The Black Sabbath album by album thread (1970-2013)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by GodShifter, Jul 20, 2013.

  1. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    So, after some thinking, I decided to go ahead and do a full Black Sabbath album by album thread as the previous one here on SHMF.tv only included Ozzy material as well as a bit of the Dio era. My intention is to cover Black Sabbath's entire discography including live albums, compilations, and videos. Obviously, some of the reviews will be more detailed than others and people's interest will vary upon subject matter so your mileage may vary on this thread. Nevertheless, I think it will be a fun exercise and I hope people will be into discussing these albums and projects.

    Below is what I've deemed to be the releases to be discussed here. Obviously, if anyone wants to suggest other projects that pertain to the thread, feel free, but I really would like to stay away from Ozzy Osbourne's solo work as that could, easily, be a thread unto itself (and perhaps it's been done anyway, I didn't look). But if one wants to include Iommi's solo albums, Geezer's work with GZR and Geezer and Bill Ward's two solo albums, that's fine with me.

    So here's the what I'm looking at:

    Albums (studio, live, and compilations)

    Black Sabbath (1970)
    Paranoid (197o)
    Master of Reality (1971)
    Vol. 4 (1972)
    Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
    Sabotage (1975)
    Technical Ecstasy (1976)
    We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll (1976)
    Never Say Die! (1978)
    Heaven and Hell (1980)
    Live at Last (1980)
    Mob Rules (1981)
    Live Evil (1982)
    Born Again (1983)
    Seventh Star (1986)
    The Eternal Idol (1987)
    Headless Cross (1989)
    Tyr (1990)
    Dehumanizer (1992)
    Cross Purposes (1994)
    Forbidden (1995)
    Cross Purposes Live (1995)
    The Sabbath Stones (1996)
    Reunion (1998)
    The Best of Black Sabbath (2000)
    Past Lives (2002)
    Symptom of the Universe: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978) (2004)
    Greatest Hits 1970-1978 (2006)
    Live at Hammersmith Odeon (2007)
    Black Sabbath: The Dio Years (2007)
    Live from Radio City Music Hall (2007) (as Heaven and Hell)
    The Rules of Hell (2008)
    Greatest Hits (2009)
    The Devil You Know (2009) (as Heaven and Hell)
    Iron Man: The Best of Black Sabbath (2012)
    13 (2013)

    Videos:

    Never Say Die (1978)
    Black and Blue (1980)
    The Black Sabbath Story, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (1992)
    Cross Purposes Live (1995)
    The Last Supper (1999)


     
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  2. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    BLACK SABBATH - Black Sabbath (1970)

    [​IMG]



    Released February 13, 1970

    Black Sabbath
    The Wizard
    Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B.
    Wicked World (on US version)
    A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning
    Evil Woman (on UK version)

    Personnel:

    Ozzy "Ossie" Osbourne: Vocals, harmonica
    Tony Iommi: Guitars
    Geezer Butler: Bass Guitar
    Bill Ward: Drums

    Produced by Rodger Bain
    Engineered by Tom Allom

    The album that most believed spawned the genre of heavy metal. Fusing dark themes, blues, rock, jazz, and with an undeniable eeriness, Black Sabbath recorded in one day what remains to the present time a truly classic album. Influenced by jazz, blues, and rock (The Yardbirds, in particular) the self titled debut remains of the greatest albums known to heavy metal and hard rock fans around the world.

    Though the band had only recently changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath in 1969 (from the Boris Karloff movie of the same name) to avoid confusion with another band named Earth, the band had been gigging around England for a long enough period of time that there was significant interest (due in part to the support of DJ John Peel) in the band recording an album. After the band had appeared on the music show Top Gear in November of 1969, and due to the popularity of a few demos that were floating around ("The Rebel" being one) the label Vertigo decided there was enough buzz about this Birmingham outfit that they green lighted the group to record an album (the debut cataloged as VO 6). Black Sabbath were given exactly two days to record and mix the entire album. At the time, the band felt like that was an enormous amount of time in that they could record in one day and mix the album on the remaining one (little did they know that acts like Led Zeppelin were given a full week to record back then!)

