Black Sabbath (1970)

8

Black Sabbath / The Wizard / Behind the Wall of Sleep / N.I.B. / Evil Woman / Sleeping Village / The Warning // Wicked World

Hard rock vs. heavy metal

Black Sabbath was the first heavy metal band. I'm well aware the term has been attributed to many bands before them (The Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, etc…) but in my book, those artists surely helped paving the way for metal, yet ultimately belong in the history of hard rock. Since telling a hard rock band apart from a metal band is in my case often more based on instinct than rationale, I'll try to put it in words, and avoid becoming completely nonsensical. Hard rock both rocks and rolls, often has both the straightforward attack of classic rock 'n' roll as well as the soulful vibe of blues. Most great hard rock bands are basically guys that play white boy-versions of blues-rock, sometimes further blended with folk, country & soul. Heavy metal doesn't roll, it refuses to do so. There's no swing or vibe in heavy metal, it ain't no picnic. There's not much place for soul either. Bon Scott in AC/DC? The greatest white soul singer of the '70's! Ozzy Osbourne's vocal style? A flat wail from a guy who'd rather sing about drugs, the "dark side" and politics than pussy, backdoors and, uh, the ladies in general. Whereas hard rock often seems active on the outer fringes of rock 'n' roll, where sleaze and perversion are basically half-allowed, classic heavy metal music seems to be the music of social outcasts. Unlike hard rock, heavy metal has no desire whatsoever to appeal to mainstream audiences, and that's because the music sounds so grotesquely anti-commercial (not necessarily a good thing), nearly unrecognisable to anyone who's only familiar with only what's being spoon-fed by them on prime time TV and radio. As such, metal - even more than hard rock - is the preferred music of outcasts, teenagers and adolescents looking for an escapist way out of their existence. This all sounds very pretentious and simplistic, but do check it out, it's true. Of course, this distinction is arbitrary, but that's how I've always felt it. Of course there's also the 'hard' vs. 'heavy' thing. Metal is louder than hard rock, lacks the swing, the finesse, the subtleties. Even though they had the image of morally bereft scum, the guys in Led Zeppelin actually were top musicians who understood the language of music (and especially its dynamics) better than most of their contemporaries. Black Sabbath, on the other hand, isn't about abusing up the amps, playing blues rock and adding ingredients from pop, soul, funk and folk. Black Sabbath's grind is an impossibly corpulent sludge, wallowing in its own colossal heaviness and some of the most brutal, bludgeoning riffs in the history of popular music. It's no surprise that these days, Black Sabbath still tops many Heaviest bands ever-lists. Granted, bands have become more extreme, are able to kick up an even bigger wall of sound, but essentially it had all been done by the mighty Sab. Just listen to anything off of Master of Reality or just Sabbath Bloody Sabbath's title track, for instance. Thirty years old and still a grinding mindfuck of the highest order.

"The devil in music"

Of course, the most important difference might be that metal oozes out a very different atmosphere, one of darkness and evilness. AC/DC's Bon Scott-albums still contain the most muscular, bad-ass riffage that's ever been released (I mean, at their peak, they were the rockingest of all bands), but they also ooze out an atmosphere of frat boy naughtiness and misogynistic fun. Old school fun. There's no fun to be had with Black Sabbath records. Ok ok, I hear you coming… they made a few albums that are so laughably bad they work perfect as comedy albums to warm up your company, but essentially, Ozzy, Bill, Tony and Geezer made dark, menacing, SERIOUS music for people who were into, you know, the less cheerful matter of life. And they wrapped it up in music that reflected that and sounded as creepy as you desired. A lot of blah blah has been written about the particular chords and notes that Iommi' uses, besides his detuned guitars, and apparently, the 'evil' tone of Black Sabbath's songs wasn't there incidentally. Some combinations of notes and chords simply sounded otherworldly or even possessed. They did centuries ago and they still do now. Theorists talk about flatted fifths and the tritonus-scale and music like this should be avoided, because it was "the Devil in Music" (remember Slayer's Diabolus in Musica?). The classic example is the album's opening song ("Black Sabbath" on the album Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath - how cool is that?) and you know what I mean… Okay, first you have the rain and thunder and the tolling bells, but then…… BBBBBAAAAAAAAAAWWWWW WAAAAAAAAAAAWWWW WWWAAAAAAAAWWW. Those three notes. Evil. Sick. Sinister. If you have an acoustic guitar near you, you could do your own simplified (and not entirely correct) version like this: (1) pick your top string (open), (2) pick it again while holding your index finger on the 12th fret and (3) again with your finger on the 6th fret. Admit it, that sounds MEAN! SATANIC!

