Black Sabbath
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Black Sabbath pretty much
defined heavy metal as we know the beast in the early '70s -- one can point to
Led Zeppelin, but honestly, how many of Zeppelin's metal proteges actually sound
like Zeppelin? Page & Co. were at one level a loud blues/folk band, merely
an extension of a vein mined by record-collector obsessed British boys like the
Yardbirds from the '60s. Sabbath, on the other hand, forged a distinct sonic
identity that could not possibly be mistaken as the product of '60s holdovers:
a robotic, coldly brutal metal machine-music version of riff-based rock that
definitely was not in the least rooted in R & B -- the last an important,
but overlooked difference between Sabbath and their forebearers Cream, Hendrix и Zeppelin. That's to say that
Sabbath sounded completely whitebread (which I am not using in a deragotory
sense), except that they took the legend about Robert Johnson selling his soul
at the crossroads a bit too much to heart and injected all these goofy lyrics
about Satanism into their songs. Goth, death metal, gloom & doom merchants от Ministry до Marilyn Manson, not to mention this new breed
of Scandinavian black metal bands who take their "evil" image way too
seriously (hey, it's one thing to sing about killing people -- it's another to
actually do it!) -- it all begins here, which is to say that while Sabbath are
undeniably influential, not all influences are benign ones: in fact, I'm of the
opinion that they probably did much more harm than good. Whether they truly
realized what they were doing (rumor has it that they originally intended for
their songs as warnings against the occult, but the message got garbled
due to their, how shall I say it, poor communication skills), Black Sabbath
created some of the most genuinely evil music ever created. They weren't some
post-psychedelic, tongue-in-cheek pack of cynics like their main '70s rivals
for the "evil metal" sweepstakes Blue Oyster Cult (though BOC's
brains and instrumental sophistication kind of makes them more evil, now that I
think about it) -- Sabbath seemed fairly sincere, if pretty dopey about it. I
generally find their music interesting from a historical standpoint, but aside
from Tony Iommi's crushing riffs -- no band has ever come close to creating the
sensation of being buried alive by an avalanche the way those early Sabbath
records do -- the band are mostly incompetent and often dull. Iommi's riffs --
he has to rate as one of the all-time greats at coming up with them -- are
sometimes powerful enough to overcome any objections, but boy does this band
have a lot of strikes against them: the lyrics totally blow (which isn't that
big of deal -- anyone who's into metal for the lyrics needs to get their
priorities straight); Ozzy's helium voice can grow annoying (especially when he
sings along with the guitar melody on the early records); aside from Iommi's
gift for heavy riffage, the band interplay is as clumsy as your average garage
band (in particular I hate it when, once they've got a good slow grind going,
they shift dynamics and try to get up and boogie -- I mean, boogie! Black
Sabbath? Shudder); the band isn't terribly imaginative, as they are good and
only good at their one patented style -- when they try to experiment, the
results are shockingly atrocious (see Sabbath Bloody Sabbath); the pace
can become unbearably slow (see their debut); and finally, there's just an air
of Beavis & Buttheadpothead stupidity that hangs over all of their records.
I mean, few bands make you feel the IQ points subtracting just by listening to
the music the way Sabbath do. On the upside, however, nobody's ever done loud,
heavy, slow, and stupid quite as good as prime Sabbath -- and that's gotta
count for something.
P.S. An interesting fact is
that several key scenes in This Is Spinal Tap were lifted almost
directly from Sabbath's career -- including, yes, the infamous Stonehenge
subplot. It seems that Tony Iommi once had the bright idea to recreate the
ruins of Stonehenge on stage...