    The band set up the equipment in a room no bigger than a small living room, playing live with only vocalist Ozzy Osbourne separated in a booth from the rest of the group. Essentially, the band played what was their live set with an additional cover song from The Crows, "Evil Woman", being recommended by then manager, Jim Simpson, as he felt the band needed something "more commercial" (The US version of the album would include the track, "Wicked World" in place of "Evil Woman"). Producer Rodger Bain and engineer Tom Allom were selected to work with the band by the label and, thusly, had no prior knowledge of the band whatsoever, so they were unfamiliar with the band's set up or how they were supposed to sound. Through what was, essentially, trial and error, with miking this and that, the producer, engineer, and band worked to try and replicate the band's live sound in the studio. Though the production element claimed the guitar sound was "too distorted", Tony Iommi, in particular, claimed it was supposed to sound that way and when integrated into the full band, it would sound the way the band wanted it to. In truth, both Bain and Allom were fairly new to the recording business, so they were practically as inexperienced as Black Sabbath in terms of the process of recording an album. Nevertheless, the parties worked well enough together to produced what is now known as a seminal piece of the heavy metal puzzle in the debut of Black Sabbath (1970).

    Leading off the album is the classic tune "Black Sabbath" with its tritone interval riff that, according to Iommi, was once outlawed in medieval times due to its dark tone and was once called "The Devil's Interval". What the riff is a three note progression with a low G then going up an octave and then landing on a dissonant sounding C# which gives the riff its odd, off-kilter feel. Iommi claims he has no idea where the impetus of the riff came from, it just felt right. What is certain, of course, is that it's a dramatic opening riff and coupled with the bell and the thunder storm effects, gives the listener a very early indication that this record is going to be a dark, sinister affair. Accompanied by Ozzy's moaning, tension filled vocal, it really strikes a chord. The song goes from understated sections with drummer Bill Ward doing tom fills underneath Ozzy's vocal into full blown barre chord stanzas with bass player Geezer Butler accentuating the riff with Iommi. After a solo Iommi figure the song then descends into a G# to F# to F to E pattern while Iommi solos over it on the left channel with a heavy dose of wah providing a menacing, unbalanced like tone on the right channel with Ozzy screaming "Oh, God! No! Please, no!The descending pattern is really something akin to Zeppelin's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" if you listen to it. It's the same pattern but a half step down. " The song winds up with a crunching, off-timed riff and the song is over like that. Note: the bell and rain effects were, in fact, Rodger Bain and Tom Allom's idea and the band thought it great and added ambience to the tune. (As a kid, this tune scared the crap out of me when I first heard it and, to some extent, it still has an effect on me to this day).

    The second, "The Wizard", leads off with a whining harmonica riff for three measures after which the full band comes in and mimics for four more measures. After a short Iommi solo with Ward's toms rolling underneath, the band then comes back in and then heads into the verse with an A to A# riff with Geezer Butler doing a cool octave run to vary it a bit. "The Wizard" is propelled by Ward's jazzy fills and swinging drum rhythms and Ozzy's energetic vocal. It's Ward, though, that really makes the song with his imaginative use of cymbals, snare hits, and small bit of cowbell. Though the "The Wizard", structurally, is a fairly simple song, it's hard hitting and really makes an impression on the listener. It could be argued that "The Wizard" is the first real proto-metal tune on the record with it's odd, non blues based riff and it's tight, punching riffs, but the same could be said of the opener, so we'll leave that to conjecture.

    Segueing from "The Wizard" is the suite of "Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B" which does a ton of different things within its nine minute and forty five minute running time. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is highlighted by Ozzy's creepy sounding vocals and a jazzy groove from the band that varies from kind of a swing figure into a riff break down and then is brought back into the main riff by Ward's pounding, bouncy drum lines. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" fades out into a distorted bass solo from Geezer Butler known as "Bassically" where he kind of noodles around in an octave progression until he hits the distortion pedal for the opening riff of "N.I.B" which borrows somewhat heavily from the Cream tune "Sunshine of Your Love" in terms of its progressions. "N.I.B" is a song sung from the perspective of Lucifer who is trying to convince his love to come with him to Hell (or something). "N.I.B" runs off a descending pattern for Iommi's solo with the band doing short accentuations for effect. It ends with a long solo from Iommi and Butler doing some frantic runs underneath with then coming to a grinding halt. (For me, what really makes this tune is listening to Butler and his nasty, brutal distorted fills in-between stanzas, it's great!)

