Black Sabbath- Black Sabbath (1970)

Prepost:
Yes, I realize I took a month off from reviews. College, and a new approach that'll become evident over the next few weeks.

Review:
Raw. What can be said about Sabbath's debut that hasn't been said a million times? That it took the Blues, distorted it past recognition, and played the most evil riffs mankind had ever heard? Sure, there had been some heavy blues in 1968 and 1969, and even some distorted psychedelic music, but nothing like the brand of metal that Black Sabbath was about to unleash on the world.

As context for the ignorant, there are probably two events, flukes, accidents, acts with impacts far greater impacts than could be conceived at the time. The first involves Mr. Tony Iommi, the father of metal. Iommi used to work in a factory, and he hated it, so he decided to quit. He wasn't even going to go in for his last day of work, but his mother convinced him to. That day, his last day, he had the tips of several fingers chopped off in a machine accident. He almost gave up the guitar until someone showed him the works of Django Reinhardt, a similarly crippled guitarist. Iommi then shifted his playing, from the more bluesy, fuller chords which were now too much work on his fingers, to grittier, heavier power chords.

The second happened when the band was rehearsing, and across the street, Geezer Butler observed people lining up in droves to watch some old horror movie. It occurred to Geezer that people ENJOY being scared, and as the band's primary lyricist, he then incorporated the themes of horror and Satan into the bands lyrics, solidifying their image.

It's important to note that the band was not a bunch of raving satanists. In fact, the inspiration for the lyrics of the opening track were a vision Geezer Butler had of a dark figure standing at the end of his bed. A basic examination of the band's lyrics reveal the theme that Satan is not something to be toyed with, but to be terrified from, and to avoid at all costs. Horror movies rarely glorify the villain, and Sabbath's brand of horror is no different.

But. On to the music. I may be regurgitating what everyone already knows here, but the opening track is built around the "Devil's note", an interval of a half octave that contains what is regarded as the most unsettling contrast between two notes. In ancient times, you could be put to death for playing them, because it was believed that they were used to summon the devil. For the first chunk of the song, the music is built around that riff, with Ozzy's haunting singing about "Satan coming round the bend", but ending with a high octane guitar solo and jam. Irrelevant of the historical relevance of this song, this is a MASSIVE song.

The next song is "The Wizard", a bit of a "Happier" track, featuring some of Bill Ward's best drumming and the rarely used harmonica talents of Ozzy. Behind the Wall of sleep continues the trend, with another more upbeat number, and the distorted blues rocking of Tony Iommi, but the lyrics are mystical and haunting. Where the album picks up steam again is the legendary N.I.B. referenced sometimes as "Nativity in Black", other times as a reference to Bill Ward's "Nib" beard.

Being that Geezer Butler hadn't been given a chance to shine on this record yet, the track opens with a lengthy bass solo, titled on some versions of the album as "Bassically", leading in to the heavily distorted bass riff that pounds through the song. This is faster, but no less haunting or heavy than anything on the album thus far.

From here, the album varies from version to version, however the most official releases feature a cover version of the song "Evil Woman", featuring some admiral basswork by Geezer. This track was originally used as a promotional single, but all the pieces are in place for a great song.

Sleeping Village falls after Evil Woman on the original European release. It opens as a much slower track, in the style of the album's opener, but relies more on Ozzy's voice than Iommi's riffs to create the atmosphere, after about a minute though, Iommi steals the show with another killer riff and an extended jam/solo session with some of the earliest signs of shredding, it will be a few more months before the art form is fully realized, but this sets the stage, that goes on for about 2 minutes, and then a return to the song's primary riff to close out the song. Unlike the proto-metal before it, Sabbath gave no concern to song structure, and this is one of the best examples.

The final song on the original European release is "Warning", which I suppose is a sort of cover of an Aynsley Dunbar retaliation song. I say sort of because the song was less than four minutes in its original version, and Sabbath stretched it past 10. Geezer Butler took much more prominence in this than the bass in the original version, but like on most of the record, Iommi is the star. The "Cover" if nothing else serves as an intro to a 7 minute jam extravaganza, mostly in guitar solo flare. It's obvious that a very good chunk of the session was improvised on the spot, which is ballsy for a studio recording, especially a debut. It ends with a short repeat of the chorus, which serves as the end of the original release of the album, however, the American version, and the remastered European edition both contain the song "Wicked World", which also made quite a few live appearances at different times in the band's career. I choose to include it in the review because it serves as another great example of how Tony Iommi defined heavy metal guitar playing.

This isn't Black Sabbath's best album, nor their most well known, nor their best selling, but as their debut, it serves (Along with the works of Deep Purple) as the foundation for all the metal that came after it. On pure significance alone, this should be heard at least once, and on its merit as an incredible album,  quite a few times after that.