Steven Wilson On the Lost Black Sabbath Tapes

Producer, audio engineer, musician Steven Wilson has remixed albums for Jethro Tull, Yes, The Who, Tears for Fears and Deep Purple as well as Phil Collins, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and even Gentle Giant but one incomplete project was Black Sabbath’s iconic ‘Vol. 4’ album.

The Black Sabbath ‘Vol. 4’ box has a second disc of Wilson remixes but there are only six of the 10 songs on the disc.

Steven Wilson tells Noise11.com that “the tapes were lost”.

Steven said, “That’s a classic example, and this has happened a few times over the years with me. The will to do it was there. The record company wanted to do it, the manager wanted to do it. I wanted to do it and then they couldn’t find the tapes”.

To fill the album out Steven created a third disc of outtakes for the box. “What they did find was some outtake reels of the band running through different takes of the songs,” he said. “So, we did what we could, which is basically I mixed these outtakes, which I think were fascinating if you are a fan of the record to go back and hear the band running through many different takes of ‘Supernaut’ or ‘Wheels of Confusion’. There’s some great stuff there. But unfortunately, I wasn’t able to mix the actual album because the multitrack tapes have, as with the whole Sabbath catalogue, they’ve pretty much disappeared sadly”.

Wilson did remix the entire ‘Technical Ecstasy’ album for its box set release but his name was absent from the ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Sabotage’ box sets.

Check out the Noise11 Steven Wilson interview done 24 July 2025.

‘Vol. 4’ (released in 1972) saw Black Sabbath begin to experiment beyond their heavy doom-laden roots. The album introduced more dynamic shifts, orchestration, and even ballads—most notably on “Changes,” featuring only piano and vocals.

The album was recorded at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, and the band’s cocaine use during the sessions was notoriously excessive. So much so, they initially wanted to call the album Snowblind, a reference to cocaine, but the label vetoed the title.

Vol. 4 was the first Black Sabbath album produced without producer Rodger Bain. Instead, the band took production into their own hands with help from engineer Patrick Meehan.

Though never released as a single, “Supernaut” became a standout track, admired for its thunderous riffs and complex rhythms. Frank Zappa reportedly called it one of his favorite rock songs.

The instrumental “Laguna Sunrise” featured acoustic guitars and orchestration—a stark contrast to Sabbath’s typical heaviness. It demonstrated Tony Iommi’s growing compositional range and love for classical music.

Steven Wilson will tour Australia with ‘The Overview’ in November. Dates are:

12 November, Perth, Astor Theatre
13 November, Adelaide, Her Majesty’s Theatre
15 November, Melbourne, Forum Theatre
16 November, Sydney, ICC Darling Harbour
17 November, Brisbane, QPAC

https://stevenwilsonhq.com/tour-dates/

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Tagged as: 70s, Black Sabbath, metal, Ozzy Osbourne, rock, Steven Wilson, UK, Vol. 4