BLACK SABBATH: "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"

Original released on LP WWA 005

(UK 1973, December 1)

With 1973's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", heavy metal godfathers Black Sabbath made a concerted effort to prove their remaining critics wrong by raising their creative stakes and dispensing unprecedented attention to the album's production standards, arrangements, and even the cover artwork. As a result, bold new efforts like the timeless title track, "A National Acrobat," and "Killing Yourself to Live" positively glistened with a newfound level of finesse and maturity, while remaining largely faithful, aesthetically speaking, to the band's signature compositional style. In fact, their sheer songwriting excellence may even have helped to ease the transition for suspicious older fans left yearning for the rough-hewn, brute strength that had made recent triumphs like "Master of Reality" and "Vol. 4" (really, all their previous albums) such undeniable forces of nature. But thanks to "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"'s nearly flawless execution, even a more adventurous experiment like the string-laden "Spiral Architect," with its tasteful background orchestration, managed to sound surprisingly natural, and in the dreamy instrumental "Fluff," Tony Iommi scored his first truly memorable solo piece. If anything, only the group's at times heavy-handed adoption of synthesizers met with inconsistent consequences, with erstwhile Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman bringing only good things to the memorable "Sabbra Cadabra" (who know he was such a great boogie-woogie pianist?), while the robotically dull "Who Are You" definitely suffered from synthesizer novelty overkill. All things considered, though, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was arguably Black Sabbath's fifth masterpiece in four years, and remains an essential item in any heavy metal collection. (Eduardo Rivadavia in AllMusic)

BLACK SABBATH: EP "Paranoid"

Original released on EP Vertigo 6276003
(PORTUGAL, 1970)

BLACK SABBATH 4th Album

Original released on LP Vertigo 6360 071

(UK 1972, September 25)

"Vol. 4" is the point in Black Sabbath's career where the band's legendary drug consumption really starts to make itself felt. And it isn't just in the lyrics, most of which are about the blurry line between reality and illusion. "Vol. 4" has all the messiness of a heavy metal "Exile on Main St.", and if it lacks that album's overall diversity, it does find Sabbath at their most musically varied, pushing to experiment amidst the drug-addled murk. As a result, there are some puzzling choices made here (not least of which is the inclusion of "FX"), and the album often contradicts itself. Ozzy Osbourne's wail is becoming more powerful here, taking greater independence from Tony Iommi's guitar riffs, yet his vocals are processed into a nearly textural element on much of side two. Parts of "Vol. 4" are as ultra-heavy as "Master of Reality", yet the band also takes its most blatant shots at accessibility to date - and then undercuts that very intent. The effectively concise "Tomorrow's Dream" has a chorus that could almost be called radio-ready, were it not for the fact that it only appears once in the entire song. "St. Vitus Dance" is surprisingly upbeat, yet the distant-sounding vocals don't really register. The notorious piano-and-Mellotron ballad "Changes" ultimately fails not because of its change-of-pace mood, but more for a raft of the most horrendously clichéd rhymes this side of "moon-June." Even the crushing "Supernaut" - perhaps the heaviest single track in the Sabbath catalog - sticks a funky, almost danceable acoustic breakdown smack in the middle. 

Besides "Supernaut," the core of "Vol. 4" lies in the midtempo cocaine ode "Snowblind," which was originally slated to be the album's title track until the record company got cold feet, and the multi-sectioned prog-leaning opener, "Wheels of Confusion." The latter is one of Iommi's most complex and impressive compositions, varying not only riffs but textures throughout its eight minutes. Many doom and stoner metal aficionados prize the second side of the album, where Osbourne's vocals gradually fade further and further away into the murk, and Iommi's guitar assumes center stage. The underrated "Cornucopia" strikes a better balance of those elements, but by the time "Under the Sun" closes the album, the lyrics are mostly lost under a mountain of memorable, contrasting riffery. Add all of this up, and "Vol. 4" is a less cohesive effort than its two immediate predecessors, but is all the more fascinating for it. Die-hard fans sick of the standards come here next, and some end up counting this as their favorite Sabbath record for its eccentricities and for its embodiment of the band's excesses. (Steve Huey in AllMusic)

WALLPAPER: "Heaven and Hell"

BLACK SABBATH: "Master Of Reality"

Original released on LP Vertigo 6360 050

(UK 1971, July 21)

