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Old 04-28-2013, 02:48 PM   #274 (permalink)
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08. Black Sabbath Sabotage 1975 (Vertigo)
Heavy Metal


Supersonic dreams and are you Satan, are you man?

Overview
After returning from their year-long sabbatical, the godfathers of metal Black Sabbath would record their sixth album Sabotage and it would be the first Black Sabbath album that was indicative of the cracks starting to appear in the Osbourne/Iommi relationship within the band! Before this Black Sabbath like most bands had had their internal issues most notably with Bill Ward, but they always gelled when it mattered. The band had also never been afraid to experiment and these experiments had usually worked well, as long as the band had never wandered too far away from the sound they had dominated and mastered over the last several years. Vol.4 had been their most diverse and freshest sounding release to date, and that album had been a Sabbath masterpiece….. something that Sabotage would desperately struggle to match! Sabotage in many ways was a continuation of the previous Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album, in that the band decided to build off the trademark blackness of that album and its proggy designs, along with harking back to the commercial appeal of Vol.4 at times as well. The band this time around, went in for a far greater integration of synthesizers overall, rather than the external featuring sound of synthesizers that had appeared on the previous Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The band would also continue with their prolonged technical approaches to the recording of the album, something which had become a mainstay of the band now, making the current Sabbath production practices a world away from their early days! Sabotage as an album is also regarded as containing some of Ozzy’s most ambitious vocal performances to date and that is certainly an achievement, as a lot of the material on the album is not that easy to go with from a vocalist’s perspective. In fact I think this comment which I’ve seen on a number of album reviews at the time of the album’s release, may well have gone to Ozzy’s head, as he upped and left after this album for a brief period. The album cover also denotes a band bathing in the luxury of being one of the biggest bands on the planet with the band members looking plush in front of a gold trimmed mirror.

Ozzy Osbourne- Vocals
Tony Iommi- Guitar
Geezer Butler- Bass
Bill Ward- Drums
(Synthesizer contributions from most of the band members)

Production- Black Sabbath

Album
Hole in the Sky-
The big album opener is a plodding brooding heavy number that follows the standard verse-chorus workout, often regarded as one of the strongest songs on the album. Don’t Start (Too Late)- The typical soft instrumental ditty that we are now accustomed to but this time synths are pushed into the mix. Symptom of the Universe- With its lethal Tony Iommi riff, this is Black Sabbath with a cherry on top….. so need I say more? The only possible negative might be the chilled out sounding outro which grates to Ozzy’s voice and does seem a bit overly long. Meglomania- The most ambitious track on the whole album and the band wade into proggy territory here big time, the song often splits opinion and I think the band miss here more than they hit. Thrill of it All- Starts off the b-side of the album and is one of the energetic heavy workouts on the album and sounds like a standard Sabbath track, but this time with the use of synthesizers. Supertzar- An epic instrumental and certainly a departure from the standard acoustic or soft instrumental the band normally give the listener, whilst serving as a lead out track to the bludgeoning heavy follow-up. Supertzar is a self contained song and the most creative instrumental the band ever did. Am I Going Insane (Radio)- The band at their most accessible and often seen as the most poppy the band ever got and rivals “Changes” as a big hit and the song features some manic laughter at the end. The Writ- The second longest song on the album and a solid workout by the band and some great band lyrics as well, and of the extended songs on the album this one works the best.

Verdict
Sabotage is regarded as the final album in the classic Black Sabbath run of six albums and very few bands in the history of music regardless of genre, can boast such a feat. But I’d put Sabotage a couple of pegs down quality wise from at least four of the other albums in this classic run. Sabotage probably sits on a ledge with the debut quality wise, but then again this is an unfair comparison as both albums are literally worlds apart and comparing them makes about as much sense as comparing say an early Beatles album to that of a latter Beatles album.....the early Sabbath sound was heavy and dark, whilst the songs on Sabotage are production virtuosos. Also what makes Sabotage different from a lot of Sabbath’s other work, is the fact that the band avoid the standard verse-chorus format on a lot of the songs and by eschewing this, they offer us a different kettle of fish altogether, and give us album with heavy synthesizer overload, an area that the band would explore further to rather disappointing results! The album is largely known for the two great salvos of “Hole in the Sky” and “Symptom of the Universe” and the latter song is without doubt one of the best songs in the whole Sabbath canon. It’s fast, menacing and that riff hits the jugular everytime! In fact this riff is so good, that it might be solely responsible for the future “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” movement as I reckon half of those bands that heard “Symptom of the Universe” must’ve picked up their guitars straight after hearing this song and vowing to form a metal band! Another stellar track is surely the epic sounding “Supertzar” which serves as an example where the band’s experimentation definitely ticked all the right boxes. But where Sabotage lets itself down, is in the fact that there are a couple of ambitious songs, that just hang in the balance on just how good they really are and “Meglomania” is a song that fits into this category perfectly. The song is both murky and sullen, and extremely ambitious at nine plus minutes. It touches into proggy and extensive musical territory, an area where Black Sabbath have tended to struggle at times but “Meglomania” does have a great mood, but its overall execution leaves a lot to be desired! The same can be said for the “Thrill of it All” which takes the standard Black Sabbath sound and enhances it through the use of synthesizers, and the end result doesn’t overly give us an immediate thrill! "The Writ” on the other hand is one of those borderline songs, that comes away with a thumbs up. Overall the band played it safe (they took far more risks on their following albums) and “Am I Going Insane (Radio)” is an example of this safety just in case they needed a radio hit to bale themselves out.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Last edited by Unknown Soldier; 05-30-2015 at 11:47 AM.
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