BLACK SABBATH

“Day of judgement, God is calling

On their knees, the war pigs crawling

 Begging mercy for their sins

Satan laughing, spreads his wings”

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"C+"

Main Decade:

70's 

Main Ages:

Metal (1970-???) - They actually created it!!

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Key Members:

Ozzy Osbourne, Singer

Tony Iommi, Guitar

Bill Ward, Drums

Geezer Butler, Bass

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Key Songs:

War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Black Sabbath, N.I.B., Electric Funeral, Children of the Grave, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Wheels of Confussion, Sweet Leaf, Into The Vid, Supernaut, Megalomania, After Forever, Fairies Wear Boots, Heaven and Hell, Snowblind, Lord of the World, Changes

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The controversy surrounding whether Black Sabbath's debut album marked the birth of metal lies in the very definition of metal. To date, no concrete definition has been reached, and the term "metal" remains highly ambiguous. Thus, for many, The Troggs' "Wild Thing" is metal, which would make it the first metal in history. They even argue that The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" inaugurated the genre, while many others claim that Iron Maiden isn't metal. The truth is, with so many genres and subgenres, it's impossible to agree, and more and more bands are emerging every day, featuring guys who replace talent with tattoos of skulls and demons and who believe that because they play as loud, fast, distorted, and heaviest as possible, they must be a cult metal band. Many others even consider Def Leppard and Poison to be metal. The boundaries between Hard Rock, Power Ballads, Glam, and Metal are often barely distinguishable, making it very difficult and sometimes absurd to categorize bands and their sounds. The most heated debate about the birth of the genre basically revolves around Black Sabbath's debut album and Led Zeppelin's.

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Now, I'm not, nor do I pretend to be, a Metal expert; my knowledge of the subject is very basic. As you may have noticed, my tastes lean more toward classic rock, but I admire and like bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Dream Theater, and of course Black Sabbath. We'll try to delve deeper into the topic when we discuss the birth and evolution of the genre in its respective Age of Rock, which we analyze month by month. So, with that caveat and without going too deep yet, my opinion is that Heavy Metal begins with Black Sabbath's self-titled album. Why? Simply put, because Zeppelin was making a Hard Rock style closer to the sounds of the late 60s, loaded with blues, distortion, and power, but far from the darkness and density of this album. Of course, there may have been previous material very close to metal that could already be defined as such: Helter Skelter, Dazed & Confused, and countless others. But this is the first album that fully captures that atmosphere, more funereal, mammoth, slow, and mysterious than what had been done until then. To put it clearly: it's the early 70s and in the middle of Flower Power, Ozzy arrives with his band with "evil" (hahaha, evil) lyrics that say: "Is it the end my friend? Satan's comin' 'round the bend!" and "Look into my eyes, you'll see who I am. My name is Lucifer, please take my hand," which also features some of the most sinister and powerful music ever made. Listening to this album was the equivalent of watching a horror movie. And many even compared it to a black mass. Of course, it seems like a joke today compared to other truly apocalyptic lyrics and sounds, but back then, this album represented a dynamite-laden watershed… And not only that, but it was produced with great quality and achieved absolute success on the charts. So, if Metal wasn't truly invented with this album, it did pave the way for it to follow from then on, and that makes it a revolutionary and tremendously influential album in the history of Rock.
 

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Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham, England, in 1968. Young guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, who were in the band Mythology, decided to form a new band after their breakup, seeking a heavy blues sound like the one that prevailed at the time after the psychedelic flare slowly faded. Around that time, a somewhat crazy guy named Ozzy Osbourne was also looking for a band and placed an ad in the newspaper. They ended up meeting and, after a chat, realized they had similar projects in mind. Ozzy brought bassist Geezer Butler, with whom he had played in a band called Rare Breed, and with that, the group was complete. They began rehearsing under the name "The Polka Tulka Blues Co." For a while, they also added guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan Clarke, but they didn't last long.

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After Phillips and Clarke left, the band changed its name to "Earth," and now a quartet, they pursued a sound similar to that of Cream and Blue Cheer, beginning a tour of small clubs in England, Denmark, and Germany. After this mini-tour, Tony decided to leave the group to join Jethro Tull, which had considerably more exposure than "Earth," even appearing with the Tulls at the "Rock & Roll Circus" organized by the Rolling Stones. However, Iommi didn't feel comfortable in the new band, as their undisputed frontman was Ian Anderson, which left him with little room to express his opinions and make decisions about the band's direction, especially considering that he was more blues-rock-oriented and Jethro Tull had more progressive overtones. So he quickly returned to "Earth" in January 1969 before they had a chance to replace him. Far from harming the band, the guitarist's return created a new unity and attitude within the band, putting their backs into working as a team and facing the challenge of achieving success in this new endeavor.

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Thus, they continued to make a name for themselves in the UK, and during one of their tours in August, they realized there was already another band with the name "Earth," so they were forced to find a new one. Geezer Butler was the one who came up with the idea, as across the street from the hotel where they were staying was a cinema showing Boris Karloff's 1963 horror film "Black Sabbath." Butler and Iommi were fans of those horror films, and after seeing it in the theater, they wondered why, if watching those kinds of films caused so much stress and terror, people would line up to see them. So, they not only decided on a new name, but also a new direction, trying to create music that "parallel" to those films, with riffs, notes, and lyrics full of darkness. "Black Sabbath" was the first song written in this vein, inspired by the occult work of Dennis Wheatley and a dream Butler had about a "mysterious, terrifying black figure" standing beside his bed. After being pleased with this first song, they set about creating new compositions with this new sound, which they refined and began perfecting in late 1969.
 