After the big success of "Paranoid" Black Sabbath was on tour for almost a year, they spent almost every day together and hadn’t have many days off in 1970 and 1971. In January the band started to record a new album and because the previous album was a big success the record company agreed to spend more money on Black Sabbath’s third studio album. For example the band could use a 24-track board, whereas "Paranoid" was done with an eight-track board. The band also needed more times in the studio to put the album together but they were working hard, according to drummer Bill Ward “Master of Reality” was the band’s peak and they worked the hardest they ever did. The band also decided to change some things: Tony Iommi tuned his guitar down because he liked the heavy sound of a down tuned guitar but the down tuning made it easier for him to play the guitar: The down tuned guitar had reduced string tension and this made it less painful for Iommi, who had two of his fingers partially severed in a working accident some years earlier.

Geezer Butler also tuned his bass down, so that his bass playing fitted to Iommi’s guitar. And the band also slowed things a little bit down and these changes resulted in a heavier sound; “Master of Reality” is probably the heaviest Sabbath album of all times. The album was a success, not as successful as “Paranoid” but it was also a very influential record for later bands. Many metal musicians mention this album as a big influence and it was also the blueprint for a metal genre called Doom Metal, even though many fans will disagree with me. The album’s best songs are the riff monster “Children of the Grave”, probably the heaviest song ever in 1971, the final “Into the Void” and the opening “Sweet Leaf”. Also “Lord of this World” and “After Forever” are very heavy and also good songs. “Orchid” and “Embryo” are short instrumental interludes and together with the slow psychedelic “Solitude” they are a nice contrast to the five remaining songs, which are, as I said really heavy. (in RateYourMusic)

WALLPAPER: "Black Sabbath"

WALLPAPER: "Black Sabbath"

"Happiness I Cannot Feel..."

 Original released on LP Vertigo 6360 011

(UK 1970, September 18)

"Paranoid" was not only Black Sabbath's most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. "Paranoid" refined Black Sabbath's signature sound - crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock - and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on "Paranoid" have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like "War Pigs" and "Iron Man" (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect - the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne's vocals and Tony Iommi's lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, "Paranoid" defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history. (Steve Huey in AllMusic)

BLACK SABBATH Debut Album

Original released on LP Vertigo VO 6 847-903 VTY

(UK 1970, February 13)

Black Sabbath's debut album is the birth of heavy metal as we now know it. Compatriots like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were already setting new standards for volume and heaviness in the realms of psychedelia, blues-rock, and prog rock. Yet of these metal pioneers, Sabbath are the only one whose sound today remains instantly recognizable as heavy metal, even after decades of evolution in the genre. Circumstance certainly played some role in the birth of this musical revolution - the sonic ugliness reflecting the bleak industrial nightmare of Birmingham; guitarist Tony Iommi's loss of two fingertips, which required him to play slower and to slacken the strings by tuning his guitar down, thus creating Sabbath's signature style. These qualities set the band apart, but they weren't wholly why this debut album transcends its clear roots in blues-rock and psychedelia to become something more. Sabbath's genius was finding the hidden malevolence in the blues, and then bludgeoning the listener over the head with it. Take the legendary album-opening title cut. The standard pentatonic blues scale always added the tritone, or flatted fifth, as the so-called "blues note"; Sabbath simply extracted it and came up with one of the simplest yet most definitive heavy metal riffs of all time. Thematically, most of heavy metal's great lyrical obsessions are not only here, they're all crammed onto side one. "Black Sabbath," "The Wizard," "Behind the Wall of Sleep," and "N.I.B." evoke visions of evil, paganism, and the occult as filtered through horror films and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, and Dennis Wheatley.

Even if the album ended here, it would still be essential listening. Unfortunately, much of side two is given over to loose blues-rock jamming learned through Cream, which plays squarely into the band's limitations. For all his stylistic innovations and strengths as a composer, Iommi isn't a hugely accomplished soloist. By the end of the murky, meandering, ten-minute cover of the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation's "Warning," you can already hear him recycling some of the same simple blues licks he used on side one (plus, the word "warn" never even appears in the song, because Ozzy Osbourne misheard the original lyrics). (The British release included another cover, a version of Crow's "Evil Woman" (presented here as a bonus track) that doesn't quite pack the muscle of the band's originals; the American version substituted "Wicked World," which is much preferred by fans.) But even if the seams are still showing on this quickly recorded document, Black Sabbath is nonetheless a revolutionary debut whose distinctive ideas merely await a bit more focus and development. Henceforth Black Sabbath would forge ahead with a vision that was wholly theirs. The sleeve was designed and photographed by Keef Macmillan: the ghostly figure standing, dressed in black robes, was an actress hired by Vertigo Records. She may not represent death but must have done a good job of unsettling the more pharmaceutically affected Sabbath fans, particularly as the album was released on a Friday 13. Look closely and - supposedly - she's holding a black cat. The mill went on to be used in the 1976 film The Eagle Has Landed.

