Awesome. Will love to get these on vinyl.

Part of me wants to say, "fucking finally," but another part of me is a little bit skeptical that we'll actually see it by the end of May. The good news is that giving the month is more specific than any claim of a date we've ever gotten, but I'd feel a lot better if there was an actual date.

Sounds like it's a lot of paperwork to make it happen. I really hope it comes out. The Martin era is a bit mixed for me, a lot is subpar compared to the other Sabbath albums, but the Headless Cross album is an absolute classic. I also have a soft spot for Tyr, but I get why people don't like it, as it's very different from all other Sabbath albums.

Martin era never got a fair crack of the whip. There are some absolute bangers in that era, particularly Headless Cross and Tyr (Feels Good to Me can go do one though). There's also shit, but even Ozzy had Never Say Die. Seventh Star was never intended to be a Sabbath record, and consequently doesn't sound like one, and Forbidden is the worst thing they ever recorded, and was done purely to fulfil a contract ahead of the first reunion with Ozzy.

I was hoping they'd be individual releases rather than a boxset. I've managed to track down a couple of them over the years, but I'll still buy this to have all 5 of them.

I'm wondering if these will all be remixed (I recall Tony saying that 'Forbidden' would be), and what bonus material, if any, will be included.
Regardless, love this era of the band and will buy this as soon as I can.

Apparently, no bonus material. They can't put out anything "new" with the Black Sabbath name unless it's the original band.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/tony-iomm ... ive-in-may

I wish they would've used an obvious tactic to get around it like Black Sabbath: The Tony Martin Years + Special Tony Iommi and Friends bonus disc! and its just whatever extra tracks from the Martin albums. Metal Archives would catalogue it is a split and have to create a new band page for Tony Iommi and Friends.

I wonder if that applies to bonus tracks from these albums that were already released on various singles & Japanese pressings. I would think they should be able to at least include these songs:

Black Moon (Eternal Idol outtake)
Some Kind of Woman (Eternal Idol outtake)
Cloak and Dagger (Headless Cross B-side)
What's the Use (Cross Purposes Japanese bonus track)
Loser Gets It All (Forbidden Japanese bonus track)

Good call/question. I'm especially interested in "What's the Use", as that song crushes.

What about that bonus track on the Born Again deluxe edition? Was that a B-Side or was it previously unreleased?

Hope this actually comes out as promised, I've been wanting these on CD real bad. I also hope these are accompanied with a streaming release, that way more people than just hardcore Sabbath fans might hear them.

I believe that it was previously unreleased but it being included on the Born Again reissue with the Sabbath name might have been due to the timing of that release or their agreement about the use of the name may have changed since then. Or maybe Iommi is just bullshitting Martin because he doesn't want to include extras (if I recall correctly, Iommi is on record as saying he was generally not a fan of releasing demos and previously unreleased versions of songs).

Iommi has no issue releasing live bonus tracks by the truck full though. If it was just Iommi not wanting demos or whatever surely they're be some live tracks out there, possibly from Cross Purposes Live, since that already exists under the Sabbath name. But if we even don't get any live tracks I don't think it would be Iommi being responsible, but rather contracts.

Plus the original lineup has released some really interesting bonus tracks on the deluxe editions already, and yes I know Ozzy (Sharon) would've had some sway in that, but surely Iommi is not stubbornly putting his foot down NO BONUS TRACKS DAMMIT.

I bought Cross Purposes on vinyl about a year ago and it came with ''What's The Use'' as an unlisted track on the end of side one. And, yes, it crushes.

Yeah, true, and we don't really know what Martin has that he offered to Iommi. So, I guess maybe we should not presume "no extras at all". I doubt that Tony Martin is in possession of the master tapes for Cross Purposes Live or some Japanese bonus tracks. It seems likely that he probably has some demos or rehearsal tapes or something of that nature and that's the stuff that Iommi said "no" to.

This is a dumb question but do we know what is included in the boxset? Is it just the 5 studio albums, or is Cross Purposes Live included as well?

I'm glad to hear that this is finally happening. I've always felt bad for Tony as he seems like a really nice dude and had a terrific voice; but I feel like Sabbath(ie Iommi) kind of tossed him around a bit and he's just never gotten the respect that he deserves from fans.

I'm not even confident that all 5 Tony Martin albums will be included. At the end of 2022 when Tony Iommi first announced this project, he said they were re-releasing the IRS Records albums, which includes Dehumanizer with Dio, but does not include The Eternal Idol because that was on Vertigo Records. In the video he put out this year, he doesn't actually mention Tony Martin or the "Tony Martin era" by name. He just says "a box set" which makes it sound like the plan has not changed. Dubbing it the "Tony Martin era Black Sabbath box set" may be an assumption on the part of the fans that is not strictly correct.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/tony-iomm ... ed-in-2023

EDIT: It could be that they wanted to include The Eternal Idol in the set, and had to negotiate with Vertigo to get it included. Maybe that was what has been taking so long?

Even if The Eternal Idol turns out to not be included, it was already part of the deluxe edition reissues they had some years ago, so imo it wouldn't be such a huge injustice if it wasn't included.

Wow, they actually committed to May. That is way better than saying 2024 after 22 and 23 passed us by but I will believe it when I see it.

I hope they include the live album! I have heard Tony Martin does a great job with all eras of Sabbath.

If there is no bonus tracks I will still be happy.

They misspelled the shit out of Bill Ward's name on 13 and The End.

Also it would be cool if the Iommi albums with Glenn Hughes got reissued.

Finally. I hope that The Eternal Idol will be part of the box-set given that it was released on a different label than the other 4.

So….looks like this is now available to preorder

Where at?

Not sure but there are a lot of postings on Sabbath Facebook groups- and a new ‘single’ Headless Cross backed with Anno Mundi is now available on Apple Music here in Australia

Just ordered a copy from the Amazon US store.
Thanks for posting!

It doesn't look like it, unfortunately.

It's really happening.

I hope Cross Purposes Live gets released later.

I don’t know if I’ll be buying this since I already have CDs for these albums, but I’m hyped as hell to finally be able to stream them in my car and such without having to finagle YouTube. Even better if it leads to this era getting a little more respect and a Forbidden remix is very promising!

These are some of the longest running illegal downloads I still have from high school. Be good to get this sometime.

I don't buy cd's anymore, but I wanted to say that Headless Cross has always been an awesome album, really underrated in Black Sabbath discography.

Where are you guys seeing this? Just looked at Amazon and I didn’t see it.

Many thanks. Preordering now.

The Eternal Ideal is owned by Warner Music in North America, which is why it's not included. Everything in the box set was originally released by I.R.S. Records (Now owned by Universal Music).