    "Wicked World" is the next tune and is one of the first songs the band recorded in their day long session for Black Sabbath.It was this song that Iommi first had to use his now famous SG as his main guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, pick up went out and he had to resort to his back up guitar which he was unsure of using. However, after using the SG, he never went back to the Strat and the entire album was recorded with his SG instead. "Wicked World" is a simplistic song with the main riff running from an E to G to D pattern but starts out with a cool jazz beginning with the band running an descending riff into the main figure I described. Ozzy's vocals sound old, and other worldly on this track. For a man who was only twenty years old, he sounds far more mature on this song. "Wicked World", like the forthcoming track "Warning", features a solo guitar figure from Iommi with some initial finger picking and then transitioning into a blues based solo before the rhythm section returns and the song goes back into the main riff. "Wicked World" is really pushed along by Butler's creative octave shifting runs and Ward's inspied, busy drum work.

    The short into "A Bit of Finger" is, essentially, some Iommi acoustic guitar with a jews harp and Ozzy's moaning, coarse vocal that then runs into the instrumental "Sleeping Village". "Village" features a pulsing, busy bass line from Butler while Iommi multi-tracks two different solos on both channels with Ward swinging along adding some creative cymbal work and jazzy fills. The song then kind of does a dinosaur like stomp between and an E and D chord before it runs into "Warning" which is an Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation cover. According to Iommi, the original version of "Warning" ran about fifteen minutes or longer but it was edited down by Bain and Allom to its ten minute version on the album. "Warning" is a basic blues number with Ozzy singing of a love gone wrong, but is really a solo showcase for Iommi with him soloing either with the rhythm section or by himself (multi-tracked solo and finger picking) for a period of about five minutes. After a long tortured solo with Iommi doing some spooky sound effects by doing some string manipulation, the song returns to its verse with the full band and then closes out with Ozzy croaking, "just a little bit too strong". Again, as I said, this song mirrors "Wicked World" quite a bit in its structure, overall.

    "Evil Woman", The Crows cover, is a fairly simplistic song with running off an F to G to B flat figure (somewhat similar to Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"). It opens with a short melodic stanza before moving into the main riff which it does for a good portion of the song running through two different progressions in terms of key. Butler does some simple, cool runs during the chorus figure (which is fairly boxy) and does kind of a call and effect with the guitar during the verses. It contains a simple blues based solo by Iommi and then back to the chorus and it's over. It's short tune and, as noted, was included to give the band a bit of a commercial edge as opposed to the darker, blues based material and heavier rock oriented stuff.

    The debut by Black Sabbath is a difficult album to review because it's an album that is so well known and iconic in the realms of rock and metal. Just about anyone that has a love for heavy metal or hard rock either owns it or has owned it and has heard it thousands of times. It's album that has been dissected in terms of its sound and style since the coining of the term "heavy metal" first used by Barry Gifford in a Rolling Stone review describing an Electric Flag song (but has its origins as a term from a William S. Burroughs novel from 1924). Many professional critics, casual, armchair critics, and heavy rock fans have argued for it seems like forever about whether Black Sabbath is a "metal" band, and if in fact they are, at what point did their sound become "metal"? My argument would be that this album, though heavily blues based, contains the early elements of the heavy metal sound and that seems to be supported by most critics and fans in general. The whole subject has really been talked about to death, quite frankly, so I'm not really interested in pursuing it in depth. What is clear, though, is that this record, along with two other releases in 1970 in Deep Purple's In Rock and, to a lesser extent, Uriah Heep's Very 'eavy…Very 'umble were instrumental in propelling the heavy metal genre into its present incarnation. Certainly one could also include the debut album from Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck's Truth among the influences as well but those are more along the hard rock spectrum, whereas the three mentioned all contain non-blues based structures in the songs that were propelled with significant force and with maximum volume. However, as I said, this review isn't about the beginnings of heavy metal or its essential elements as I don't want to get bogged down in that.

    For me, this is my favorite album of all-time and I hope I did it some justice. It was done with trembling hands and a bit of reticence as I wanted to cover the bases and not leave out anything important, but also not get bogged down in the history of the band before the record or get overly wordy about its legacy to other bands or the genre of heavy metal itself.

