Few bands can boast the kind of influence that Black Sabbath command in the world of rock music. While heavy metal may have splintered into a diverse and often convoluted array of sub-genres, the family tree always leads back to four working class lads from Birmingham. Without them, a huge piece of the puzzle is missing, they are the Rosetta Stone.
But when discussing Black Sabbath, one has to remember that you are talking about more than one band. Their history is peppered with lineup changes (their 12th album was originally slated as guitarist Tony Iommi’s first solo album). Then again, even albums recorded with the same lineup sound as though you’re listening to completely different bands.
In order to better understand the importance, the influence, and the history of Black Sabbath, we’ve taken a look at six of their most important albums – some important for their weight of influence, others for their status as flash points in the band’s career, while others represent some of the band’s lesser-known but nonetheless creatively fruitful moments. To celebrate all things Sabbath, the Yarraville Club will be hosting a Black Sabbath Tribute night this Friday the 13th of February, more info at www.yarravillelive.com.
Paranoid ‘The Classic Record’
1970, Vertigo / Warner Bros.
While it was their 1970 self-titled debut that laid the groundwork for an entire genre of music, reintroducing the world to the infernal sound of the Devil’s interval, for many the first album was just a means to an end (as in apocalypse), and that end is Paranoid.
Recorded the same year their debut was released, Paranoid still stands as one of the primary definitions of a “seminal” release. The album not only galvanised the band’s writing process, as well as their rapidly expanding sonic palette, but nothing before had sounded this monstrous, this hypnotic, this twisted, or this heavy.
Key Tracks
‘War Pigs’
‘Paranoid’
‘Iron Man’
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Master of Reality ‘The Game Changing Record’
1971, Vertigo / Warner Bros.
We mentioned earlier how every obtusely defined heavy metal sub-genre is simply a few degrees of separation away from Black Sabbath. Bands like Black Flag and Bad Brains took inspiration from Black Sabbath, which spawned a sea of imitators, who mixed and matched until metalcore was born.
But what’s most impressive about Sabbath is how many sub-genres they were able to forge singlehandedly. However, while most recognise Master of Reality for its role as the bedrock of the doom, stoner, and sludge metal scenes, it’s important to remember what an anomaly the album truly is. Released at a time when the Bee Gees and The Carpenters ruled airwaves, this Titanic-sized piece of black candy was to Paranoid as Paranoid was to everything else.
Key Tracks
‘Sweet Leaf’
‘Children of the Grave’
‘Into the Void’
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ‘The Experimental Record’
1973, World Wide Artists / Warner Bros.
Having laid the foundations of a path that bands follow to this day, Sabbath hit something of a turnstile following 1972’s Vol. 4. Whether it was the pressure or the drugs that got to him, guitarist Tony Iommi was experiencing a major case of writer’s block, unable to come up with so much as a riff.
Despondent and depleted, the band stowed away to Clearwell Castle in The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, rehearsing in the dungeons of the allegedly haunted estate. The inspiration once again began to swirl, finally culminating in a crushing riff that became ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, setting the tone for an album that would become one of the band’s most adventurous efforts to date.
Incorporating synthesisers, strings, keyboards, complex arrangements, and at one point even sitar and bagpipes (these did not make the final album), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath revitalised the band and contributed another raft of timeless tunes to the band’s discography.
Key Tracks
‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’
‘A National Acrobat’
‘Killing Yourself to Live’
Heaven and Hell ‘The New Frontman Record’
1980, Vertigo / Warner Bros.
With heavy metal on the cusp of becoming more than just a genre and turning into a full-fledged industry, and with the bedrock of doom and thrash well and truly set, the band reconvened in 1979 to invent yet another style, power metal, arming themselves with the man who defined what the genre was all about.
With frontman and founding member Ozzy Osbourne, now a metal icon in his own right, growing increasingly frustrated with the band’s new experimental bent, while the band grew ever more frustrated with the singer’s “insane” behaviour, the band decided it was time to part ways with Osbourne.
Taking his place was a stentorian-voiced American who would go on to be as hallowed a name as Osbourne. His name, Ronnie James Dio. The album that resulted from Dio’s addition to the group, 1980’s Heaven and Hell, was Sabbath as no one had ever heard them before – propulsive, anthemic, and at times even uplifting.
Key Tracks
‘Neon Knights’
‘Heaven and Hell’
‘Die Young’
Dehumanizer ‘The Underrated Record’
1992, I.R.S.
After recording 1981’s Mob Rules with Dio, an album that some criticised as Heaven and Hell, Pt. II, but that fans saw as galvanising the band’s new soaring soundscapes and their heavier roots, Sabbath entered what many view as the band’s Dark Ages.
Though this period occasionally yielded truly inspired moments, such as much of 1983’s Born Again and 1989’s Headless Cross — the band was undeniably struggling — running through multiple frontmen, and releasing some of their weakest efforts.
In 1992, the band released Dehumanizer, which has since gone on to become one of their least talked-about, but strongest efforts. Heavy and dark from the get go, the riffs were punishing and the lyrics touched on society’s growing reliance on technology, televangelism, personal integrity, and doubting one’s faith.
Key Tracks
‘Computer God’
‘TV Crimes’
‘Sins of the Father’
13 ‘The Comeback Record’
2013, Vertigo / Universal
It’s not just their records that prove an anomaly, the band itself has been able to pull off superhuman feats. Perhaps the most staggering came in 2013, when original members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and bassist Geezer Butler reunited to record Black Sabbath’s first album in 18 years.
Not only were the band’s original members, sans drummer Bill Ward, who was replaced by Rage Against the Machine sticks man Brad Wilk, finally in the same studio again, but the album that resulted, aptly titled 13, is one of their best ever. No, it wasn’t just good for an album recorded by a bunch of dudes in their sixties. 13 was a work of art encapsulating everything fans ever loved about Black Sabbath.
Key Tracks
‘Loner’
‘Zeitgeist’
‘Damaged Soul’
Black Sabbath Tribute Night
Friday the 13th February, 7:30pm
The Yarraville Club, 135 Stephen Street, Yarraville
Performed by: Wizards (members of My Left Boot, Dead City Ruins, Redcoats, Sheriff, and Matt Sonic & The High Times)
Tickets: Seated (rear) $30+bf GA $25
Tix from www.yarravillelive.comor on the door if available.
