Black Sabbath: Born Again

Black Sabbath: Born Again

1983

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Trashed  2. Stonehenge  3. Disturbing the Priest  4. The Dark  5. Zero the Hero  6. Digital Bitch  7. Born Again  8. Hot Line  9. Keep it Warm


This cover is considered to be one of the worst album covers of all time...Man, I can't disagree with this enough...I'm telling you this is my favorite album cover ever...Just looking at that garish red demon-baby against the most purpley purple background I've ever seen, makes me so deliriously happy...I might just write a novel on how much joy it brings me...

I think it has so much impact on me, because I can recall, as clearly as if it were yesterday, my first time seeing this cover...I was probably about 7 or 8 years old, and I remember staring at it with a mix of awe, revulsion and sheer wonder...It was so beautiful..It felt so primal,  forbidden and funny...

As for the album itself, this was released after "Live Evil" (which I've never heard, because the thought of Dio singing Ozzy songs is a horrifying thought, for some reason...)....



There was some band dispute (rumor has it over mixing "Live Evil") that resulted in Dio and Vinny Appice leaving the band, and Sabbath replaced him with ex-Deep Purple front-man Ian Gillan. Bill Ward was back also, after sitting out "Mob Rules." The resulting album is a bit of a mess...Sometimes in the best possible way and other times in the worst...

Listening to it immediately after the sleek n' shiny "The Mob Rules"  just about spun my head around...The guitars and bass are stirred together into some thick, black soup, the drums sound so over-echoed and lost...Like they're being played from the bottom of the Grand Canyon...But against all odds the muted, sludgy production is a big plus...It sounds so grimy, dank and evil...After the  theatrical menace of the Dio years, this sounds a bit like the old black magic they used to summon back in the  early Ozzy days...

The biggest problem with the album is that sometimes the band doesn't play to Ian's strengths, and  he comes across as either lost or unintentionally hilarious...But that said, I honestly love the blazing opener "Trashed." Easily, one of my favorite Black Sabbath songs...I think it works so well because it comes across as the scuzz-rock version of "Highway Star."  It's a style that is a perfect fit for both Ian and Black Sabbath...

Really, all of side one is cool..."Disturbing the Priest" starts off with Ian's evil cackles, that remind me of the guy in the local haunted house that's trying too hard to scare you, and comes across as cute instead...But once the song gets going it rules...The odd production was such a smooth fit for "Trashed" that it's easy to overlook it, but on this track things are beginning to get strange...It marks the moment when you have to  grapple with the reality of the record..This is where you'll either find yourself sufficiently  intrigued to keep exploring  or where you're going to shut it off and throw it in the trash...

Good call on not shutting it off...The bizarre "Zero the Hero" is next...The "What's it gonna be Brutha.." chorus summons "The Macho Man" Randy Savage to mind. but the endless lanscape of towering riffs is your true reward...

Toss in some of Ian Gillan's trademark hilariously surreal lyrics and you have a wonderful conversation piece for your Friday Night Record Party....

"Your face-down life ain't so much of a pity
But the luv-a-duckin' way you're walkin' around the city
with your balls and your head full of nothing
it's easy for you sucker but you really need stuffing..."

WTF?

 A fascinating side one to be sure...Now what's odd is that I'm scraping to find anything good to say about  side two..."Digital Bitch" is good for a laugh but that's about it...One of the worst Black Sabbath songs...I'd rather listen to "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" or "FX' than this...

(I didn't mention it in the "Vol.4" post, but I actually kind of enjoy :""FX"...It seems like it would fit in pretty good at the end of side one of Sun Ra's "Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy"...

)

The title track is pretty cool actually...Sounds like one of Deep Purple's more atmospheric epics...Big and icy...And again, the lyrics...

"The grey and plastic retards all floating in circles
And as you taste the fruits of new sensations ..."

When you hear this delivered so emotionally over the chilling,watery backdrop it's so wonderfully surreal...Every time I hear this track it becomes more enigmatic and fascinating...

