootleg for about a decade prior the deluxe edition being released.

None of the bonus material came from the Warner Bros. vaults.

When the Tony Martin albums are re-released, I need to pick them up. Or at least Cross Purposes, Tyr and Headless Cross. I've never owned or heard these.

I just read that article Witchfinder linked in his first post. Man, deluxe editions as that guy suggested would be so killer.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I just read that article Witchfinder linked in his first post. Man, deluxe editions as that guy suggested would be so killer.

As a Sabbath fan I have been drooling over the prospect of getting the Tony Martin era deluxe editions for years. With Tony Iommi being sick and mostly focusing on Ozzy led Sabbath it is a strong possibility that we may never see the TM era as deluxe editions.

Lari wrote:

When the Tony Martin albums are re-released, I need to pick them up. Or at least Cross Purposes, Tyr and Headless Cross. I've never owned or heard these.

This is me, as well. The only Martin album I own is The Eternal Idol.

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

Lari wrote:

When the Tony Martin albums are re-released, I need to pick them up. Or at least Cross Purposes, Tyr and Headless Cross. I've never owned or heard these.

This is me, as well. The only Martin album I own is The Eternal Idol.

I'd buy 'em all in deluxe version. I've got the Eternal Idol deluxe, and I have the regular versions of Tyr and Cross Purposes. I need Headless Cross and Forbidden (I used to have Forbidden on cassette--love that one, though most do not).

I'd be mainly interested in getting Headless Cross, just to finally get Cloak & Dagger on cd. The other releases' bonus material I already have or just isn't my thing (radio edits,live tracks,etc).

I hope the original master tapes for the Born Again album will be located someday soon. It's a great album that needs to be mixed properly.

HOLD THE PHONE!!!

They're planning Deluxe versions of Headless Cross, Cross Purposes, & TYR??!? SIGN ME UP!!!!

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

HOLD THE PHONE!!!

They're planning Deluxe versions of Headless Cross, Cross Purposes, & TYR??!? SIGN ME UP!!!!

Me too!

This article explains the label situation for the Black Sabbath catalog in detail:

http://www.black-sabbath.com/2013/08/tony-martin-era-deluxe-editions/

Didn't see the original link.