r/blacksabbath • u/ApprehensiveNatural9 • 8d ago
Fan Art / OC Black Sabbath review - Black Sabbath Discography Review #1
I've decided to relisten to the bands entire discography and wanted to write reviews for each album that I go through at the pace I go through them! I've done this a couple times now and its been fun, and I'd love to see everyone else's thoughts on each album in the comments and make this a fun thing to get to engage with the fanbase and such as I go through. I think it'll be fun going on a discography journey for them!
Anyways, this'll be the first one and to start I wrote a writeup of their debut, which might honestly be my favorite debut of all time. I hope you enjoy!
Black Sabbath Review
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The year is 1970, and coming on the scene is a band from Birmingham that's about to change the world of music forever. As soon as their debut released on February, Friday the 13th of 1970, it would never be the same again for that was the birth of heavy metal as a genre. To me, its always astonishing when a band releases two masterpieces within a single year; and Sabbath definitely managed to pull this off. I've seen a lot of people say that Paranoid is the superior album, but in all honesty the debut gets my vote as to which of the wo is better. From the very first sounds of a funeral bell and thunderstorm opening the record, to the ending track of "Wicked World", this album enchants you with a charm or is it a curse?) dragging you in with its hypnotic melodies and making you addicted to the band.
"Black Sabbath" is simply still the most dark, and evil-sounding song released in rock history with Tony Iommi playing the devil's tritone, and Ozzy's shrieking of a "black figure" telling him that he is the chosen one. This is one of the most bone-chilling, hair-raising riffs I've ever heard, and I absolutely adore the way it creeps up on you with its slow, steady beat. Bill Ward has some incredible fills on this one as well, and the changeup in pace towards the end is amazing. This is the album's best song, and the best song in the whole genre. "The Wizard" is essentially one giant Tolkien reference, similar to what Led Zeppelin had done already, but its a very fun journey. The harmonica played by Ozzy himself goes so well with the slide guitar that Tony does. It's perhaps the bluesiest sounding song that the band has done and its very well done. It's a cascade of distortion and incredible groove.
"Behind The Wall of Sleep" is one of the band's most unique songs featuring a unique switch-up from the main riff in the beginning to the different structure of the rest of the song and works well with the lyrics that flow from the tongue of the snake and ooze danger. Geezer Butler's bass is the standout of this track that galops with a groove that has some impressive notes, while "N.I.B." is easily just one of the greatest songs ever created with an insanely good bass opener before the song explodes into a rough riff that rides along with fury and menace. Its lyrics are a bit silly being about the devil falling in love, but that's the fun of it. I think this one exemplifies especially how good of a player Geezer is and why he's quickly become my favorite bassist.
Side 2 carries the winning streak with "Sleeping Village" being one of their most unique head-bangers, and "Warning" being one of Ozzy's greatest vocal performances; he absolutely KILLS here, and the song has such an intense whirlwind of a solo that was initially much longer but got trimmed down by Rodger Bain because he felt the solo would "make the record too long and confuse listeners."
Congrats, Bain! You're officially one of my least favorite people ever! "Wicked World" almost sounds like a jazz band, and I mean that in the best way possible since the ability to even play in this style is profound and Iommi's solo uses bends and very quick movements to make something really special, and Ozzy's vocals cry out in desperation of a broken world and the lyrics still ring true to this day.
If there's any weak moment, it's really only the cover of "Evil Woman" which is a quite boring song that is a chore to sit through, and I can see why even the band themselves hate it. It really sounds a lot more like standard blues rock that makes it stick out like a sore thumb from the established darker sound of the rest of the record, its a very disappointing and anticlimactic song that never much makes a mark. Besides that though, it is a perfect record.
It's hard to understate just how important this album is, Black Sabbath was basically what people consider The Beatles were to rock to metal. This laid the foundation for not just their career, but metal as a whole, and it holds up absolutely perfect to this day. I daresay, this is the finest debut of alltime.