That said they probably should have ended the album here...Made it  a mini-album or something..."Hot Line" is unbearably irritating...All of Ian's faults are on full display here...When he relentlessly pours on that hammy, banshee wail for the last couple minutes of the song it takes all my power to not life the needle form the record and toss it...."WOHHH-HHH-HHH-HAAAA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-!!!!!"

Your enjoyment of  "Keep It Warm" will directly correlate with your enjoyment of Guns N' Roses power ballads...If hearing "Patience" or "November Rain" makes you wanna throw your bra onstage, then you'll probably enjoy this...I'm going to wait until they play "Disturbing the Priest" to throw mine...

...Oh yea, I almost forgot to mention the band's legendary "Born Again" tour...



This was the tour when the band decided to build a replica of Stonehenge for the stage set and dressed a  dwarf  as the demon-baby...There are two different (and equally hilarious ) takes on what happened....First we have Ian Gillan's side of the story:

"We were up at a company called LSD (Light and Sound Design) in Birmingham, and the lighting engineer asked if anyone had any ideas for a stage set. Geezer Butler suggested Stonehenge. "How do you envisage it, Geezer?" asked the engineer. "Life size, of course," replied Geezer. So they built a life-size Stonehenge. We hired the Birmingham NEC to rehearse in and they couldn't get these bloody things in there. We opened in Montreal and Don Arden had hired Maple Leaf ice hockey stadium for a week, so they shipped the set over there and could still only get a few of those damn stones up, one each side of the stage, one behind the drums and two cross-pieces. The album was called Born Again and had the most vile cover I've ever seen, a new-born baby painted red with yellow finger nails and two little yellow horns sticking out of his head.

Now, I've not been able to remember a single word of any of the Sabbath songs, I don't know why but they won't go into my head. So I did myself a prompt book and wrote out the first lines of each song. I don't normally use monitors but I had two wedges put at the front of the stage just to hide my book, and I'd practices turning the pages with my foot at home in the kitchen. No problem. On the last day of the rehearsal we're wondering what this dwarf is doing hanging around backstage. When we do the dress rehearsal the dwarf emerges in a red leotard, long yellow finger nails and little yellow horns. He's going to be the baby.

Then we hear this horrendous screaming sound — they've recorded a baby's scream and flanged it—and suddenly; we see this dwarf crawling across the top of Stonehenge, then he stands up as the baby's scream fades away and falls backwards off this 30 foot fiberglass replica of Stonehenge onto a big pile of mattresses. Then dong, dong — bells start toiling and all the roadies come across the front of the stage in monk's cowls, at which point War Pigs starts up. By now we can see the kids are either in stitches or wincing in horror.

After spending 40 grand a day to achieve all this, someone had economized by not actually trying out the dry ice in the afternoon run through. So as I stride confidently towards my prompt book, not even knowing the first word of the song, I'm suddenly shocked to see a chest-high cloud of dry ice is berating me to the front of the stage. So there I am after this big opening, kneeling down, swatting the air and trying to read me line, popping my head above this cloud every now and then. Someone shouted "It's Ronnie Dio!"

  Alright..That' pretty great...So according to Ian it was Geezer's fault for saying he wanted the Stonehenge to be "life sized." So what does Geezer have to say?

"It had nothing to do with me. In fact, I was the one who thought it was really corny. We had Sharon Osbourne’s dad, Don Arden, managing us. He came up with the idea of having the stage set be Stonehenge. He wrote the dimensions down and gave it to our tour manager. He wrote it down in meters but he meant to write it down in feet. The people who made it saw fifteen meters instead of fifteen feet. It was 45 feet high and it wouldn’t fit on any stage anywhere so we just had to leave it the storage area. It cost a fortune to make but there was not a building on earth that you could fit it into."

Either way they constructed a 30 foot tall Stonehenge just to celebrate an atmospheric instrumental that's under 2 minutes long...That's why this album is so great..Ian Gillan's one and only Black Sabbath album is spotty, but at the same time everything about it is so interesting...

So let's check out "Trashed" by Black Sabbath...Enjoy...

