Album Review: Vol. 4 [Super Deluxe Edition] [Box Set] by Black Sabbath

As the often misquoted Henry Rollins phrase goes, "You can only trust yourself and the first four Black Sabbath albums." While the LPs following 1972's 'Vol. 4' have their virtues; it's hard to argue against the peerless quality of those first releases. In the space of just three years, the quartet laid the foundations for metal with the one-two knockout of their self-titled debut and 'Paranoid,' before quickly birthing the Stoner and Doom genres with 71's 'Masters Of Reality.' While hardly popular with many critics at the time, Sabbath's menacing world was a hit with the kids, soundtracking the death of the hippie dream and the arrival of a far less optimistic decade.

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