06. Black Sabbath Black Sabbath 1970 (Vertigo)
Heavy Metal
What is this that stands before me?
Overview
Up until now all the albums and bands featured, have had heavy blues and psychedelic rock influences, and gradually they have taken those influences to their logical and heavy conclusions throughout 1969 and 1970. But it would be four guys from Birmingham that would reshape those blues and psychedelic tendencies, into a much darker vision that would go on to dominate metaldom as we know it. This darker vision would be based around even tighter guitar riffs, a throbbing rhythm section, morbid doom-laden visions, along with medieval and futuristic themes. The band truly found a hidden malevolence in the blues, that they then fully exploited and then glued the whole thing together with strong occult influences. Now some of these aspects that I've mentioned, had already been displayed by other bands and albums both featured and not featured on here so far, but Black Sabbath would be the first band to pull it all together in a complete morbid package. Their music would display the bleak industrial influences of their native Birmingham and demonstrate itself in all the aforementioned characteristics. But their signature sound would come through in Tonny Iommi's deceptively basic tuned-down guitar riffs and Ozzy Osbourne's trademark banshee shriek, along with Geezer Butler's throbbing bass so essential to the Sabbath sound and last but not least Bill Ward on the drum stool. Now anybody looking at this review, may well ask themselves why is this album only no.6 on my year listing? I'll explain that further on and it's with good reason! So with all the aspects of the band in place they went with producer Rodger Bain into the studio and in record quick time they cut this debut album which was a true group effort. Producer Rodger Bain would of course go on to become a pivotal metal producer of the early 1970s and produce further Black Sabbath material. Finally for any real 'aficionados' out there, check out the debut Coven album which came out the same year and just see how influential that was on this Sabbath album.
Ozzy Osbourne- Vocals,
Tony Iommi- Guitar
Geezer Butler- Bass
Bill Ward- Drums
Production- Rodger Bain
Album
Black Sabbath- From the doom-laden sound of falling rain and the morbid sound of church bells. Ozzy then sings "What is this that stands before me" basically asking the listener has he heard anything like this before, the answer was probably not! The song then churns through its doom-laden feel before speeding up. The song is without doubt one of the classics in all the Sabbath canon and is worth the entry ticket alone.
The Wizard- Second track which is focused around some heavy percussion work, slide guitar by Iommi and harmonica by Ozzy, and is lyrically focussed around Gandalf and a local drug dealer the band knew, a stunning track.
Behind the Wall of Sleep- A dense track heightened by some great playing.
N.I.B- Starts off with a bass solo by Geezer Butler before kicking in with a trademark riff which dominates throughout. This is a song about Lucifer and another essential Sabbath classic. Side-B kicks off with
Evil Woman (Don't You Play Your Games With Me)- A cover of a song put out by the band Crow and the obvious single from the album, strangely left of the US version of the album.
Sleeping Village- A song typical of the later part of the album, which gives itself over to a series of lengthy jamming instrumentals.
Warning- Another cover and this time it's a song from Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation, this is 10 minutes of instrumental filler if ever I saw and heard one. Re-issues of the album usually feature
Wicked World- Certainly better than either "Sleeping Village" and the "Warning" with some crunchy guitar bits to boot as well, to compliment Ozzy's Jethro Tull type singing here. It should be noted, that there are a couple of different variations on track selection on this album between the UK and US versions. I've reviewed the original UK version here.
Verdict
Simply put the Black Sabbath vision that would shape metal for years to come was born here on this album and most of the essential ingredients were laid down in just the first four songs. The A-side of songs are quite simply an amazing selection of Sabbath originals that have constantly stood the test of time and resonate with the dramatic riffs and sound of the band. BUT the album as a whole, is let down by the often unfocused and overly long filler tracks that form and dominate most of the B-Side. At this time jamming instrumentals were still the rage in rock music, but to pass the acid test they had to be done well and in the albums I've reviewed so far, bands like Grand Funk Railroad, High Tide, May Blitz and Lucifer's Friend etc were so much more accomplished than Black Sabbath at this type of thing and knew what they were doing. I would say that had the album finished after side-one, the album would have made the top 3 on my selection list, rather than a top 6 placing. But taking all that aside, this album is without doubt the true 'birth place' of heavy metal as we know it. Gradually of course throughout the 1970s and 1980s bit by bit, heavy metal would lose both its blues and psychedelic roots, and it would be down to future artists like Danzig who would help to bring the blues back into metal in the 1990s. Without doubt one of the most essential releases of the whole decade despite a dodgy B-side and needless to say music critics at the time loathed both the album and the band. The band would of course go onto even far greater musical heights within the same year, with the release of the seminal
Paranoid album, which is of course is far higher up my list for 1970.