DISCOGRAPHY

Formed August 9, 1969, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom

Disbanded March 7, 2017

Tony Iommi (born 1948): guitar, flute

Ozzy Osbourne (born 1948): vocals (1969-1977; 1978-1979; 1997-2017)

Geezer Butler (born 1949): bass (1969-1984; 1987; 1990-1994; 1997-2017)

Bill Ward (born 1948): vocals, drums (1969-1980; 1984-1984; 1994; 1997-2012)

Dave Walker (born 1945): vocals (1977-1978)

Craig Gruber (born 1951 > died 2015): bass (1979)

Geoff Nicholls (born 1948 > died 2017): keyboards, guitar, bass, vocals (1979-2004)

Ronnie James Dio (born 1942 > died 2010): vocals (1979-1982; 1991-1992)

Vinny Appice (born 1957): drums (1980-1982; 1991-1992; 1998-1999)

Ian Gillan (born 1945): vocals (1983-1984)

Bev Bevan (born 1945): drums (1983-1984; 1987)

David ‘Donut’ Donato: vocals (1984)

Ron Keel (born 1961): vocals (1984)

Gordon Copley: bass (1985)

Glenn Hughes (born 1951): vocals (1985-1986)

Dave ‘The Beast’ Spitz (born 1958): bass (1985-1987)

Eric Singer (born 1958): drums (1985-1988)

Ray Gillen (born 1959 > died 1993): vocals (1986-1987)

Bob Daisley (born 1950): bass (1986-1988)

Tony Martin (born 1957): vocals (1987-1991; 1993-1996)

Laurence Cottle (born 1961): bass (1988-1989)

Cozy Powell (born 1947 > died 1998): drums(1988-1990; 1994-1995)

Neil Murray (born 1942 > died 2010): bass (1989-1990; 1994-1996)

Bobby Rondinelli (born 1955): drums (1993-1995)

1970-01-09 Sg (US Fontana TF 1067): A. Evil Woman; B. Wicked World

1970-02-13 LP BLACK SABBATH (UK Vertigo VO6.847.903.VTY): A1. Black Sabbath; A2. The Wizard; A3. Behind the Wall of Sleep; A4. N.I.B.; B1. Evil Woman; B2. Sleeping Village; B3. Warning

1970-08-07 Sg (UK Vertigo 6059.010): A. Paranoid; B. The Wizard

1970-09-18 LP PARANOID (UK Vertigo 6360.011): A1. War Pigs; A2. Paranoid; A3. Planet Caravan; A4. Iron Man; B1. Electric Funeral; B2. Hand of Doom; B3. Rat Salad; B4. Fairies Wear Boots

1971 Sg (UK Phonogram DJ 005): A. Children of the Grave; B. (Status Quo) Roadhouse Blues

1971-07-21 LP MASTER OF REALITY (UK Vertigo 6360.050): A1. Sweet Leaf; A2. After Forever; A3. Embryo; A4. Children of the Grave; B1. Orchid; B2. Lord of This World; B3. Solitude; B4. Into the Void

1972-09-25 LP VOL 4 (UK Vertigo 6360.071): A1. Wheels of Confusion; A2. Tomorrow’s Dream; A3. Changes; A4. FX; A5. Supernaut; B1. Snowblind; B2. Cornucopia; B3. Laguna Sunrise; B4. St. Vitus Dance; B5. Under the Sun

1972-09 Sg (UK Vertigo 6059.061): A. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath; B. Changes

1973-12-28 LP SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH (UK Vertigo 6366.101): A1. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath; A2. A National Acrobat; A3. Fluff; A4. Sabbra Cadabra; B1. Killing Yourself to Live; B2. Who Are You; B3. Looking for Today; B4. Spiral Architect