The irony is that Black Sabbath never actually were Satanists. Intrigued by the dark side? Yes. Excessively using Satanic imagery, referring to rituals, the presence of Lucifer in the world, the Satanic bible? Yeah, of course - good old Beelzebub even gets on the mic in "N.I.B." - but do you remember the lyrics to "Under the Sun" (on Vol. 4)? "Well, I don't want no Jesus freak to tell me what it's all about, no black magician telling me to cut my soul out, don't believe in violence, I don't believe in me, I've opened the door now I mind my destiny" Are those the words of a Satanist? I think not… A new age poofter at best. Yet the whole image thing and shock tactics certainly were a way to avoid a more personal involvement. So, on the one hand the band raised the bar for other bands, making new themes acceptable (sort of), but on the other hand, you got the legions of followers, who just took the atmosphere, or imagery and turned it into something ugly (I hate all black metal, the good one and the bad one).

Finally: the album

Appropriately released on Friday the 13th of February 1970, very few bands introduced an album that must've been at odds with the climate as Black Sabbath. Popular music had seen an incredible evolution in the previous 7-8 years - while The Beatles originally were considered rebellious innovators (and a decisive factor in Ozzy's decision to pursue a career in music), they'd become lame pussies by the late sixties, when rock 'n' roll had developed a more mature, often political, discourse and people like Keith Moon, Roky Erickson, Frank Zappa, the Velvet Underground and many others had made clear that rock 'n' roll music wasn't only delivered by next door's boys. But Black Sabbath! Such an ominous sound! Still blues, but heavier than anything before. Led Zeppelin had already introduced the blistering attack of "Communication Breakdown" and the proto-metal vibe of "Dazed and Confused," but this was grimier, more serious and stubbornly one-dimensional. While it's obvious the band wasn't yet the well-oiled mammoth of two-three years later, the majority of the songs here work surprisingly well. Even though it's quite corny, the title track still stands as a milestone in heavy metal history. I remember hearing a Black Sabbath compilation when I was 12-13 or so and that song did strike me as something particularly malevolent. It still does, despite its uhm… moronic flavour. Very rarely has a black mass been described this effectively. The lumbering rhythm section, playing as if they're wearing metal clothing, Iommi squeezing devilish sounds out of his guitar and Ozzy's unique wailing on top of it, churning out theatrical lines like "What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me?" Actually, the vocals on this album are easily the most amateurish ones he's done (even though he always did some "awkward" things - just singing along to the guitar melody being the biggest offender), yet they have a rawness in them he'd rarely achieve on later albums, when his high-pitched nagging paved the way for shriek-meisters like Rob Halford, King Diamond and lots of Germans. Here he almost sounds like David Lee Roth's helpless little brother. Anyway, if you don't dig the ridiculously pumping attack after his golden "Oh no, no, please God help me!," you just don't like music or should limit yourself to Sting's albums. And then there's of course that acceleration and climax to the end, the part that taught kids to bang their heads. Like all great metal, "Black Sabbath" is heavy, provocative and admittedly a bit stupid, but done properly, it's a shit-load of fun. Arguing that this level is kept up for an entire album would be silly - nothing here is quite as effective - but certainly the album's first half is quite excellent. The harmonica that kicks off "The Wizard" sounds quite out of place, but once the entire band adds their sonic mayhem, you're off for a weirdly structured anthem. Iommi and Butler basically deliver the monolithic goods, but Ward's jazz-inflected drumming and Ozzy's amateurish charm (the "Never talking, just keeps talking"-part is particularly "nice") lift it to greater heights. "N.I.B.", preceded by a pointless 40-second bass solo, also fits in that list of dumb & heavy rockers, but this time the band actually manages to infuse the song with a sense of grace ("Your love for meeeee has just goooot tooo beeeee reeeaaaaaal") and some of Iommi's coolest soloing. I also have a soft spot for their surprisingly accessible version of "Evil Woman," a simple and dry riff-driven rocker, but just listen to Butler's crawling bass-line and Osbourne's vocals, which are more melodic than ever, taking them almost in Pentagram-territory. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is also pretty nifty, boasting another sinister riff and Ozzy's vocals always remind me of those in "Iron Man." More than anything, however, the sound reminds me of the great production jobs rock albums had at the time, so organic and clear, with a fat distorted bass sound and drums you can actually feel. Fortunately, the sonic delight can't make up for remainder of the rather mediocre second half. The acoustic intro to "Sleeping Village" is a nice diversion from the traditional heaviness, but what comes after isn't exactly the most inspired thing they've ever done - basically an excuse for Iommi's double-tracked solo there. Similarly, "The Warning" is a vehicle for a daylong solo by Iommi, which shows he could play, but not necessarily keep up the momentum for several minutes. However, the parts with the vocals ("I was warned about you baby but my feelings were a little bit too strong") are enjoyable as hell (hey!). The album sounds quite out of date nowadays (just because they don't make 'em like this anymore), but its key elements (riffs, atmosphere, etc) hold up surprisingly well. They only needed to tighten up the songwriting, turn up the amps to 12 instead of 11, make sure Iommi didn't stretch out for too long and just become one of the essential (of not the) heavy metal bands. This band kills.

