The first thing to point out about The Omen and The Exorcist… besides the fact that they both have amazingly cool titles and even cooler artwork, is that these do not come as a set. Each title is a single LP release and needs to be purchased separately. I decided that I should talk about both of them together because they look like they belong together, and were released by the same label (History Recordings Incorporated) right around the same time. The name of the label makes sense once you hear the content. This is archival Sabbath, and for fans of the original era, it carries real historical weight.
As far as I know, these two records are the only releases so far from History Incorporated. I have to say that these titles are a really strong way to start, since the pressing and packaging look great. The photo of young Ozzy has been floating around for years… Zakk Wylde has worn it onstage, and it recently appeared on an official Ozzy store shirt that I grabbed immediately. I haven’t seen it appear on a record sleeve before, so I wanted to get it for that reason alone. Each title is available on either standard black or maroon marble vinyl. At least right now, the maroon variants seem easier to track down than the standard black. The wax looks great, both have cool labels featuring the same art as the cover, and everything is heavyweight and good quality. So far, I’ve been able to locate both colors of The Exorcist, but only the colored version The Omen. I listened using both colored versions, cleaning each one before giving them a spin.
The Omen
Audience Recording – St. Petersburg, Florida, USA (3rd November, 1978) -&- Lund, Sweden (21st April, 1977)
A1 Rock ‘N’ Roll Doctor
A2 Electric Funeral
A3 Iron Man
B1 Fairies Wear Boots
B2 Children Of The Grave
B3 Paranoid
B4 N.I.B.
History-wise, both releases capture Black Sabbath during 1977 and 1978, at the tail end of the first Ozzy era. They were touring on promotion of the album Never Say Die! and we get to hear several songs from that underappreciated track list. The jacket for The Omen says the tracks were taken from shows in St. Petersburg, Florida (1978) and Lund, Sweden (1977). The quality of the audio varies between tracks, and there is a lot of editing. At one point, Ozzy also says something about being in Pittsburgh, so I’m not sure exactly where all these tracks came from. I have all these shows in other formats, so I’ll eventually sort out exactly what came from where.
All of the tracks on The Omen are audience recordings, but for the most part, the quality is good. The only real issue is that throughout the LP, we can hear what appears to be Windows PC computer noises. Sometimes it’s like a window closing, and other times it sounds like an error noise or a click. My best guess is someone was transferring tape to digital, walked away, and didn’t realize the computer system sounds were being captured the entire time. This is only speculation, but if you listen to this LP, you can easily hear it for yourself.
As far as the music goes, the record opens with “Rock ‘N’ Roll Doctor”, which at first, seems like an odd choice. Since they are piecing things together from different shows, you might think the label would have been looking for more popular, or at least “better” songs. I’m guessing the idea here, though, was to give fans something they haven’t heard quite as much over the years. This is a great version of the song, and we get a drum solo from Bill Ward right after this first track. Tony does a guitar solo right after Bill finishes, so this is a pretty weird start to a live record. As you might notice, neither solo is listed on the jacket’s track listing, so they both come as somewhat of a surprise.
The cuts between songs are well done, but not hard to pick up on. This is a very powerful version of “Electric Funeral”, and Ozzy and the band are really driving with some serious force in their playing. The “Iron Man” audio sounds great, although I’m not exactly sure what show this track comes from. “Fairies Wear Boots” has all the incredible drum parts it’s known for, and is a standout performance for Bill Ward. As the first era of the band was winding down, Bill sounded like he was leveling up rather than burning out. Many have played this song since, but no one has ever played it quite as well as Bill.
It’s during “Children of the Grave” that Ozzy shouts, “lets go Pittsburgh!”, so I’m pretty sure the tracks on this LP aren’t limited to just two shows. In any case, this is an awesome version of the song. The volume is much lower for this one though, and we can hear more random PC sounds mixed in with the audio. “Paranoid” is the standard version we have all come to expect, and “N.I.B.” rounds out The Omen. This track is also clearly from another performance, and I think it was a little odd to choose this one to finish things off with. Ozzy announces “Gypsy” before things fade out, but sadly we don’t get to hear it.