    Next up: Black Sabbath's Paranoid.



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  3. zen

    zen Senior Member

    Classic rock. Rating: 9/10

    I've got three versions...
    • Deluxe Edition (2009)
    • The Creative Sounds CD
    • The Complete 70's Replica CD Collection 1970-1978
     
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  4. DDTM

    DDTM Well-Known Member

    I love the idea for the thread, Jason. It should put the stop to all the nonsense we've heard about this band recently. At one point, it became really embarrassing being a Black Sabbath fan on this board. Since you're running this show, I have no doubt this is going to be the most well-argued, balanced and just plain informative thread on the band, and we need exactly that kind of Black Sabbath thread right now.

    Of course, the review itself is excellent. I couldn't possibly add anything.

    Just a minor correction: The band who originally recorded "Evil Woman" is called Crow, not The Crows. Their debut album, which contains that song, is very good, a Steppenwolf-like acid/blues rock affair, with a few spooky proto-metal moments thrown in.
     
  5. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Thanks for compliment and the correction re: Crow verses The Crows. Iommi refers to them as "The Crows" in his book "Iron Man" so it's his fault, not mine! :D
     
  6. humpf

    humpf Allowed to write something here.

    Location:
    Silesia
    It's decades since I had read some Burroughs, but 1924 must be a mistake. You probably mean 1964 (Nova Express) or 1962 (Soft Machine). Just a typo, isn't it?
     
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  7. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    1964, yes. That was a typo. Nova Express is when he first used the term in a descriptive sense about heavy drug use. My bad.
     
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  8. Sandinista

    Sandinista Forum Resident

    great idea.

    To start, growing up I was always more of a Paranoid, Vol 4, SBS kinda guy. In recent years, Sabatoge. But the recent Sabbath flurry of threads with the release of 13 have given me pause to take another look at the debut and MOR. Now, I've had both and been familiar with both for years - but I have not loved them.

    Anyway, for whatever reason I'm connecting to both more now. To stick with the debut, I guess the bluesiness of it - coupled with Bill's swing is more appealing to me now.

    The opening track obviously sets the tone for the entire career. Also provides a bedrock, unshakeable foundation. 3 simple notes any kid could play but in Iommi's hands with both Bills driving the engine and Ozzy's tortured wail.... well, they basically invented a genre in the first song off their first album. Christ. Heavy ass album.

    Part of me wishes I was old enough to appreciate this upon release - well, I actually wish I transport myself back in time for lots of albums - just to experience what it must've been like to be among those hearing these sounds for the first time. Must've sounded like the end of world.
     
  9. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    To fair, much if not all of that was down to a certain forum friend of yours. ;)
     
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  10. DDTM

    DDTM Well-Known Member

    :laugh:
     
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  11. old school

    old school Senior Member

    Black Sabbath there debut is special to me I bought it when it first came out in 70 a import on the Vertigo label. Every song is great and it led me down the path to heavy music which I still enjoy 43 years later.
     
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  12. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I love the album. The main start of metal. Evil Woman was such a "secret" track to all of us back in the 80s. Nobody knew where it came from. I do like Wicked World better, though. Great record, but it only gets better.
     
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  13. S. P. Honeybunch

    S. P. Honeybunch Presidente de Kokomo, Endless Mikelovemoney

    Ozzy sings with unique timbres here as compared to subsequent albums. He demonstrates a versatility from singing lower in pitch on "Sleeping Village" and "The Wizard" to higher pitched workouts on "N. I. B." and "Evil Woman." Of course, this may be due to tape speed manipulation, but the variety is cool regardless.
     
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  14. Strummergas

    Strummergas Senior Member

    Location:
    Queens, NY
    Excellent idea and for once I'm getting in on one of these things from the very beginning.