Note: There seem to be other editions of this album around as well, the most common one of which divides the songs as follows: Black Sabbath / The Wizard / Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B. / Wicked World / A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning. As I understood it, however, "Wicked World" comes from a different session (and it does sound different). It doesn't make the edition I have (a 1996 reissue) any better, either.

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Paranoid (1970)

9

War Pigs / Paranoid / Planet Caravan / Iron Man / Electric Funeral / Hand of Doom / Rat Salad / Fairies Wear Boots

ROCK! Some people will tell you that Paranoid is the popular, but overrated album and that Sabbath's classic status is derived from the next album's heaviness, Vol. 4's diversity or Sabotage's prog-leanings, but they're all wrong. WRONG! Like the Nomeansno album. Paranoid certainly isn't the world's most consistent heavy metal album and some of the song-writing is average at best (several of the songs have shifts that make no sense whatsoever if you listen to it from a distance), but despite its limitations, relentless brashness, and uh… stupidity, it's still a 95% bullet-proof groove-fest. Among the classic stupidity-accusations: the sheer poetry and stunning rhyme of "Generals gathered in their masses/ just like witches at black masses" (are those grand opening lines or what?), Ozzy just singing/yelping along to "Iron Man"s key melody or Iommi's fret-abuse in "Electric Funeral", the riff and intro ("I AM IRON MAN"!) of that same song, awkward shifts (2:05 into "Hand of Doom"), the fairy on the album cover (is that a lightsabre?) and "Rat Salad" (an excuse for a drum solo). But the GOOD stuff! The swift title track with its memorable, throbbing vibe (even though it's arguably a rip-off of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed & Confused"), those silly stops and gefundenes adolescent-fressen like "Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal." It's certainly a long way from James Taylor. For years, my favorite Black Sabbath songs were "War Pigs" and "Iron Man," as they were the two other songs from this album that I had on tape way back in the late '80's, when I filled my days with listening to Motown-compilations, The Police and U2. Even though the intro to "War Pigs" goes on for way too long, the pay-off after 105 seconds ("Oh Lord yeah!") and that mean, "I'm holding your testicles in my clenched fist"-riff that pops up makes it such a pleasure. Add to that Ozzy's nagging vocals and stretched-out solo-moments that are much more effective than those on the debut's second half and it's a full-on thrill. "Iron Man," perhaps the most ridiculed Sabbath-song, closes the first album half and even though it might crack you up if you're raised on the angelic sounds of Converge, Slayer or Neurosis - to name just a few - the first ten seconds (up 'til that moment) might contain the biggest chicken skin-factor of their entire output. That bass drum pedal and then…. RRRRUUAAAAAAWWWHHHAAAA, Iommi's descending guitar riff (well, just one note, basically) inviting you to visit hell. Or some creepy place. The song's key riff (TIDATIDADATIDATIDATIDADAAAAM) is simple, yet effective and admit it, it's an invitation to act like a bad-ass when no one's around. The plodding rhythm section - the crawling bass, rumbling drum kit action, constantly bordering on "too slow" - even adds to it and prepares for Iommi's soloing at the end - some of the best-constructed stuff he's come up with. The second half contains three corpulent behemoths and all three of 'em are pretty terrific. "Electric Funeral" with its "Black Sabbath"-styled atmosphere (and arguably only their second doom song) and kick-ass acceleration after 2:18; the multi-parted "Hand of Doom", which boasts one of Hall of Fame's classic headbangin' moments, are already pretty satisfying, but even better is album closer "Fairies Wear Boots," a song with an intro that contains almost as many shifts and changes as a deranged Ween-song, yet that manages to come off wholly convincing. And the riffing is really powerful, fist-pump inducing powerful! There's also the much-maligned atmospheric "Planet Atmosphere," often considered a throwaway song, but I actually like the melancholy vibe, simple percussion, jazzy guitar solo and Ozzy's altered vocals, which must've sounded unlike anything else at the time. I kept it short - there are only so many ways to describe a classic metal riff - but I'll repeat it once again: is Paranoid dated? Oh yes! Are some of its songs rather silly? Oh yes. Does it work? Bien sûr! More than three decades after its release, it's still satisfaction-guaranteed, invigorating and possible even more influential and lauded than ever before. 40 minutes, and at least 30 of it should be part of your breakfast if you're pretending to be your neighbourhood's metal man.