Reader Comments
tpl@tpl.toronto.on.ca maybe you should learn
some grammar before you call them stupid. this band has never been about
satanic anything, maybe you might want to listen a few more times. their
music is not that simple either. Thomas
Rickert, hijinks@utarlg.uta.edu Just read your Sabbath
reviews. You fall into the typical critical understanding of this band. Which
is another way of saying, you don't really show any genuine insight into the
music. For example, you accuse the band, much as Rolling Stone did years ago,
of stupidity and intractibibility. Well, yeah. They were a bunch of
under-educated kids. Of course they didn't have the lyrical finesse,
instrumental chops, art-school fostered sense of vision. But there is more
going on when you look closely, listen closely, and think about what they are
trying to do as a total package. They invented what they did as they went
along, following a strange, dark, perhaps twisted muse. That is called
creativity. Their mistakes and mishaps are an integral, if not the most important,
element of their sound and vision. And when it is done so darkly-beautifully
by a bunch of working-class losers from a burned out English industrial town,
then it's genius. (At least on the first six, before the real decline sets in
and they start becoming unlistenable.) Anyway, this way of
looking at art is also the key to understanding punk, DIY, and other forms of
unschooled art. It's also the reason Sabbath has been one of the most
influential bands ever, despite your sniffing at the influence as being
possibly bad. Certainly--and I agree with you on this--many terrible bands
have arisen in Sabbath's wake, and great misunderstandings have been
perpetrated in their name, and worse music. So what? That, perhaps, isn't the
point. Over-romantizing evil, or witches, or sub-D&D imagery may not be
your (or my) bag (and it wasn't Sabbath's either -- their evil tag was
perpetrated on them primarily by their record company and retroactively by
their legacy), but is it really more stupid than over-romantizing cars and
girls, like early/mid-period Springsteen and countless others? I'm not so
sure. But if you believe most rock critics and especially Rolling Stone, one
of these is "authentic" and one is "stupid". I say, this
kind of binary is counter-productive, and an insightful critique would dig
deeper than that. |
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Black Sabbath (1970) **
The debut only has five
songs listed, though in truth there are more than five songs, as on several
lengthy tracks Sabbath link several distinct songs through lengthy guitar solos
-- unfortunately, their attempt at Abbey Road-style multi-sectioned
pastiche doesn't cut the mustard, mainly due to Iommi's abysmally unimaginative
solos; he's an able technician, but he's much better at grinding out rhythmic,
repetitive riffs than guitar solos, which actually have to go somewhere. Ozzy
sings in a lower register than he ever would again, and the band are
surprisingly bluesful, but none of that makes any difference since the band
can't cover up the fact that they are short on decent material. The
quasi-Tolkien lyrics on "The Wizard," have dated horribly and should
be despised for helping spawn the dungeons & dragons direction a lot of
clueless metal bands later took. Aiming for a spooky goth atmosphere, Sabbath
come close to that goal in the infamous title track, with Ozzy screaming,
"No! No! No!" at the end of each line to his majesty Lucifer, but I
find the track too melodramatic and slowly drawn out to sit through. Which is
the album's other main flaw, aside from burying all the songs in mindlessly
clumsy, endless jams -- the pace is way too slow; the volume's high, but
there's a dearth of energy, which makes the album a drag. Even the best song,
"N.I.B." gets buried amidst a sludgy Cream-imitating jam, and Sabbath
hardly have Clapton & Co.'s instrumental skills (not that this type of
thing was that interesting even when Cream made their attempts).