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In December 1969, Black Sabbath caught the attention of Philips Records, who signed them to release their material. The first single was "Evil Woman," which was released through the Fontana Records subsidiary in early 1970. With the relative success of the single, they were ready to release their first LP, which ultimately launched another new Philips subsidiary, focused more on progressive music: Vertigo Records, produced by Rodger Bain. The LP was completed in two days, as many of the previous recordings made since July were completely discarded. Due to time constraints, the album was recorded "live" in the studio, most of it in a single take. Fortunately, the live training sessions they had had, the opportunity to get Ozzy into a separate booth, and the excellent work of Bain as a producer resulted in outstanding results for the speed with which it was recorded.

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The album would be a smash hit. It was released, as we mentioned, on Friday, February 13, 1970, and debuted at number 13 on the charts, eventually rising to number 8. The rest is history. Sabbath would achieve their breakthrough with their next album, also from 1970, Paranoid, in which they attempted to shake off the Satanic label that had been placed on them. However, despite trying to distance themselves from that popular notion, by attacking Satan in their lyrics, they only managed to be misunderstood, further associated with the term, and, in a way, gain a bigger "bad reputation." The incident with the bats didn't help matters much. Ozzy is famous for the scene at a concert where he ripped a bat's head off with his mouth, but according to him, it wasn't planned; it was entirely an accident. According to him, the fans threw the animal onto the stage, and he, thinking it was made of rubber, ripped its head off, sparking a worldwide controversy. The truth is, he had to go to the hospital for treatment for rabies. Ozzy, on the other hand, was heavily influenced by drugs and alcohol, and from then on, many considered his mental state to be very fragile, as he often walked around with a shoe attached to a string, which he dragged around like a pet.

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After other outstanding works like "Master of Reality," and other albums like Vol. 4, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," and "Sabotage," friction began within the group, which was already evident in the poor quality of 1977's "Technical Ecstasy." In November of that year, Ozzy left Black Sabbath. One version says he was the one who left, fed up with Tony's prominence, while others say he was fired because of his alcohol and drug problems, which resulted in his mediocre work with the band.

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The band's original lineup was: Ozzy Osbourne on vocals and the most charismatic frontman the band had to date; Tony Iommi with a fiery guitar; Bill Ward on drums; and Terry "Geezer" Butler on bass. Osbourne was replaced by Ronnie James Dio in 1978, previously the vocalist of Rainbow. Drummer Bill Ward was the next to leave and was replaced by Vinnie Appice in 1981, returning in 1983. Dio left for one album and was replaced by Ian Gillian, of none other than Deep Purple. In 1986, the band collapsed, and although Iommi retained the name Black Sabbath, it was really a support band for his solo work, nothing significant, by the way, and with constant changes, totaling 22 members who have passed through the ranks of BS. In 1998, after countless changes, the original members of Black Sabbath, including Ozzy, reunited to release the album "Reunion." They are still currently performing under the name Heaven and Hell, with Dio on vocals.
 

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Now, musically, the original lineup was enormous.

It's hard to categorize Ozzy with his helium-like voice. It's not a beautiful voice. It's not even very powerful, like Plant or Gillian, and it took him a while to reach his full potential. However, despite his limitations, Ozzy is tremendously expressive with his voice and has enormous charisma. Although Osbourne comes in third among that triumvirate formed with Page and Gillian, he knows his limitations and knows how to use the characteristics of his voice to make the songs even weirder and darker. On the other hand, Dio undoubtedly has a higher register and a very well-educated voice, but I'll take Ozzy 100% of the time. The lyrics are considered a weak point of the band, and despite being misinterpreted as Satanic (in reality, many of the lyrics that were considered such were against Satan, and the crosses they carried were because they were really afraid of the bunch of witches who were chasing them instead of the groupies they would have liked) and not being truly philosophical or literary works on the level of Lovecraft, they are much better than 99% of the material from the metal bands that have been popping up from under the rocks lately.

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Tony Iommi, for his part, must be recognized as a true virtuoso on the guitar. He's undoubtedly one of the best and most talented guitarists of the early 1970s, who knew how to distance himself from the blues, yet perfectly understood what it took to make great songs, with tremendous riffs, an aspect in which he arguably surpasses Page or Blackmore, and without the need for unnecessarily long solos (Page's specialty) and without experimenting with excessive pedal noise and feedback (Blackmore's specialty). Iommi has a simple technique, not necessarily spectacular, but he does have tremendous guitar technique. He's no mathematician, but his guitar playing never lacks or overdoes a note in his good work. He also invented a new guitar tone, that spectacular tritone that gives a cold and crushing atmosphere to the songs. He's not bad on the acoustic. He may not be as proficient as Page, but he has some pretty good, laid-back songs like "Laguna Sunrise." And if we take into account that he did this after cutting off his finger, his work stands out even more.

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Finally, Geezer Butler on bass and Bill Ward on drums form a fairly solid rhythmic foundation. They may not be among the top 10 on their instruments, but they do outstanding work compared to the average drummer and bassist of the time, with some anthology-worthy solos, riffs, and rolls, and they provide a strong foundation for Iommi to do his guitar work.

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Despite the criticism and mediocre work resulting from the dissolution and Tony's stubbornness in maintaining the name, Black Sabbath is a great band. At least the original lineup and some of the early work with Dio. Black Sabbath has earned their place in history, if not as the fathers of metal, then as those who introduced the genre and turned it into a worldwide phenomenon. The fact that today there are plenty of zombies pretending to play metal and who are more funny than scary isn't really their fault... or is it? A pretty solid C as a band just for their innovation in creating a genre, for the number of classic songs they have, for their influence on rock and for the enormous quality of their musicians.
 

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By Corvan  

Jul/25/2011

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