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Master of Reality (1971)

8.5

Sweet Leaf / After Forever / Embryo / Children of the Grave / Orchid / Lord of This World / Solitude / Into the Void

If Master of Reality is the heaviest album ever, then I must be a 57-year old tutu-wearing punk rocker called 'Leon' with connections to the Bush-family. If Master of Reality is the heaviest Black Sabbath album, then I must be a 57-year old tutu-wearing punk rocker called 'Leon' with connections to the Bush-family. Which is to say: that statement is a load of bollocks. Have you actually listened, endured with the volume cranked up? Like, blasting the thing? Have you been pinned to the wall by the deep, rumbling bass sounds and massive riffs of Black Sabbath at their peak? There's nothing on this album that comes even close - in terms of sheer heaviness and brute power - to, say, the intro to Paranoid's "Iron Man" or the fifth album's title track. Or several moments on Vol. 4, for that matter. Granted, the tone is deep and Iommi and Geezer did detune their guitar/bass and with the appropriate production it might have been a totally crushing assault of apocalyptic heaviness, but that's not what I'm hearing. The guitar tone is very uniform throughout the five (stingy bastards!) metal songs on this album and it does seem more of a homogenous work than the two previous albums, which probably kick-started the myth, but… heaviest album? Nah. That said, it of course packs more of a punch than most bands out there can imagine in their entire career, and it is deserving of its status as metal classic. I mean… it's no coincidence that an excellent band named itself after this album and that it's often regarded as the true predecessor to most stoner and doom bands. Units like Cathedral, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan and Electric Wizard must've played this sludgy beast to death and based an entire career on its trudging sonic monotony. Before it looks as if I don't like this album, let me assure you that it is one growling swine of an album and still one of the most crunching ones the world had heard in 1971. At 34 minutes it's short, but it's also extremely homogenous and devoid of annoying excess and sissy stuff that would wind up on many of their contemporaries' albums (!elpruP peeD, ouy ta gnikool m'I). Granted, "Embryo" (a 30 second instrumental) and "Orchid" (a cutesy medieval-tinged acoustic track of 90 seconds) are somewhat filler-ish, but they do a nice job of keeping the atmosphere of gothic doom intact, and boy, is this a dark album or what? "Sweet Leaf," introduced by a silly repeated cough (allegedly Iommi's) immediately can be considered as an indication of the entire album: simple songs, simple structures, muddy and rather slow. The Butthole Surfers would rape it to pieces (as "Sweet Loaf") on their illustrious Locust Abortion Technician and it's easy to understand why: it's grotesquely dumb and repetitive, although the middle part with the guitar solo and frantic drumming usually gets the energy-meter in the red. And just listen to Geezer's pumping bass. Actually, the rhythm section on this album would set a standard for so many stoner albums that even to this day, there are hundreds of bands around trying to mimick that particular style and sound. Many of them fail. Badly. And there's more in the way of prehistoric metal, just check out "Children of the Grave," A.K.A. "The Introduction to Headbanging," a song that was meant to break you neck, a mastodon with a riff that was copied by almost as many bands as there are metal bands. 4 Million. Pumping, repetitive (again), and even though many people seem to dislike Ward's overdubbed percussion, I think it's a nice touch that gives the song an extra combative and tribal dimension. A proto-Sepultura, if you will. Another favorite on this album is "Into the Void," arguably the album's most diverse and least dated song (musically speaking, since the lyrics only tell you they'd been eating too many mushrooms). Even though the first part progresses almost unbearably slow, as if it's gonna collapse under its own weight, it manages to conjure up a colossal aggression before Ozzy even chimes in. On top of the already terrific, skull-breaking riff, there's this acceleration halfway the song (and basically the only one on the album) that's basically pure speed-metal, with thunderous drumming, riffing and spit flying in all directions. No wonder so many bands (Soundgarden and Kyuss being the most notorious ones) tried whether they could master it. Again, only a few succeeded. The remaining two 'metal' songs are less imposing and more traditional fare, but we should never forget that these guys were the leaders, not followers. "After Forever" is another mid-tempo rocker with no variation whatsoever, and Ozzy whines as usual, but the intriguing thing about it, is the fact that the lyrics are… Christian ("Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say, if they knew you believe in God above, they should realize before they criticise that God is the only way to love")! Many people criticised doom dude Vic Griffin when he released a religiously-oriented music with Place of Skulls, but a few decades earlier, Black Sabbath - gory, evil, morally bereft Satanists - were concerned about your spiritual well-being and not whether you accepted Satan as your guide or not. "Lord of This World" could've been a song from the Paranoid-sessions, as its heaviness is somewhat different and the catchiness (can I use that word here? Can I, can I, can I?) would've fit nicely on the second album, which contains - do admit it - more instantly memorable songs. But hey, the cool thing about this album is that it's been my partner on quite a journey, from being totally amazed when I heard it the first time years ago, to being somewhat disappointed when I found out it's not that consistent and fantastic to, finally, the realization that most of it actually rocks like a rabies-elephant on the loose, and not even the average moody ballad of the day ("Solitude"), with an unrecognisable Ozzy (!), can change that. Get on your knees and bend, call its name and it'll hear you scream! Master! Master! TADAAAAAA!!!