1975-07-28 LP SABOTAGE (US Warner Bros BS 2822): A1. Hole in the Sky; A2. Don’t Start (Too Late); A3. Symptom of the Universe; A4. Megalomania; B1. The Thrill of It All; B2. Supertzar; B3. Am I Going Insane (Radio); B4. The Writ

1976-09-25 LP TECHNICAL ECSTASY (US Warner Bros BS 2969): A1. Black Street Kids; A2. You Won’t Change Me; A3. It’s Alright; A4. Gypsy; B1. All Moving Parts (Stand Still); B2. Rock ‘n’ Roll Doctor; B3. She’s Gone; B4. Dirty Women

1978-09-28 LP NEVER SAY DIE! (US Warner Bros BSK 3186): A1. Never Say Die; A2. Johnny Blade; A3. Junior’s Eyes; A4. A Hard Road; B1. Shock Wave; B2. Air Dance; B3. Over to You; B4. Breakout; B5. Swinging the Chain

1980-04-25 LP HEAVEN AND HELL (UK Vertigo 9102.752): A1. Neon Knights; A2. Children of the Sea; A3. Lady Evil; A4. Heaven and Hell; B1. Wishing Well; B2. Die Young; B3. Walk Away; B4. Lonely Is the Word

1980-08 LP LIVE AT LAST (GER NEMS BS 001): A1. Tomorrow’s Dream; A2. Sweet Leaf; A3. Killing Yourself to Live; A4. Cornucopia; A5. Snowblind; A6. Children of the Grave; B1. War Pigs; B2. Wicked World; B3. Paranoid

1981-11-10 LP MOB RULES (US Warner Bros BSK 3605): A1. Turn Up the Night; A2. Voodoo; A3. The Sign of the Southern Cross; A4. E5150; A5. The Mob Rules; B1. Country Girl; B2. Slipping Away; B3. Falling Off the Edge of the World; B4. Over and Over

1982-12-01 LP LIVE EVIL (US Warner Bros 9 23742-1): A1. E5150; A2. Neon Knights; A3. N.I.B.; A4. Children of the Sea; A5. Voodoo; B1. Black Sabbath; B2. War Pigs; B3. Iron Man; C1. The Mob Rules; C2. Heaven and Hell; D1. The Sign of the Southern Cross-Heaven and Hell (continued); D2. Paranoid; D3. Children of the Grave; D4. Fluff

1983-08-07 LP BORN AGAIN (US Warner Bros 1-23978): A1. Trashed; A2. Stonehenge; A3. Disturbing the Priest; A4. The Dark; A5. Zero the Hero; B1. Digital Bitch; B2. Born Again; B3. Hot Line; B4. Keep It Warm

1986-01-28 LP SEVENTH STAR (US Warner Bros 9 25337-1): A1. In for the Kill; A2. No Stranger to Love; A3. Turn to Stone; A4. Sphinx (The Guardian); A5. Seventh Star; B1. Danger Zone; B2. Heart Like a Wheel; B3. Anfry Heart; B4. In Memory

1987-12-08 LP THE ETERNAL IDOL (US Warner Bros 9 25548-1): A1. The Shinning; A2. Ancient Warrior; A3. Hard Life to Love; A4. Glory Ride; B1. Born to Lose; B2. Nightmare; B3. Scarlet Pimpernel; B4. Lost Forever; B5. Eternal Idol

1989-04-01 LP HEADLESS CROSS (UK I.R.S. EIRSA 1002): A1. The Gates of Hell; A2. Headless Cross; A3. Devil and Daughter; A4. When Death Calls; B1. Kill in the Spirit World; B2. Call of the Wild; B3. Black Moon; B4. Nightwing

1990-08-20 CD TYR (UK I.R.S. EIRSACD 1038): 1. Anno Mundi; 2. The Law Maker; 3. Jerusalem; 4. The Sabbath Stones; 5. The Battle of Tyr; 6. Odin’s Court; 7. Valhalla; 8. Feels Good to Me; 9. Heaven in Black

1992-06-30 CD DEHUMANIZER (US Reprise 9 26965-2): 1. Computer God; 2. After All (The Dead); 3. TV Crimes; 4. Letters From Earth; 5. Master of Insanity; 6. Time Machine; 7. Sins of the Father; 8. Too Late; 9. I; 10. Buried Alive; 11. Time Machine (Wayne’s World Version)

