Today I received a box in the mail from a rather kind benefactor that contained a bunch of copies of the Deluxe Edition of “13” as well as a vinyl copy of the album for myself. I intend on giving away the majority of the copies of the CD in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, I have a few reactions to the packaging, so I thought I’d throw together some pictures and address a few questions I’ve seen online over the last few days. Please note I DO NOT have a copy of the Super Deluxe Box set (or the standard CD), nor did I order one. I’m sure I’ll end up with one somewhere along the way.
Also, if anyone has any questions about this that I didn’t cover, let me know in the comments, I’ll try and address that with updates if necessary.
The Deluxe CD
What I received was multiple copies of the 2 CD Deluxe Edition. A few bullet points about it.
- It arrives shrink wrapped, with a sticker on the outside attached to the shrink wrap.
- It’s got one of those lenticular covers that changes its look based on what angle you’re looking at it. I posted a vine video earlier today showing this. You can see that here.
- The lenticular cover would be why folks were starting to panic about different covers and all that. It looks a lot different in real life with that kind of cover than just the raw album art does.
- The package expands out and is a trifold. The inside is a wider shot of the main cover art with a “13” on it.
- Inside are the two CD’s as well as the old “jewel case booklet”.
- The booklet DOES contain lyrics, although to this old fart, they’re kind of small. :)
- The discs themselves have an art design on them that reminds me of something I’ve seen before from the Paranoid era of the band.
- Disc 2 has only the three bonus tracks on it. Nothing else. I hoped there might be some sort of hidden something – pictures, unannounced tracks, but nope. Disc 2 is just three songs, and that’s it. I presume the forthcoming Best Buy version will have a different version of this disc, just with four tracks.
Here’s a few pictures of the CD stuff…
The Deluxe CD opened up
These other pictures are a still sealed copy of the CD, the back cover of the CD, and one of the CD’s up close.
The Vinyl
The vinyl album is visually a larger version of what’s on the CD. The exterior artwork is the same, save for the fact that vinyl has just the basic 8 tracks, and not the 11 on the Deluxe CD. Also, the sticker that’s on the front shrink wrap is obviously different. It also has a nice weight to it. I remember the death of the vinyl era (yeah, yeah, I know it never really went away – but you know what I mean), and some of the vinyl produced in that area had a cheap flimsy feeling. This doesn’t. It’s the good 180gm stuff. If you’re into vinyl, you might have a different say to this, as I’m not THAT into vinyl, but I can say this from personal memories of what vinyl used to feel like when it was being phased out.
I cannot attest to the audio fidelity here, because I don’t have a record player anymore. Even if I did, with my ongoing tinnitus, I’m not sure if I’d notice the difference anyway! ha. A few bits about the vinyl
- Like the CD, it comes shrink wrapped with a sticker attached to the shrink wrap. The sticker is different than the CD, however both in size and content.
- There are two discs in here, labeled Sides “A/B/C/D”
- The exterior sticker mentions there’s a free mp3 download available. The card is very small – it’s just a 3 inch square. It could quite easily be missed if you didn’t realize it’s in there. Mine was stuck in the fold at the end of the vinyl case.
- The download card worked for me (I’m in Texas). What you get in the resultant download is a Zip file that contains 8 mp3s in there, comprising the 8 songs that are on the vinyl release. The mp3s themselves are encoded at 320k – and were encoded with iTunes 10.6.1.7 (according to the metadata).
- Each of the discs has artwork from the studio recording on the exterior of the paper. Also on there are the lyrics to the songs, as well as the credits.
- The vinyl discs have the same pattern in the middle that the CD’s do. When I showed that to my wife, she remarked “That would probably look cool spinning around on a turntable, shame you don’t have one anymore”. She’s right. If anyone here DOES have a record player and buys this, do me a favor. Make a vine video showing it spinning around on the turntable and let me know about it. I’d like to see that. :)
Here’s some vinyl pictures…
The exterior sticker for the vinyl.
The Vinyl Unfolded
Summary
That’s all I can think of for now. If there’s anything about these two editions you want to know about, let me know in comments, I’ll try and address them.
I do NOT have the Deluxe Box set, nor do I have the “basic” single CD release, either. If I happen upon them, I’ll add some addtl comments. Let me know what you think.
when i was a kid in the ’70s my vinyl copy of volume 4 had the vertigo label on it. it was pretty cool watching it on the turntable spinning ’round!
here is a link to the vertigo record label on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F4nvhlb7Og
That is really cool…looks 3D!
The Deluxe edition released in Australia is slightly different, instead of the cardboard sleeves it has the standard CD jewel case clips. It is still packaged the same way (booklet in the middle, CDs to left and right).
Yep, I believe that disc image is the old Vertigo Records logo.
Is the Vertigo swirl also on the U.S version?
Yes. Mine is a us copy.
Dope!! Nice to see the old Vertigo on a Sabbath CD. I, too, live in the U.S. So, I never saw a Vertigo label on any of my Sabbath CDs. I do have some Gentle Giant reissues with the Vertigo label on them.
Great review, I’m definitely getting the vinyl. I would like to know what the Super Deluxe Box Set looks like though.
Definitely the old vertigo label. There was a massive version of this at the Home of Metal exhibition in Birmingham a couple of years back…
& I seem to remember a large spinning version being the backdrop on a music show appearance in the early 70s ( alhough I could be wrong on that)
i didn’t realize the vinyl is 2xLP. excellent news since that is the version I ordered back in march when the preorder was announced.