Note: I was only kidding when I suggested it wasn't really heavy. It actually is! Just not that heavy.

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Vol. 4 (1972)

7.5

Wheels of Confusion / Tomorrows Dream / Changes / FX / Supernaut / Snowblind / Cornucopia / Laguna Sunrise / St. Vitus Dance / Under the Sun

Vol. 4 and me, we go way back. While I initially hated its all-over-the-place-character, I gradually learned to appreciate its awkward attempts at diversifying its sound, even though I still consider most of it failed crap on bad days. I guess there's just something about this album that you get or don't. It contains only one straightforward motherfucker of a song ("Supernaut"), yet several of the other songs are immensely heavy in their own way, or make sudden shifts from excruciating heaviness to unexpected, psychedelic-tinged song parts. A lot has been written about the band's substance use prior to and during the recording/release of the album (and both the vinyl and CD versions contain that rather stupid "We wish to thank the great COKE-Cola Company of Los Angeles"-line) and it certainly left its confused traces. Opener "Wheels of Confusion" is often regarded as the band's attempt to rival their prog-rock contemporaries, but I don't really get that statement, as the song is no real progression - technically speaking - compared to their previous material, and if you consider a song with a few different parts that mainly relies on a few accelerations and decelerations already a prog-rock song, you and I have different notions of what it constitutes. That said, it IS an attempt to get away from the monotonous sludge of Master of Reality. Perhaps the remarkable identity of the song is also derived from its second half (identified by my Real One Player as "The Straightener"), basically a three minute solo/groove that has nothing in common with the first part. On paper, "Tomorrow's Dream" sounds like, uh, a dream of a song, combining the muddy force of Master of Reality with the accessibility of Paranoid - and the result ends up being exactly what you expect, but for some reason I always considered this a mediocre attempt at creating something likeable (well, it was a single of course). And now that we're at it, I didn't get why the 1976 compilation We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll included this song, as well as "Snowblind" and "Changes," but blindly ignored "Supernaut," the opening track and "Under the Sun," which are ALL better songs. Anyway… the album definitely has its accessible moments, as also "St. Vitus Dance" constantly treads the thin line between swirling psychedelic rhythms and simple bludgeoning (which always does the job). The true gold, however, lies in the middle of the album, as "Supernaut" and "Snowblind" are probably my favorite tunes here. The first one boasts one of Iommi's truly classic riffs and has thing big, pumping drive, with Butler and Ward laying down an immense groove; the second is another one of those "difficult" rockers, although I don't know if there's anything special about a combination of dry, monotonous hard rock and a dose of melancholy. It works though, and that's what's important. So, there have already been straightforward rockers and multi-parted opuses, but that still doesn't explain why this album is regarded as a kind of doom classic. Well, the first thirty seconds of "Cornucopia" is the definition of doom: ultra-slow, ultra-muddy, ultra-heavy and ultra-dark. The fact that it soon transforms into another accessible slab of bulldozer-rock can be disregarded, those 30 seconds are what it's about. Also the final track, "Under the Sun," basically an anti-religious (and also anti-Satanic) song has the doom thing going, albeit in a less oppressive way: it chugs along at a steady pace and occasionally indulges in accelerations that are basically amped-up psychedelica. It's the massive and dramatic 3-minute fade-out ("Every Day Comes and Goes"), however, that lends the song its character and it's a small triumph. While only one or two of these 7 songs would stand as a true Sabbath classic in my book, there's hardly anything to dislike about 'em, if you can deal with the occasionally clumsy structures and vocals, that is. It's the oddball bonuses you get that make this album really interesting: there's "Laguna Sunrise," probably the prettiest instrumental Black Sabbath Mk. I ever came up with - its hypnotic combination of acoustic guitars and strings is simply pretty and recalls the almost otherworldly lushness of some of Led Zeppelin III; but there's also a totally useless "experiment" ("FX") that perhaps would've made sense on a Can-album, but not here. And then, ladies and gentlemen (the curtain is about to close), there's "Changes," a piano ballad. A bad one. Listen here, pal… if there's one thing a metal/hard rock band shouldn't do, it's write ballads. If you act tough and masculine, then don't back off with fake-ass sensitivity. I got one word for you: Slayer. Whereas 90% of all ballads flat-out suck anyway, this percentage is actually even higher in metal. They have no power (what's a "power ballad" anyway?), they usually lack the subtlety to do it convincingly and it's so godawful and cheesy every single time. Let Percy Sledge take care of ballads, let Al Green seduce you with a jar of vaseline, let Van Morrison urge you to thrust your crotch against your favorite man/woman/kitchen counter, but please… not Ozzy. Oh well: it doesn't make the other songs any worse, but it has quite often resulted in me taking the CD out of the CD-player after "Tomorrow's Dream," which is a goddamn shame.

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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

8

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath / A National Acrobat / Fluff / Sabbra Cadabra / Killing Yourself to Live / Who Are You / Looking for Today / Spiral Architect