Black Sabbath: Mob Rules

Black Sabbath: Mob Rules

1981

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Turn Up the Night  2. Voodoo  3. The Sign of the Southern Cross  4. E5150  5. The Mob Rules  6. Country Girl  7. Slipping Away  8. Falling Off the Edge of the World  9. Over and Over


I ultra-love this album cover...I can still recall seeing it as a kid and finding it so endlessly fascinating...To this day I have no idea what in the world is being depicted but its breathtaking nonetheless...

Supposedly, there's a hidden message that says "Kill Ozzy" at the bottom right hand corner...Somebody else, was so kind to highlight the areas in question...

When I first saw the cover, the "OZZY" jumped right out at me, but the "kill" was a little more of a stretch..The original artists has de-bunked this, saying he created the album art 10 years before Sabbath used it...But I think it's more fun to pretend that the Sabbath-Ozzy break-up got so intense that they openly wished death upon each other on their album covers... 

Anyway, I like the Mob Rules" album very much...It follows its predecessors footprints very closely, but I actually like this one a bit more...It feels like the gloves are off...It's dirtier, it rocks a bit more, the songs are catchier, and I also get less of a Advanced D&D vibe, so I think that helps too...

 I've always liked side one of this, in particular...Although less-heralded, "Turn Up the Night" is every bit the ass-kicking opener that "Neon Knights " was, and when Dio sings, "It's the sign of the southern croo-o-o-o-o-o-ss..." on the song of the same name, I can't help but involuntarily make the horned hand and nod my head knowingly....

Sure there's the filler-ish  atmospheric instrumental  "E5150", but I'm going to defend its inclusion for its cool title alone (V is the Roman numeral for 5, the 1 looks like the letter I, and the L is the roman numeral for 50...So, it spells "EVIL", but there's probably no use spelling that out for everyone, cos I'm probably the last person to hear about this) ...Plus, I think it builds anticipation for the title track, which is the best song on the album, and one of my all-time Black Sababth favorites...Although, I'm 100% willing to admit that my admiration for the song is probably heavily tinted by nostalgia...I first heard the song on the "Heavy Metal: Music From the Motion Picture"  soundtrack...My Brother had this on cassette and this was another one I was obsessed with...everything about it was great to a young kid...

I think that the shrunken cover of the cassette actually made it more intriguing...I couldn't make out exactly what was going on, but I knew it was awesome...The words "heavy metal" written in metal...A big-titted  warrior-woman riding a chicken...A band lineup that featured Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, Sammy Hagar, Cheap Trick and Devo?!?! My five year old mind was blown! Just looking at that jpeg above takes me back to 1981 so vividly that I have to look down to make sure I'm not wearing Toughskins...

So yea, I can't help but smile when I hear Dio belt out:

"Close the city,
 and tell the people that,
 something's coming to call..."

 Side two is fine also, just not as many highlights..."Country Girl" always makes me laugh because I can imagine Dio ,dosey-doeing  barefoot in overalls with a straw hat and a hayseed in his mouth...And really that's all I ask of a side two...

So. let's listen to "Turn Up the Night" by Black Sabbath...Enjoy...

Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell

Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell

1980

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

1. Neon Knights  2. Children of the Sea  3. Lady Evil  4. Heaven and Hell  5. Wishing Well  6. Die Young  7. Walk Away  8. Lonely Is the Word



I like the album cover for "Heaven and Hell"... it always reminds me of this...



Maybe one of the Smoking Angel Women is the Smoking Baby's Mother...

 Anyway, Black Sabbath's 1980 album "Heaven and Hell" sees Ozzy out, and ex-Elf/Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio steps in to replace him, and putting them back on top of the heavy metal world...

I never really realized how unique and stylized Ozzy actually was until I heard Dio take the reigns...Dio is a much more traditionally talented vocalist, and more "generic metal" than Ozzy...Not that I'm calling Dio generic, mind you...Hell, he probably invented most of these Heavy Metal tropes, but if you were to imitate a generic metal vocalist, you would probably belt out a shrieking  vibrato-heavy "AAAHHH_H_H_H_H_H_H..."  that sounds a lot like Dio...