1994-01-31 CD CROSS PURPOSES (UK I.R.S. EIRSCD 1067): 1. I Witness; 2. Cross of Thornes; 3. Psychophobia; 4. Virtual Death; 5. Immaculate Deception; 6. Dying for Love; 7. Back to Eden; 8. The Hand That Rcks the Cradle 9. Cardinal Sin; 10. Evil Eye

1905-03-01 CD CROSS PURPOSES: LIVE (UK I.R.S. 7243.4.91314.3.9): 1. Time Machine; 2. Children of the Grave; 3. I Witness; 4. Into the Void; 5. Black Sabbath; 6. Psychophobia; 7. The Wizard; 8. Cross of Thorns; 9. Symptom of the Universe; 10. Headless Cross; 11. Paranoid; 12. Iron Man; Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

1995-06-08 CD FORBIDDEN (UK I.R.S. EIRCD 1027): 1. The Illusion of Power (Ice-T); 2. Get a Grip; 3. Can’t Get Close Enough; 4. Shaking Off the Chains; 5. I Won’t Cry for You; 6. Guilty as Hell; 7. Sick and Tired; 8. Rusty Angels; 9. Forbidden; 10. Kiss of Death

1998-10-19 CD REUNION (LIVE) (UK Epic 491954-9): 1.1. War Pigs; 1.2. Behind the Wall of Sleep; 1.3. N.I.B.; 1.4. Fairies Wear Boots; 1.5. Electric Funeral; 1.6. Sweet Leaf; 1.7. Spiral Arctitect; 1.8 Into the Void; 1.9. Snowblind; 2.1. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath; 2.2. Orchhid-Lord of the World; 2.3. Dirty Women; 2.4. Black Sabbath; 2.5. Iron Mad; 2.6. Children of the Grave; 2.7. Paranoid; 2.8. Psycho Man (new studio recording); 2.9. Selling My Soul (new studio recording)

2002-08-20 CD PAST LIVES (Archival) (US Sanctuary 06076-84561-2): 1.1. Tomorrow’s Dream; 1.2. Sweet Leaf; 1.3. Killing Yourself to Live; 1.4. Cornucopia; 1.5. Snowblind; 1.6. Children of the Grave; 1.7. War Pigs; 1.8. Wicked World; 1.9. Paranoid; 2.1 Hand of Doom; 2.2. Hole in the Sky; 2.3. Symptom of the Universe; 2.4. Megalomania; 2.5. Iron Man; 2.6. Black Sabbath; 2.7. N.I.B.; 2.8. Behind the Wall of Sleep; 2.9. Fairies Wear Boots

2007-05-01 CD LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH ODEON (US Rhino Handmade RHM2 07735): 1. E5150; 2. Neon Knights; 3. N.I.B.; 4. Children of the Sea; 5. Country Girl; 6. Black Sabbath; 7. War Pigs; 8. Slipping Away; 9. Iron Man; 10. The Mob Rules; 11. Heaven and Hell; 12. Paranoid; 13. Voodoo; 14. Children of the Grave

2013-06-10 CD 13 (UK Vertigo 3735426): 1. End of the Beginning; 2. God Is Dead?; 3. Loner; 4. Zeitgeist; 5. Age of Reason; 6. Live Forever; 7. Damaged Soul; 8. Dear Father

2017-11-17 CD THE END: 4 FEBRUARY 2017 BIRMINGHAM (UK Eagle EREDV 1292): 1.1. Black Sabbath; 1.2. Fairies Wear Boots; 1.3. Under the Sun-Every Day Comes and Goes; 1.4. After Forever; 1.5. Into the Void; 1.6. Snowblind; 1.7. Band Introductions; 1.8. War Pigs; 1.9. Behind the Wall of Sleep; 2.1. Bassically-N.I.B.; 2.2. Hand of Doom; 2.3. Supernaut-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath-Megalomania; 2.4. Rat Salad-Drum Solo; 2.5. Iron Man; 2.6. Dirty Women; 2.7. Children of the Grave; 2.8. Paranoid; The Angelic Sessions: 3.1. The Wizard; 3.2. Wicked World; 3.3. Sweet Leaf; 3.4. Tomorrow’s Dream; 3.5. Changes