Like all other Black Sabbath albums, their fifth one has an enormous potential to offend: it's got unnecessarily stretched songs, rips itself off, features Ozzy's awkward helium voice (it never was that bad before), boasts a pretty silly evil album cover (by Drew Struzan, who also designed the cover of Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare) and, last but not least, features a guest appearance by none other than the brother Rick Wakeman (Yes / interesting solo career) - if that ain't an omen. However, it still manages to overcome all these (potential) weaknesses on the strength of, uhm… the usual stuff: some excellent songs, sounds and riffs. While I'm usually a sucker for short songs that get to the point quickly and finish before they become tedious, the only two songs that are shorter than five minutes on this album are basically the main flaws. The appropriately titled instrumental "Fluff" sounds nice and cosy and all, with those acoustic guitars and a harpsichord that gives it a medieval tinge, but it's ultimately too fluffy. I must've heard it dozens of times, yet I can't remember how it goes and each time when I listen to it, it glides by unnoticeably. Ten of these, and you'll have a fine new age album, I guess. Something to fall asleep to, indeed. The other rotten tomato is the hopelessly outdated synth-rock of "Who Are You," on which Ozzy and Geezer (Wakeman even didn't have anything to do with this one, if I'm right) experiment with synths and a mellotron, and the results are - simply put - disastrous. Sabbath's sound has always been a corpulent one, a behemoth dragging itself along, but at least you had Iommi's massive riffs to retain the power. Replace guitars with spacey fake synths and what you get is a limp, forceless and overweight heap of nothingness. While the vocals aren't anything to speak of and the lyrics themselves are rather simplistic (yes, I'm being nice), it becomes even more trite because of the peculiar "anti-music". Fortunately, there's some good rockin' goin' on as well, not in the least when the opening track kicks off. "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" has everything to be a classic: it's heavy with a purpose (easily the most powerful on the album), has a remarkable alternation of trudging repetition and semi-acoustic breaks with folk/jazz touches (there's Led Zeppelin again!), but more importantly, its second half has what's quite possibly the most monumentally heavy and memorable Sabbath riff ever: when Iommi kicks in after 3:19, and Ozzy joins him with his piercing "Where did you run to?"-line… oh man, I can hardly describe what a blast that is. A bulldozer grind with helium vocals, who would've thought of it!? There's nothing that even comes close on the album, excitement-wise, but "A National Acrobat" must be one of the band's most underrated tracks, although one riff and Ozzy's vocal melody are almost exactly the same as those of the title track. It's a lighter and more accessible version of the band - coming closer to hard rock than metal - but it fits the more transparent appeal of the album, while the "happy" galloping ending leads up to a great, rumbling finale. Also songs like "Sabbra Cadabra" and "Killing Yourself to Live" are much