Personally, I find Dio to be much less compelling, however, this album is better than the last couple of Sabbath records, because the band sounds so damn re-energized...So vital...

My God, where was "Neon Nights" when Ozzy was still around?  Cold he have even handled it? So lively and rocking ..even Dio's dorky Dungeons & Dragons lyrics don't ruin it...It's kind of awesome when he claws his way to the top of Dragonspear Mountain,  holds the enchanted goblet on high and grandly proclaims:

"Circles and rings, dragons and kings
Weaving a charm and a spell..."

 Something about it really make me want to break out the Cheetos and the 20-sided die...

 And the band maintains their new-found polish, drive and professionalism throughout the album; everything is tight and punchy...The guitar riffs have been pulled from the primordial sludge, the arrangements are machine-tooled precise, no more meandering structures, jazz sections, etc....It's up to you if this is a good or bad thing...

I think in light of what things had become it was probably the right move...I think they had taken that approach as far as it would go on "Sabotage" and while the following albums are definitely enjoyable, in retrospect they sounded a little tired...Would I have preferred it if they were able to pull off another "Master of Reality" or "Vol. 4" at this point? Well, hell yea...But I don't believe they were capable of that anymore...and judging by the positive response to "Heaven and Hell" I don't think it's what the fans wanted either...This wasn't the thick and flabby 70's anymore...This was the 80's! People were getting "Physical", man!

 We needed a trim and sleek Black Sabbath and if it took Dio to do that, then by all means, God bless his sacred little heart...



 (which we should get to in about a year...)

Sure, Dio's a little much sometimes...His   "Lord, she's handsome!" at the beginning of "Walk Away" never fails to make me LOL, but then he really comes through on the majestic "Heaven and Hell" or "Children of the Sea" and I buy it completely...Although your enjoyment of this will hinge on your tolerance for Tolkien metal...I was raised on it, so I like to think I have a high tolerance, but this reallllly pushes it at times..

Bottom line is though, that it's hard to complain when the highs are so high and the band sounds so good... Screw it...Don't think about it...Just drink a flagon of Mead and enjoy...

Here's "Die Young: by Black Sabbath...

Black Sabbath: Never Say Die

Black Sabbath: Never Say Die

1978

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Never Say Die  2. Johnny Blade  2. Junior's Eyes  4.  A Hard Road  5. Shock Wave  6. Air Dance  7. Over to You  8. Breakout  9. Swinging the Chain

"Never Say Die" was the final Black Sabbath album to feature Ozzy, until this 2013's "13"...Too bad they didn't go out on a higher note...or maybe a lower one, like a C# for example...But there were quite a few things working against the band at this time...For example, Ozzy's drug dependency catching up to him and the recent death of his father... The album was also originally done with a replacement singer, who was given the heave-ho when Ozzy came back, but Ozzy wouldn't sing the stuff written while the other singer was with the band, so it was all re-written at the last minute..So the record has a distinct style that sounds over-written yet under-worked, if that makes sense...Overly long, overly complicated songs that are missing some of the old spark...And in many places it feels a bit sluggish, even though it's probably faster than some of their other albums...

Things start out promising enough with the title track....One my faves actually...I mean, it doesn't exactly sound like Black Sabbath, but it's absolutely one of the best songs Thin Lizzy never wrote...Crashing Power chords and galloping beat, and Ozzy sounds so on top of it (which is the only time on the album where you can truly say that...). It sounds like they've finally mastered the style they were going for on "Technical Ecstasy", and it gets you all psyched for the awesome album that never comes...

The second song "Johnny Blade" sets the tone more accurately...It's overly complex for such a simple hard rock song, and it doesn't have any particularly memorable hook or chorus or even a killer riff...It took me about 10 listens to even remember how it goes...But like a good number of the songs on the album, I did eventually learn to enjoy it...

 "Junior's Eyes" is particularly interesting...I like Geezer and Bill's moody funk groove, and "A Hard Road" is very refreshing in its uptempo, straight-forward poppiness...but side two is almost a complete loss, outside of the unexpected jazz-fusion on "Air Dance." Nothing else really connects with me there...Hell, even Ozzy seems to have stepped out for a drink well before the album's over, since he doesn't even appear on the last two songs!

