Black Sabbath

Performer: Black Sabbath
Engineer: Tony Allom; Barry Sheffield
Producer: Rodger Bain
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Black Sabbath: Ozzy Osbourne (vocals, harmonica); Tony Iommi (guitar); Geezer Butler (bass instrument); Bill Ward (drums). Black Sabbath's debut album is given over to lengthy songs and suite-like pieces where individual songs blur together and riffs pound away one after another, frequently under extended jams. There isn't much variety in tempo, mood, or the band's simple, blues-derived musical vocabulary, but that's not the point; Sabbath's slowed-down, murky guitar rock bludgeons the listener in an almost hallucinatory fashion, reveling in its own dazed, druggy state of consciousness. Songs like the apocalyptic title track, "N.I.B.," and "The Wizard" make their obsessions with evil and black magic seem like more than just stereotypical heavy metal posturing because of the dim, suffocating musical atmosphere the band frames them in. This blueprint would be refined and occasionally elaborated upon over the band's next few albums, but there are plenty of metal classics already here. ~ Steve Huey The archetypal heavy metal band, Black Sabbath unleashed a debut album marked by ponderous, sludgy rhythms, heavily distorted riffs and chords, and more than a whiff of darkness and Black Magic. Its crushing atmosphere of doom proved intense and relentless; the cumulative effect was dubbed "downer rock," but it proved immediately popular with a disaffected audience. Though no one could have predicted it at the time, Sabbath was laying the groundwork for a genre that would continue to grow in popularity through the '70s, '80s, '90s, and beyond. BLACK SABBATH announces the arrival of both the band and the style in no uncertain terms. Though given more to extended jams and "suites" than later Sabbath recordings, songs like the ominous title cut and the bluesy, harmonica-driven rocker "The Wizard" set the standard the band would follow for years to come. Singer Ozzy Osbourne already possessed one of the most distinctive voices in rock, and his chemistry with guitarist Tony Iommi, whose crushing guitar work descends like a ton of bricks, is undeniable. Still dug out, dusted off, and played, BLACK SABBATH is, in many ways, the true beginning of heavy metal.

Q (8/00, p.126) - Included in Q's "Best Metal Albums Of All Time" - "...[This] was to prove so influential it remains a template for metal bands 3 decades on. The band's signature song remains the scariest of all heavy metal songs..."

Known worldwide as the embodiment of heavy metal, England's Black Sabbath enveloped the 1970s in a dense fog of apocalyptic imagery, monolithic guitar riffs, and horror-movie lyrics. When frontman Ozzy Osbourne left the band in 1979 for a highly successful solo career, the band soldiered on with a number of replacements, including Rainbow's Ronnie James Dio. In 1997, Ozzy and his former bandmates staged a much-publicized reunion. In the 2000s, when Ozzy got busy with solo recordings, Ozzfest, and his reality show THE OSBOURNES, Dio stepped in once again to front another incarnation of the band.

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