easier to digest than anything that came before, the former because it's basically a bluesy boogie tune (although it features Rick Wakeman on piano and synths), but an acceptable one, and the latter because it announces the melodic sissy hard rock that would come later on. It's basically a silly outcast-story, but the chorus definitely has appeal, while those duelling, overdubbed guitar solos are particularly refreshing to hear on a Sabbath album. The album's last two songs are less impressive, but "Looking for Today" still stands as one of their most melodically pleasing songs up to that point. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is a bit of a divisive album, as its detractors consider it the beginning of the end, but despite its flaws and considerably less brutal power, it's still Sabbath in their prime, offering a pleasing combination of catchy heaviness and slightly peculiar, but oh so charming attempts at a certain elegance. Does that make sense? I KNEW IT DID!

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Sabotage (1975)

8

Hole in the Sky / Don't Start (Too Late) / Symptom of the Universe / Megalomania / Thrill of It All / Supertzar / Am I Going Insane (Radio) / The Writ

I can't help it, I just gotta say it… What's with the album cover? No, you silly, I'm not even talking about the band using the grosartige SS-font again, but about… the rest. Sabotage must have one of the most mind-boggling, even baffling, album covers of the 70's. I mean… what the fuck? They're standing in front of this big-ass mirror with reversed reflections. Is it related to the cosmic babble of the lyrics, is it the visual imagery of a failed introspection, is it pure nonsense, a meaningless gimmick? And what's with the clothing? Ozzy's wearing these horrible platform shoes (with zippers!) and a goddamn kimono! Iommi gets away pretty easily and cool, just sitting there, enjoying the view and his inner peace. But then… Bill Ward wears a leather jacket (rock!) and… red tights. RED TIGHTS! What is this? Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves? King Arthur & the Fool? The Royal Ballet of Moscow? I can't believe that red tights were cool in ANY decade. The race for the prize, however, is undoubtedly won by Geezer Butler, who not only looks like a French porn flic director, but also sports one of the classic hard-ons in rock history. And with the mirror, you get to see it TWICE! I already mentioned Steven Tyler's bulging crotch on the album cover of Get Your Wings, but Christ, Geezer beats 'em all. Not even Bon Scott, Rick James or Iggy Pop ever appeared on an album cover with a hard-on this explicit (correct me if I'm wrong), so this photo session must've taken place on a day when there simple weren't ANY limits. Just imagine you'd never heard Black Sabbath and someone showed you this photo. What would you think? Would you even consider these guys capable of making music? Music that you'd actually like? I wouldn't - not for all the money in the world. But you know what? I wanna have this album on vinyl someday, because it's good! Well, maybe that's the wrong term, like its predecessor it's quite a mess of an album, but ultimately it still stands as a worthwhile one, even if it's only because of

