Album Of The Week: Black Sabbath

As this album has caused a collectors frenzy recently (due to a vinyl reissue that sold out within hours), it reminded me that this album deserves not only ‘album of the week’ accolades, but that of ‘Album Of A Lifetime’.

There’s so many facets of this album that are fascinating. It essentially was the birth of heavy metal. It’s the blueprint for doom metal/ stoner rock. It was recorded live in the studio with minimal overdubs in approximately 12 hours. Simply calling it heavy metal is too limiting, yet still accurate. The obvious blues base is sprinkled with psychedelia and jazz. The jazz element (thanks to Bill Ward’s incredible drumming that swings no matter how slowly they were playing) is what has always set Sab apart from their peers. While other rock drummers have shown jazz influences, they also had a tendency to overplay. Bill Ward never did, and he also has stated in numerous interviews how he played to/ with the song and lyrics. In layman’s terms: Black Sabbath grooves like a mthrfkr thanks to Bill Ward.

Tony Iommi- who overcame the partial loss of fingers that would stop most from even trying to continue playing guitar- is somehow menacing yet comforting in his non stop riffing and glorious solos. His tone is massive, yet clear and powerful. Geezer Butler is the epitome of a solid and earth shaking bass player, and a brilliant lyricist to boot. Then there’s Ozzy; still singing in his low range here, he shows just how unique he is immediately. His vocals are emotive, full of drama, and technically incredible. His wide range doesn’t get mentioned as often as it should. These guys are all masters, and their relentless early gigging combined with pure chemistry shows off how accomplished (yet humble) they were as a band.

The self titled opening track is one of the most stunning rock songs ever recorded, and they took the ‘devils interval’ tritone to a place that truly does sound evil. While Jimi Hendrix used the tritone very effectively to evoke the uneasiness of the psychedelic experience (the intro to ‘Purple Haze’), Sabbath’s slow and deliberate use is frightening and evocative. The song builds into a frenzy, with an ending that builds and rises until it comes across as a goddamn heavy metal symphony.

‘The Wizard’ manages to be brutally heavy yet as catchy as any pop hit. Ozzy also shows his harmonica prowess to great effect. ‘N.I.B’ bizarrely and effectively tells a tale that with love, even ol’ Lucifer himself can be a better person.

Side two begins with a discrepancy; the UK issue kicks off with the uncharacteristic cover of Crow’s ‘Evil Woman’; recorded at the insistence of the bands management in hopes of a pop hit. It doesn’t really work, but it’s still kinda intriguing. Warner Bros, in the US, was wise to drop that song and replace it with the outstanding, jazzy ‘Wicked World’. Aargh! That means I have to have a UK copy for its sound quality (and undeniable cool factor) and one from the US! The US original sounds amazing, too, and all reports indicate that the new Rhino Hi-Fi issue is amazing as well. Sadly, it sold out immediately. Hopefully it gets repressed. The epic length journey that is ‘Warning’ ( a cover of a song originally cut by the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation) showcases a beautiful solo from Tony Iommi that has a luscious gigantic reverb wash and brings the album to a powerful peak with more phenomneal vocals from Ozzy.

I have a long history with this one; when I was a little kid, I remember the sight of the cover (a well worn copy that was passed on to me by either my mom or uncle) gave me both stomach aches and a few nightmares, but I couldn’t stop being fascinated by it. As I started heavily researching music during my teen years (devouring every music book and piece of microfiche at my local library), I was dismayed to see how this album (and Black Sabbath in general) had been historically dismissed by critics. Even Lester Bangs trash talked this record. Reading this nonsense was a watershed moment for me; one where I knew that I had to rely on my ears (plus heart and soul) to tell me what was great; not the words of some proto-edgelord. I’m reminded of those words every time I listen to this album and marvel at how music just doesn’t get any better than this.