Here's
@GornikDaze 's write-up.
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
At a time when peace and love was in full flow a little band from Brum was about to drop a huge bomb on the music world.
I have no exact date when I first heard Black Sabbath’s self titled debut album. Suffice to say it was from a distance in 1970 thanks to my elder brother and our seven year age gap. I actually bought my own copy of this at 15 (1977 ish) after my bro moved out and took his records with him (how rude!).
Listening to this album now brings back my early younger memories - the atmospheric opening title track, the rain, the thunder and the metal master’s haunting opening vocal. I still don’t think there is anything that quite gets to this level of “what the f*ck is going on’ on the intro of any debut album.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the biggest fan of Ozzy’s voice, there are better out there in the rock world. However, he captured the market for combining theatre and vocals.
The opener builds to driving riffs, mysterious lyrics and the haunting vocal performance. It certainly blew me away in those early days and still does today.
I’m not going to dissect every track - that’s for you guys to do. There are some belters, and there are some non belters.
I chose this album as it propelled a young me into the world of rock and later metal. I don’t think this is a metal album per se, particularly when judged against current metal standards. This for me is more a heavy blues album - Cream on steroids if you like. The whole album is full of bluesy licks but played by Iommi with heavy distortion and experimentation of drop tuning. His guitar work is a masterclass - he remains a genius to this day. Considering he lost a couple of fingertips on his fretting hand in a workplace accident it is even more remarkable. For me, this work is showcased on Warning - heavy blues at its finest and one of my all time favourite solos. Yes I know, it goes on too long (yawn) but that’s its beauty and majesty. It builds and builds and is just perfection.
The whole album was (according to Sabbath folklore) recorded in 12 hours - Ozzy famously said they made it to the pub before closing time! The following day was used for a few additions and mixing. Two days of a young band jamming together in a studio and laying down one of the most iconic rock albums.
Yes there are more hits on the follow up Paranoid, but this is where it all began. I’m interested to hear views of those that haven’t heard this before as I’m sure there will be a few. Is it metal, has it stood the test of time and did Ozzy ever have the voice of a choirboy?
