29th March, 2024
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Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

No other band has come closer to embodying heavy metal than Black Sabbath. Their sound is characterized by the mammoth, heavy riffs of Tony Lommi, Geezer Butler’s lyrics reveling in black magic, fantasy, drugs, mental illness and occult and Ozzy’s flat, almost tuneless, banshee wail. Everybody from the heaviest of metal bands to the sludgiest of grunge bands listened to Black Sabbath when they were teenagers. This is a solid album with vastly improved production values, which emphasise the complex song structures and confer a definitely more melodic quality to the band's music - instead of pushing for a raw, 'wall-of-sound' effect like on their previous releases. Clarity is the key word here. While the title-track opens the album by closely following the style of Sabbath's earlier albums, with Ozzy's voice at its whiniest over Lommi's crunching, relentless riffing - a real, heavy metal behemoth of a song - A National Acrobat (at over 6 minutes, the longest song on the album) suddenly steers things into a different territory. In spite of the band's trademark riff galore, there is also an air of melody and sophistication which is further developed throughout the album.

The second part of the album is also the proggiest, with keyboards taking centre stage, and song structures becoming increasingly more elaborate. A true example of crossover between heavy rock and prog, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath has a lot to offer to the discerning listener. This is an awesome slice of heavy yet intelligent music. And once you get hooked on to their amazing sounds and overpowering volume go for their other masterpieces like self titled album, Paranoid, Master Of Reality and Sabotage and listen to them really loud. These types of groups are best heard on vinyls and listening to MP3s kill the joy of such music’s warm, heavy sounds. Also, with other formats you don’t get to hold and appreciate this album’s beautiful artwork.

Released in 1973 on Warner Bros label

Band members:

Ozzy Osbourne: Vocals

Tony Lommi: Guitar

Geezer Butler: Bass

Bill Ward: Drums

Reviewed by Pilak Bhatt

Pilak Bhatt is a 54 year old Mumbai resident who is still keeping the turntable spinning. Bhatt is one of many avid LP record collectors in the country and also around the world who has a passion for music and collecting LP records. Bhatt has a collection of almost 1 lac LP records. He buys and sells LPs, advises on turntables and has his own Music Circle shop at Kandivili, Mumbai that stocks loads of LPs.  He can be contacted on 9820365979. 

 


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