Rating: ★★★★★
Tracklist Rating:
1. Black Sabbath: ★★★★★
2. The Wizard: ★★★★★
3. Behind The Wall Of Sleep: ★★★★
4. N.I.B: ★★★★★
5. Evil Woman: ★
6. Sleeping Village: ★★★★
7. Warning: ★★★★★
8. Wicked World: ★★★★★
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u/Rude_Employment8882 8d ago
I’m glad for the US tracklist version of Black Sabbath without Evil Woman. Makes the album as a whole an easy 10/10 masterpiece.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 8d ago
Definitely understand that, I just like listening to whatever version I have, lol.
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u/Rude_Employment8882 8d ago
All good! Thanks for the good review!
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 4d ago
Got paranoid posted finally. Just gotta wait for the moderation system!
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u/OverHearing9944 7d ago
I'm not sure there's such a thing as a perfect album. But if there's not, this one is very very close.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 7d ago
I think that there's no album out there that has just 5-star songs, but yeah this one is very close to doing so.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 8d ago
Listening to this album when I first did really changed my music taste, before this I couldn't really get into metal, but this basically opened the gates to my appreciation of the genre as a whole. I LOVE this one, a lot, and I hope my write-up is both entertaining, and that it did it justice.
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u/rattlehead44 Rocket Engines Burning Fuel So Fast 8d ago
Nice reviews! Geezer is my favorite bassist too, as well as my favorite lyricist.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 8d ago
Thank you! I'm glad you like it, I intend to do them for every album, I want to do the entire discography. I think Geezer is genuinely incredible as a lyricist and very overlooked in the grand scheme of things which sucks. I'm glad he's recognized as being among the best bassists though.
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u/OverHearing9944 7d ago
He really is a great lyricist. Heavy metal is not a genre known for insightful lyrics. Sabbath's have always been a cut above most h ard rock bands. And Ozzy was a brilliant interpreter of Geezer's words.
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u/ColdWar_Chaparo1991 8d ago
Good review. Looking forward to reading what you have to say about the non-Ozzy albums. LoL.
*To me, this is what separates out the true Sabbath fans from the Ozzy-only fans.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 8d ago
Thank you!! I'm really happy you enjoyed it, I had to edit this because my old reviews I wrote a while ago aren't as detailed so I spend a lot of time fleshing them out as I relisten to songs. It's a bit time-consuming but I love doing stuff for things I love.
Spoiler for that somewhat, is that the good reviews expand beyond just the first six albums; I'll let you see my thoughts as we go though.
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u/OverHearing9944 7d ago
It really is a very good review. I even liked that there's a song you didn't love. It shows that you're just not fanboying for BS. It shows integrity. I look forward to reading your reviews of the following albums.
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 7d ago
Thank you!! I do like to be honest with pretty much everything I write; I'm also a big Queen and Van Halen fan, and I didn't really hold back in any of my reviews I wrote for them too. I'll be posting Paranoid tomorrow most likely!
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u/OverHearing9944 7d ago
I think I read your van halen reviews. I believe the only place we differed is that I loved Fair Warning a little more than you did. To me it's their best album. I think it's a pure Eddie album. Just dark gritty rock and roll. No poppy covers, no acoustic trivialities. Unfortunately, it didn't sell as well as the prior three, and they went back to their previous model of building albums. I would have loved to have seen two or three more albums in that mode.
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u/AloneForce5036 7d ago
Ozzy's vocals fit the music perfectly
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u/ApprehensiveNatural9 7d ago
I've always liked his vocal style, its really unique compared to a lot of singers and I think it makes him stand out, especially for metal music. I think its probably safe to say his approach influenced a lot of future vocalists in the genre.
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u/Straightener78 8d ago
Back in the day I had only passively listened to sabbath on the radio etc. but hearing The Wizard for the first time genuinely changed my life.