![](http://web.archive.org./web/20190428011241im_/http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2bquwl0Yxe4/TgJa68qDp0I/AAAAAAAAB88/RPdWkOrZbq8/s400/bscover.jpg)
(There is an expanded version, but I'm sure it just incorporates tracks from Cannabis Confusion, another Sabbath boot.)
But as to its true origins... who knows?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Some versions claim to have been recorded in 1976.
Others, '75.
From the references to 'the new album' Sabotage, it must be '75; the songs are obviously unknown to the audience, yet the album was released in the summer of that year.
As for the audience, well again that's a bit of a puzzle.
Some versions claim to have been recorded in London, others in the States.
The introductory announcement has a definite English accent, but that could merely be a roadie, proving nothing.
The audience does sound American [!], if you know what I mean; but the recording quality is so good, it could well have been recorded at Hammersmith Odeon (a venue that had stunning recording facilities [even Zappa rated it!], and this boot is of a very high quality), and it is a venue that one version does credit.
So, going out on a limb, I reckon it was recorded in 1975, at Hammersmith Odeon, attended by an all American audience, with the candlestick.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20190428011241im_/http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ny52h_yas_c/TgJa14mbMuI/AAAAAAAAB80/4QJXgOqMQCE/s400/BSposter.jpg)
It was during the Never Say Die tour; Ozzy had really gone to pot, or should I say to bottle.
It was obvious to all that the band were over.
He was all over the place, while the other three mainly ignored him; Iommi looked particularly, well, embarrassed really.
All in all, a bit of a car crash of a gig.
Memorable, though.
I'd loved to have seen them around the time this was recorded.
They may not have been the most intellectual or sophisticated of bands, but they certainly knew how to entertain, they knew what the audience wanted; and as this recording reveals, they could play a real blinder: here they're really peaking.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20190428011241im_/http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9KiHBVo5Fok/TgJaw84sw9I/AAAAAAAAB8s/q93LyGBVqo0/s400/BS.jpg)
This is a good example. 'Hole in the Sky', 'Megalomania' and 'Symptom of the Universe' are really the stand out tracks, all of which come from Sabotage (the last of the great Sabbath albums), but I do have a soft spot for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tracks (their best album!), and the opener 'Killing Yourself to Live' is a mighty fine way to start the show.
Ozzy never sounded so - paradoxically - diabolical.
Included are some great jams that do seem genuinely spontaneous. Interesting to hear, during the second of Iommi's freak outs, proleptic emergence of 'Rock n Roll Doctor'; its familiar riff surfacing from the hyperbolic noodling in a somewhat comforting manner.
Like Satan, himself, giving you a great big huggle.
Black Sabbath - Megalomaniac Architect (1975)
Intro
Killing Yourself to Live
Hole in the Sky
Snowblind
Symptom of the Universe
War Pigs
Megalomania
Sabra Cadabra
Jam
Supernaut
Iron Man
Orchid
Jam
Black Sabbath
Spiral Architect
Embryo
Children of the Grave
Paranoid
CD rip to mp3s, from several versions, pushed up to 320kbs.
Sounds jolly good.
Blacken your soul here and here