    I have 2 versions of this record:
    Palm Tree Label WB LP
    Warner Bros CD 1871-2

    The LP above was my dad's that I claimed for my own when I got back into vinyl a few years ago. I remember him playing it when I was a kid and I HATED it. I was kind of scared of metal when I was younger (go ahead, laugh all you want!) and to me this was the epitome of everything that freaked me out about it. Fast forward years later into my late-teens and early 20's as an aspiring bass player and hearing this again for the first time in awhile. Well, complete about face! This album hit me like a ton of bricks on many different levels. I completely made the connection to the late 60's British blues that I was so very into throughout my teens. I had already gotten over my metal-phobia in my teens and to me this made more sense to me than other bands that I was listening to at the time (Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera). And of course the bass playing. John Entwistle is really the guy that made me want to play, but Geezer is a firm #2 in my book and I took a lot from his playing. The Sabbath stuff was definitely challenging, but once I got a feel for the style of Geezer's playing, I was able to pick up what he was doing on any given song pretty quickly, and I became a better player as a result. To this day I still use Wicked World as a warm-up from time to time (I alternate with Underture from Tommy).

    Not my absolute fave Sabbath record, but definitely a great record that I'm going to spin right now as a result of this thread!
     
  15. Strummergas

    Strummergas Senior Member

    Location:
    Queens, NY
    Also, Bill Ward plays like a motherf***er on this album!
     
  16. Platterpus

    Platterpus Senior Member

    Their first album is my favorite of all.
     
  17. Beatnik_Daddyo'73

    Beatnik_Daddyo'73 Music Addiction Personified

    Nice!!! Great idea! Love the detailed info to kick it off-thank you.

    Been a Black Sabbath fan since the day I put my feet on a skateboard. Great times did follow!
    I'm glad the US got "wicked World" over "Evil Woman". I've got the Rhino 180g reissue.
     
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  18. Beatnik_Daddyo'73

    Beatnik_Daddyo'73 Music Addiction Personified

    I'd like to hear a full version of "A Song for Jim".
     
  19. Beatnik_Daddyo'73

    Beatnik_Daddyo'73 Music Addiction Personified

    Amen!
     
  20. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Allright!

    I'm more than happy to get in on the ground floor of this one as well.

    I'm gonna save the actual story for when we discuss Paranoid but Black Sabbath was the very start of my life-long rock education.

    As far as this album is concerned, I had already started with Paranoid and Master of Reality in that order, so this was a bit of a jarring step backward in some ways but I soon fell in love with the classic Sabs sound of the title track and N.I.B., the very cool guitar/ harmonica melding on The Wizard and the unrelenting jazz /blues jamming and riffing with just a bit more than subtle touch of menace that was found on side 2.

    I had already become a rabid Tony Iommi devotee and was equally impressed with what I heard here and as Strummergas has already stated , Bill Ward rocks, swings ,and yes... KILLS on this one !

    Hey Godshifter. Great idea for a thread. I am in, and thank you sir! :):righton:
     
  21. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    The US album is superior to the UK version. "Wicked World" blows away "Evil Woman", which doesn't even fit in with the album proper.
     
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  22. Sandinista

    Sandinista Forum Resident

    So, if you guys will indulge me a personal anecdote...

    I was taking my 11 stepson to see World War Z earlier today. Leaving the house, I was thinking about my earlier post in this thread and so I cue up the debut on my iPod when we get in the car. He had never heard it before.

    So, it's 4:30, overcoast and about to rain.... I turn it on and tell him to imagine what it must've been like to hear this 43 years ago in a world where there basically was no heavy metal... so the rain starts in.... when the guitar comes crashing down his eyes bug out. When Ozzy starts the wail, "oh no please God help me" he jumps a little.... but he digs it.

    We made through The Wizard by the time we got to the movie. Perfect set up for a zombie flick.

    Postscript: After the movie, we hit up Donald Fagen Sunken Condos to get us to the restaurant... lighter fare was in order by that point. :D
     
  23. DDTM

    DDTM Well-Known Member

    True. However, my ideal version contains both. Sure, "Evil Woman" will always be the odd one out, but that's half of its charm. The other half is that it is so goddamn catchy, while also managing to be fairly dark. Come to think of it, the original is like that as well.
     
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  24. DDTM

    DDTM Well-Known Member

    You are a good father. :D My parents played me Mungo Jerry.
     
  25. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Hey, cool, I'm glad people are liking the idea of this thread. :)

    I've already enjoyed reading other people's perspectives on the debut and I have agree that the album was a major inspiration for me in terms of my bass playing (like Strummegas's). Geezer has always been my biggest influence as a player.

    Hopefully the review was decent and I can keep up the quality for the rest of the reviews. It should be fun giving it a run!
     

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