1. Hole in the Sky
2. Symptom of the Universe

… which are truly heavy metal classics. "Hole in the Sky" may lack the "evil" tone of early Black Sabbath, but boy does it have punch. It just grinds its way on and on, and it's not only Iommi's guitar that leaves an impression, but also the ridiculously heavy and lumbering rhythm section. "Symptom of the Universe" is, if possible, even more memorable, as it - along with "Children of the Grave" - could be seen as a pioneering song in modern heavy metal. It's the kind of lethally chugging riff that would inspire generations of thrash metal bands to come up with their own mid-tempo or sped-up variations on this deadly riff in the 80's. Like the opening track, it mainly works as a giant smack against the head, with the difference that it's actually a much more complex song, with a few nifty breaks, an incendiary guitar solo and a semi-acoustic ending with a Led Zeppelin-vibe that somehow succeeds in remaining quite tasteful. Funnily enough, some of Ozzy's vocals (those manipulated repetitions) are also somewhat reminiscent of Plant's (who actually repeated himself). I've always thought that "Megalomania"s intro (3+ minutes) was a bit too extended, but the main riff that kicks in after a while delivers some more guilty pleasure fun. Unfortunately, the second album half is much less interesting. No wait, it's even more "interesting", it's just not that successful. If "Thrill of It All" would've been a bit darker and didn't feature those silly synths, then it would've fitted nicely on any of the first two albums, but this time's around, the band manages to come up with something you might call "pop-metal." And that's where Sabotage ends being somewhat of a minor metal classic, as the indulgence of "Supertzar" juxtaposes metallic riffs with CHOIR CHANTS, making it useful for some visually stunning Spartacus-tribute, but not for a heavy metal album; and "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" is a rather silly attempt at a crossover hit, which ends up being the album's biggest shit stain (and God, is that chorus hideously annoying or what?). Finally, there's the extended drag of "The Writ," which may be fine if you're a 70 year-old headbanger, but for me it's too slow, too meandering, and Ozzy's hysteric vocals ("You-hou-hou-hou") only strengthen this impression. Sabotage is a fucking weird album. The song order doesn't make sense, sometimes the sound doesn't make sense (and Ozzy's vocals are way too loud in the mix), hell… even some of the songs don't make any sense, yet it has a certain appeal about it… just like the rants and ramblings of the nutty ones you often encounter talking to themselves on the street suggest a meaningfulness and deeper wisdom that isn't really there. But hey, albums like these should be treasured, especially when they're coming in artwork this memorable. Oh yeah, it's often said that this was their last worthwhile album before things started to go downhill. Well, it's true and they'd never fully recover.

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We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll (1976)

7.5

Black Sabbath / The Wizard / Warning / Paranoid / War Pigs / Iron Man / Tomorrow's Dream / Fairies Wear Boots / Changes / Sweet Leaf / Children of the Grave / Sabbath Bloody Sabbath / Am I Going Insane (Radio) / Laguna Sunrise / Snowblind / N.I.B.

Somebody at Warner must've felt the band's glory days were over after they'd released Sabotage and that it called for a compilation of the "classic" era (1970-'76). Up to that point, the band hadn't released one single album that was less than satisfying (really!), but all of them, including their peak Paranoid, contained questionable and even bad stuff, so it's no surprise this compilation isn't the most consistent one on the market. The inclusion of weaker material is no problem in itself, but it does become one when it's at the expense of quality material. It's understandable that four songs were picked from the first two albums (and all four songs from the second album are simply fantastic), and I even won't nag about the inclusion of a mere two songs from sludgefeast Master of Reality, but why the hell would you include "Changes" and the mediocre "Tomorrow's Dream" when there's also "Supernaut" on Vol. 4? Since only its title-track is included here, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is under-represented (the accessible "Killing Yourself to Live" would have been great), but the compilation's main flaw arrives when you realise what they picked from Sabotage…. Only "AM I GOING INSANE (RADIO)"!!! I mean… what's up, man? That album - tacky though it may be - includes "Hole in the Sky" and "Symptom of the Universe," definitive Sabbath songs that even should've been here if it had been a 10 song-compilation. So yeah, they sold their soul for rock 'n' roll. And a few pansy blunders like "Changes" and that radio song.

Read album reviews of similar or related artists: Rollins Band - Kyuss

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