Hi! I just listened through the 11 song version of 13! I must say that I´m extatic! This is Black Sabbath BIG TIME! This is it! Obviously lacking Bill Ward but otherwise it´s all killer no filler for me! I just keep thinking which era of sab goes with which song… There´s a brilliant mixture of everything, judging by the riffs, there´s even a reference to heaven and hell, I think. But this is worthwhile indeed! It´s heavy, it´s diverse, it`s Oz,Tone and Geez bloody …Eh! Sabbath!!! I Love it!
How is the sound of the CD? Is it brickwalled or compressed?
I just noticed you have proof on there I have kids. On the pic with the vinyl expanded, you can see one of my son’s toys – it’s a little “Buddy” from the TV show Dinosaur Train. :)
Why is there two disc for the vinyl?
Two songs per side. My guess is they did that to cut a wider groove for better sound quality. With the length of some of the songs, to fit everything on one album (4 songs per side) they would have had to cut a narrower groove which, to my limited understanding, probably would have have reduced the sound quality.
Just the question – any idea about those small numbers on the sticker?
35 years too late, but 100% Sabbath.
I’ve just experienced the supa dupa deluxe version and oh my, that’s what I needed! :)
Sabbath reunited, doing exactly for what we all love them. Almost no weak song and even the
one or two “weak” ones are pretty solid. The rest is great. The recording-sound too, btw.
Of course it’s a pity Bill didn’t join, but the choice of Brad Wilk was a really good one.
Tony’s ideas make me happy. Lava-riffs and solos crawling all over my smile.
Geezer is thundering along in perfect harmony, shaking my bones.
Ozzy is Ozzy ;) and wow, he sounds really good!
And Brad made it all complete, sounds even like Bill’s style from time to time.
I’m happy and when the last song was over, I only had one thought…
I WANT MORE!
Can’t wait to see them in November.
Greetings from Germany and thanks Joe, for your great site!
Mike
What are the two “weak” songs? Btw, it’s good to hear some nice things about Brad. Although, I’ve heard people say that Brad’s drumming doesn’t swing like Bill’s.
Hi Jordan.
For my taste, Loner, Live Forever and Peace Of Mind are the less exciting ones. Sounds a little
uninspired in comparison to songs like Damaged Soul, but they’re still pretty solid. Nothing I would skip.
The only thing on the album, that I miss a little is, there’s no unusual stuff that you wouldn’t expect.
Songs ala Megalomania, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or a sweet instrumental like Solitude would have been nice.
I think, Brad made it well. To my ears, in some parts it swings like Bill did, but I’m no expert.
Next year on the next album we’ll have Bill back anyway. ;)
If anyone has bought the deluxe version of the first 3 albums , i believe the Vertigo lable is also on them discs as well. Really looking forward to getting me a copy of the deluxe edition of 13 ,, any hints on what the extra 3 songs may sound like ? ive only heard the first 8.
Who plays harmonica on Damaged Soul? According to the booklet image provided by this site, it’s Ozzy. However, Wikipedia thinks otherwise. I keep editing the 13 Wikipedia page, but someone overrides it.
Ozzy. Wikipedia is not always the best source of info. Good yes, but when “experts” who aren’t right dominate a topic, it can be a problem. I gave up editing the Black Sabbath wikipedia page YEARS ago, because of the same reason.
I wonder how they came up with the name Stanley Behrens?
“Super Deluxe Box Set” actually comes with a picture of Ozzy playing harmonica in the studio.
Wikipedia also stated Tony real name was Anthony Frank Iommi. I kept editing to Frank Anthony Iommi and it kept getting re edited to Anthony Frank Iommi. If you also check out heavy metal wiki they almost go out of their way to not give Black Sabbath the credit they deserve.
It actually is Anthony Frank Iommi. I know this for a fact because it was a trivia question on That Metal Show, and the was confirmed by Tony himself because he was on the episode. Btw, how does everyone like the sound on 13? I know this isn’t the place to ask this question, but I been wondering about that. A lot of people on various online sites have been complaining about the sound of 13. Also, Wikipedia finally stopped correcting their mistake.
This is all a mixture of joy and frustration. The streaming of the album has made me impatient for playing it loud in the car (where I’ll have complete peace to listen to it) and the photos of the packaging just want me to have me big box version in my hands so I know the album is actually real.
But, my version of 13 is sitting in a annoyingly local delivery depot, has been for a couple of days according to the tracking info and will be delivered tomorrow on the release day.
So us UK folk could have had our hard copies last week but Universal seem to want all our £50 mega boxes being slowly crushed in piles of packages from Friday to Monday.
Still, fingers crossed and photos of the box as soon as I get it.
Mega box is here and in perfect condition. It’s a lovely bit of kit too, worth the money.
ya my download card was stuck in the gatefold fold part.
What is up with the Vic Furth product placement?
Joe,
Great pix.
My wife got me the DELUXE BOX set, here are a couple notes:
It has set of B&W pix from the 13 sessions. My favorite is the one of Ozzy on the harmonica!
On the reverse side of the photos, are the hand written lyrics. Included is a sketch of a cool little “devil head,” presumably drawn by Geezer or Ozzy……….?
The “GOD IS DEAD” art print is of good quality.
The whole set is of premium quality, a true collectors item.
Richard
After Black Sabbath, none of the band members remember exactly which original song they wrote next, since the tunes started coming so quickly that it became a blur. What they knew, though, was that they liked playing