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Paranoid (1971) ***
A big improvement, but
still seriously flawed: no matter how awesome the hits are, the rest of the
album doesn't come close to the level established by "Iron Man," (the
one I'm sure you all know due its recent popularization by a certain MTV
cartoon...c'mon now, raise your fist and grunt along) and the title track
(which is - gasp! - a fast one. Sure, it's kind of a rip-off of Zeppelin's
"Communication Breakdown," but you could make the argument that
speed-metal and hardcore punk begin here -- well, kind of; I once saw
some typically mediocre local punk band encore with this, and it was the one
song that got all the short-hairs moshing the lecture hall). "War
Pigs," begins decently enough, but the lyrics are laughably bad
("generals in their masses"/"like witches at black masses"
- repeating the same word does not a rhyme make) and it soon descends into a
pointless onslaught of dull riffage. "Electric Funeral," was ripped
off by Cleveland punk legends Pere Ubu for their "30 Seconds Over
Tokyo," but in this case, Pere Ubu came up with the better song (oh well,
at least Sabbath are anti-pollution). "Planet Caravan," introduces the
type of pothead bong ballad that Sabbath placed as a breather between the heavy
numbers, and while such a gambit is a good idea, the acoustic ballads (all of
them on every single Sabbath album I've heard) are laughably amateurish, the
type of rubbish that not even the earnest folksinger singing for tips in the
hat at the local coffeehouse could get away with. But that's not the nadir --
no, that's drummer Bill Ward's turn, the drum solo "Rat Salad." A
drum solo -- how did kids in the '70s ever put up with that kind of crap? Still,
a vast improvement over the debut; though the sound's thin, at least the murk's
gone and Sabbath are writing more concisely, with Iommi managing to hit a few
solid riffs here and there.
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Master of Reality (1971) ***1/2
Tony Iommi tuned down his
guitar two full steps, and hit upon an unearthly deep, richly crunching guitar
tone -- this is a loose concept album based around that tone; take away Iommi's
crushing riffs and you've got no reason to listen to this music, period, but
fortunately the riffs are so crushing that this release stands as Sabbath's
most consistently listenable album. In sum, the heaviest album the universe has
seen (even to this day, nearly thirty years later) -- witness your speakers
slowly sag into the carpeting when fuzzy rumble sinks in. And here's the
kicker: the lyrics are Christian, not Satanist -- of course, they're still
pretty stupid and far too obvious (they actually rhyme "pope at the end of
a rope"). The attack is Sabbath's most basic and blunt, which is part of
what makes it work - not much half-baked experimentation, and the witless solos
are generally shorter and more tolerable than usual. There are a couple of
acoustic ballads, still laughably bad, but here they work as a necessary spot
of time to dig yourself out of the rubble created by the avalanches of
"Sweet Leaf," (the ultimo pothead anthem), "Afterforever,"
(the most explicitly pro-Christian song), and "Children of the
Grave," (its rhythmic slam nabbed by Blondie for "Call Me").
Even the lenghthy workout, "Into the Void," works; this may not have
the big hits of its predecessor, but it's the better album.
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Vol. 4 (1972) ***
К несчастью, Iommi misplace his guitar tone this time, или maybe the production's too thin,
because the sound here isn't nearly as crushing as on the last album -- sigh;
that Panzer tanks brutally lumbering through the village, oafishly knocking
down everything in their way, sound was the only reason to listen to Sabbath in
the first place. Sabbath compensate by branching out in tentative experimental
directions; sometimes the experimentation works, sometimes it doesn't -- most
embarrassingly on the travesty entitled "FX" which mercifully ends
after 40 seconds. However, I like the eight-minute quasi-jazzy epic
"Wheels of Confusion," which sports an endless series of riffs and
seems to keep constantly going in different directions, until the wheels spin
off -- Sabbath have come a long way crafting multi-part songs since their
debut, generally keeping the lengthier numbers interesting by shifting riffs
rather than filling space with ten-minute guitar solos. The piano ballad
"Changes," has a fine melody, but is utterly ruined by the lyrics --
"I'm going through changes," has to rank as one of the tritest things
I've ever heard. "Supernaut," is usually everybody's favorite from
this album, and while it's nice and kind of speedy (relatively to Sabbath) it
runs second to "Wheels of Confusion," for my pick as best. Sabbath's
experimentation isn't very interesting or accomplished, but it does keep them
from falling into the monotonous rut they would have dug into if they had
released Master of Reality, Vol. 2.
