The Black Sabbath - The Black Sabbath Story Volume One

Bafflingly bland portrait of a rock behemoth

We live in voyeuristic kiss-and-tell times, where warts’n’all revelations have become the media norm. Naming, shaming and the spilling of beans are expected in the 21st Century, but it clearly wasn’t the way things were done when this documentary first appeared on VHS in 1991.

Today, Ozzy Osbourne is a chat show regular and author of a soul-baring autobiography, but his volatile first decade as Sabbath’s lead singer is charted in this hour-long film as a dull catalogue of release dates and live shows. He’s conspicuous by his talkinghead absence here, with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler charged with telling the “story” – and captivating raconteurs they ain’t.

Case in point is 1978, the last year covered on this disc. A whirlwind of excessive drug-taking, fisticuffs and acrimonious departures are summed up by Iommi as: “Ozzy left, came back, then wanted to leave again.” No details, no dirt. Exciting vintage live footage may be enough to draw punters in, but unless your idea of insight is Butler admitting he didn’t understand the words to Paranoid, there’s little to be learned.

2 stars 2 stars

Sanctuary | SVEM 0051

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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