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| Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Band: Black Sabbath Tracks: - Black Sabbath - Wizard - Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B. - Wicked World - Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning Blistering Blues-Rock I think Scott Ian from the speed metal Band Anthrax said it best during an interview he did for VH1: "There was nobody like Black Sabbath." It was a very true statement. When Black Sabbath's self-titled 1970 debut was released, nobody in the music world expected it to go anywhere. Of course, how wrong they were. Sabbath's debut was certainly one of the most original and daring hard rock albums to come out in the genre's short history. The only other two bands playing that loud and ferociously were The Who (the godfathers of hard rock) and Led Zeppelin (hard rock's torchbearers). What set Sabbath apart were their horror movie influences, dark, fuzzy guitar riffs, and moody rhythm section. It's been over a year this March since I own this album, so I thought it was about time I write a review for it. The band's signature song "Black Sabbath" opens the record with sound effects of thunder, rain, and chiming Church bells before Tony Iommi's spooky guitar riff scares the daylights out of you. This is a great, haunting 6-minute tune about going to Hell. Ozzy Osbourne's whiny wail makes the lyrics all the more devastating. I can understand why many say that this was the start of heavy metal, but it was only for this opening track. The rest of the album sounds more like bluesy hard rock than metal. But it's still good. "The Wizard" is a lightning-fast blues number where Bill Ward shines on the drum kit. Great harmonica playing by Ozzy as well (I didn't even know he could play harmonica!). The 9-minute medley of "Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Bassically/N.I.B." is the album's highlight. It starts off with the slow and grinding "Wasp," which leads right into the similar-sounding "...Wall of Sleep." Geezer Butler's bass solo "Bassically" follows and is a segue for one of the band's most popular Live songs, "N.I.B." Awesome. "Wicked World" is yet another blues song, but it's groovier and you can actually dance to it. Great riff, too. Despite all this greatness, there are two reasons why I took 1 star off the rating. 1) The sound quality is bad. This was mainly due to the extremely low budget ($900), but if they were able to use groundbreaking sound effects for "BS," I think they could've produced the record a little bit better, don't you think? 2) The closing 14-minute medley "Warning" is just too long. It showcases Tony Iommi as a talented guitar player, but most of the time it's just him and not the band. Plus, it's mostly blues and little else. If they added other influences and picked up the tempos, then this jam wouldn't sound as boring as it does. Although I don't listen to BLACK SABBATH as much as I used to because of those flaws, it's still an important album in classic rock & roll and is worthy enough to be in anybody's record co The darkest album around when it came out Yes, Black Sabbath's self-titled album was the darkest and heaviest thing around when it came out, and it remains one of the darkest and best metal albums out there. It still amazes me how different this sounds than what was being produced at the time.<BR>1. Black Sabbath (10/10) The darkest, doomiest song on the album. I Love the creepy intro, with the sound of rain in the background and doomy guitar. Type O Negative's cover of this isn't bad, but it can't beat the original.<BR>2. The Wizard (10/10) Surprisingly upbeat when compared to the first song, this is still a great jammin' song, with Ozzy even doing some harmonica, something you won't hear often in metal songs (probably a good thing).<BR>3. Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/Basically/NIB (10/10)Great guitar work in this medley (actually 2 songs, Wasp and Basically are "intros"). Behind the Wal he best track in the set. Overlooked on Lovesexy, this song actually makes me feel good after listening to it. I actually bought the box set during a bad week, and this song gave me a great outlook. The emotion is only hightened by the music. It's total bliss. Prince up forever. Buy Black Sabbath Black Sabbath at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.comJamster - the latest ringtones for your phone! |
