At points, Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970), Master of Reality (1971) and Vol. That said, the first four albums can hardly be considered one-dimensional affairs. And anyone who sees the band according to a confining definition of metal is in for a world of surprise with Sabotage, an album that’s every bit as flamboyant and strange as the band looks on the cover, dressed in a motley assortment of loud ‘70s clothing-except that the music has aged far better than the outfits.įor simplicity’s sake, Black Sabbath’s classic-era work with original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne divides into two distinct periods: a four-album block consisting mainly of the metallic, funereal style the band is celebrated for, and another four-album block of more exploratory material that showcases Sabbath stretching out in myriad directions. Which indicates that there’s something about Black Sabbath that’s impossible to pin down, much less replicate. With countless Sabbath covers attempted by everyone from Charles Bradley to Cannibal Corpse, it’s telling that so many marquee hard-rock acts- Soundgarden, Kyuss, Faith No More, Metallica, Pantera, White Zombie, Al Jourgensen, Weezer, etc., etc.-haven’t come close to capturing the nuance or dynamics of the originals. Oddly, though, scores of bands who owe their existence to Black Sabbath have focused only on the band’s most superficial qualities. Without Iommi, entire movements like stoner rock, sludge and doom metal never have a basis to form. Much like Beatles-inspired harmonies can be found everywhere in pop music, the influence of guitarist Tony Iommi’s riffing style is so pervasive that it’s become a kind of public-domain library to draw from. By the same token, the band’s work can have just as profound an impact on one’s musical perspective in the present day, even with multiple generations of musicians having built on the initial foundation. Although fellow figureheads like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and even Funkadelic helped sow the seeds of what would eventually come to be known as heavy metal, Sabbath were indisputably the first to bring those seeds to fruition.Īt the time, there was simply no precedent for the dense, ominous twist that Sabbath put on the rock template, and it’s no exaggeration to describe the Birmingham, England quartet’s self-titled debut in terms of a Big Bang-scale event that birthed a new musical universe. We know this because dozens of them who went on to form famous bands have expressed a reverence so devout, it’s as if Black Sabbath’s music defines who they are at the core of their being. It’s difficult to conceive from today’s perspective, but hearing Black Sabbath for the first time in the early 1970s had to have been an earth-shattering experience, particularly for listeners still in the adolescent throes of music discovery.
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