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) **1/2
Sabbath continue to push
their musical boundaries, but this time it flubs more than it succeeds. The
opening title track smoothly interweaves acoustic guitar between the hard
choruses and stands as perhaps Sabbath's most fully realized composition, and
while "A National Acrobat," isn't as powerful as the Sex Pistol's
"Bodies," or as thoughtful as Graham Parker's "You Can't Be Too
Strong," it is a quite spooky pro-life number. After those two tracks, the
album starts losing its way; track three is the aptly titled harpsichord
instrumental "Fluff" -- and did I mention that Rick Wakeman guests on
at least one other track? Sabbath simply don't possess the talent to steer away
from their patented formula and keep things interesting; the irritating
synth-based plodder, "Who Are You?" ranks as one of their worst-ever
songs (and that's saying something). The more straightforward rockers work
("Killing Yourself To Love"), but aside from the title track, gone
are the crushingly heavy pounders of yore, replaced by a much less interesting,
more mainstream sound -- if you're looking for the "classic" Sabbath
style, this definitely isn't the place to go.
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Sabotage (1975) ****
Who would have expected it
-- out of left field, near the end of their prime years, Sabbath released their
best and definitely most underrated album. The experimentation they had mucked
around with on the last two albums finally blossoms forth into something
actually interesting, but Sabbath don't forget their greatest strengths: the
first two songs, "Hole In The Sky," and "Symptom Of The Universe,"
are the definitive heavy metal songs. "Symptom Of The
Universe," in particular is a stunner, a speedily ominous rip without
which many of the '80s breed of New Wave of Heavy Metal bands couldn't exist.
All of the songs are interwoven together with no breaks, and the gambit works
surprisingly well -- the album is consistently enjoyable and ocassionally
revelatory as a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Not that some of the
parts aren't interesting; apart from the first two songs (which set a towering
level the rest of the album, good though some of it may be, can't really match)
multi-parters such as "Megalomania," and (especially) "The
Writ," merge heavy with progressive in quite sumptous ways, as if Sabbath
actually took that collaboration with Wakeman seriously. There's one complete
suckjob, the gaudy "Thrill Of It All," but aside from that even the
weaker tracks have something interesting going on -- "Supertzar"
amusingly melds medieval monk chants on top of typically spooky Iommi guitar
patterns. I'm genuinely shocked at how good most of this is -- I didn't expect
Sabbath to have enough talent to pull their prog-rock conceits off.
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Technical Ecstacy (1976) *1/2
At this point even hardcore
fans begin bashing the life out of Sabbath, as it's obvious the drugs were
numbing the band out to just another mediocre heavy metal band -- Iommi's fount
of riffs have suddenly dried up to generic, by-the-numbers power-chords, Ozzy's
voice sounds shredded and out of tune, and overall the band sounds like they've
permanently lost the old black magic. Resembling a straight hard rock band more
than ever before, which isn't such a bad thing, there's not a single
head-smashing classic to be found -- even the best songs ("All Moving
Parts Stand Still," "You Won't Change Me") don't rise above the
level of "just OK". Amidst the headache-inducing tunelessly generic
screechers such as "Rock'n'Roll Doctor," and "Dirty Women,"
(jeez, all you have to do is look at the titles to gauge how worthless those
songs are - Sabbath as lusty cock rockers?! Gimme a break), Ozzy wails his
sensitive side on "She's Gone," an icy ballad that is not a cover of
the Hall & Oates hit, though I almost wish it where - at least it'd be
better than this tripe. The only track of any real interest is Bill Ward's solo
turn, "It's Alright," a simple, Beatlesque tune that's certainly no
slice of pop heaven, but does provide relief from Ozzy's caterwauling and boasts
the album's only strong melody.
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Never Say Die (1978)
Последняя запись с Ozzy.
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Heaven & Hell (1980)
Первая запись с Ronnie James Dio. I've got this and I don't think I like it at all;
their prime days are long over, and now they sound like a generic metal band --
a pretty good generic metal band, but not the type of thing I'm particularly
interested in.
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Mob Rules (1981)
Последняя запись с Dio.
Tyr (1990)
Well, the Nordic title
sounds more ominous than Tuesday (that's an etymology joke...)