The Exorcist
Soundboard Recording – Taylor County Coliseum, Abilene, Texas, USA – 7th December, 1978
A1 Snowblind
A2 Warpigs
A3 Never Say Die
B1 Black Sabbath
B2 Shock Wave
B3 Dirty Women
The Exorcist draws audio from a single show, performed at the Taylor County Coliseum in Abilene, Texas (1978). The label says this is a cleaned-up soundboard recording, and it does sound pretty good. The back of the jacket also mentions that this was one of the last five shows that Sabbath did with Ozzy (originally, of course). It also says:
“Alright, listen up… This one’s a snapshot of the wild ride Sabbath were on back in ’78 – the tail end of the Never Say Die! Tour. They were bloody knackered, spirits were fried, and everything was hangin’ by a thread – but they still got up there and gave it hell.”
I would agree with this assessment and couldn’t have said it better myself. Some people say that when they listen to Sabbath play during this period, they can almost hear the band falling apart. People said the same thing about Fleetwood Mac and everybody else too, and for the most part, I think they are reading too much into things. The band currently touring as The Who still argue on stage and sound like they’re about to implode every night… and yet they never do. I think we’re on farewell tour number twenty by now. Ironically, Ozzy mentions that this was the 10th year of Black Sabbath being together, and that they are looking forward to many more years. I guess they did have them, but they were very far off in the future at this point.
The show starts off with “Snowblind”, and Ozzy has a ton of energy. This may not be the best soundboard recording ever, but the audio is good overall. The volume is just a little on the low side. As you might imagine, Bill is an absolute monster on the drums for “War Pigs”, and the entire band is on top of their game once again. Geezer is playing like a man possessed and adding a lot of bass fills that I’m not used to hearing in older shows or even shows since then. I suppose maybe they are burning out a bit and letting some of their frustrations loose on the songs.
“Never Say Die!” has actually been one of my favorite Sabbath tunes lately, and I was glad to hear it here. This one, along with “Gypsy” from the Technical Ecstasy are criminally underrated, and I would encourage listeners to go back and check out both of these songs again, if not the full albums. Both are different, but there’s a lot of stuff on there that’s great on its own right. “Black Sabbath” is powerful as usual, but nothing too crazy or different than we’re used to hearing.
Things do get interesting when the band pulls out “Shockwave”. This one is also from Never Say Die!, but definitely not a song that was played very much. I think the album has a lot better songs on it than this one, but the band might have struggled to find a second track that they thought was as good as the title track. “Dirty Women” is next and is a song we would actually hear quite a bit of during the later years of Sabbath after they reformed. I maintain that the lyrics to this song are not only bad for a Black Sabbath song, but pretty bad by just about any measure. Musically though, it rips, and the solo alone justifies its survival. It’s just a guess, but I imagine that the guitar part is the one and only reason the song ended up sticking around, even throughout those later years.
The LP ends there, and we get a sort of abrupt fade-out after “Dirty Women”. This isn’t the entire show that was played that day, but it is a good portion of it, and probably all that they could fit on a single LP. Obviously, there is no encore of “Paranoid” or anything like that, but I really did like hearing some stuff from this show again.
Conclusion
Even with the weird computer sounds in The Omen, I was quite happy with both of these releases overall. There were no weird noises or clicks on The Exorcist, so if you are just going to pick one of these up, that’s the one I would recommend. The pressing for both discs is excellent, and I would give each one 10/10 on that front. These are high quality LPs, and the color and marbling look great. The packaging is also 10/10, and both have great artwork and nice glossy finishes. As far as audio quality goes, The Omen varies since it’s a compilation of tracks from various shows, but overall, I would say it’s about 6.5/10 while The Exorcist is around 8/10.
As usual, the price you can find copies at varies, but for single LPs, I thought each one was a good value overall. For collectors like me, part of the fun is simply tracking down every variation, and the cool covers and maroon/purple marble wax make these stand out. Are there better versions of these shows out there? There almost certainly are, but it’s always nice to get new versions, and go back and enjoy the music again in a different light. It’s been a couple months since these have hit the shelves, but there are still copies available, and they should be easy to find.
Good luck in the hunt!