 Not the best way to close out the Ozzy era...I actually think they probably should have just got back together to do the "Never Say Die/A Hard Road " single...

But wait...Then we would have never gotten that kick-ass album cover!

The band actually turned down Hipgnosis' original album cover...But Hipgnosis later reused it for Rainbow's "Difficult to Cure."...



Ahhh, screw it...I'm happy "Never Say Die!" exists...What's a well-rounded discography without a few minor entries...Let's check out Black Sabbath performing the title track on "Top of the Pops!" It's a very cool clip...

 

Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy

Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy

1976

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Back Street Kids  2. You Won't Change Me  3. It's Alright  4. Gypsy  5. All Moving Parts (Stand Still)  6. Rock 'n' Roll Doctor  7. She's Gone  8. Dirty Women


Hey! This album came out in 1976! That was the year I was born! A lot of you might not know this but there's strong photographic evidence that I was once a baby!

 Here's one taken of me in the 70's wearing a Gene Simmons costume...I believe the person holding me is my cousin Darlene and the girl to the right of me is my sister, Meme... And to celebrate the joyous occasion of my birth, Black Sabbath decided to release their first lackluster album...

Nahhh, I'm exaggerating, a bit...It's not bad at all...Jut a little off-putting at first because it's a relatively normal sounding hard rock record...Normal? From Ozzy-era Black Sabbath?  I can see Tony Martin singing normal sounding hard rock maybe, but Ozzy Osbourne?!?! Before he met Zakk Wylde no less?!?! 

 (Squeeeee!!! (pinched harmonic...)

It's just weird to hear Black Sabbath aim for the Arena crowd, with big synthesizers and Tony Iommi  performing lighter-waving guitar solos...I think I probably did a double-take when I first heard Bill Ward getting all Eric Carmen on  the piano pop track "It's Alright." Wha-?

But to be totally honest, if I didn't know this was a Black Sabbath album, (like, for instance, if  it said Styx on the cover.) I'd probably be praising the shit out of all the catchy stadium-rock songs .. "Gypsy" would sound great as you're eating $8.00 nachos and staring at the lasers from the cheap seats at the Miller Lite-Dome...

So, I'm going to defend "Technical Ecstasy." They played with the formula a bit and side one is strong...Side two sags a bit with the generic "Rock N' Roll Doctor" and "She's Gone" which is the droopiest ballad ever...But whatever...It's a pretty good time-waster...

So let's waste some time and listen to "Back Street Kids" by Black Sabbath...

Black Sabbath: Sabotage

Black Sabbath: Sabotage

1975

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc & Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Hole in the Sky  2. Don't Start (Too Late)  3. Symptom of the Universe  4. Megalomania  5. The Thrill of It All  6. Supertzar  7. Am I Going Insane (Radio)  8. The Writ  9.Sweet Leaf (Live)


Okay,  we're going to get the obligatory mocking of the front cover out of the way up front...  

 

Ha ha ha! Lookit the mustache guy in the white pants on the far left! He has a boner! Ha! Ha! Doesn't he know it's after Labor Day?  Lookit Ozzy's dress Ho! Ho! And Bill Ward has a leather jacket and see through red tights combo! Lookit the back cover!!!

You can see his checkerboard underwear through his red tights! Ho ho diddley  ho ho!

Alright, let's cut the shit...After "Vol. 4" this is my favorite Black Sabbath album, although it's not usually acknowledged as being one of their great albums...Is it pure, blind  nostalgia on my part? Or attributable to my bad taste? I don't know...but I love this album...Always have always will...

I can still recall the first time I got it... I went to the Mall in Saginaw with my folks circa 1991 and was able to pick out a cassette tape and a video game, so I came home with "Decap Attack" for the Sega Genesis...



...and the "Sabotage" tape...

Yea! It looked just like that...With the pink border on the top and bottom...And the  blurb boasting that this album featured "Sweet Leaf"! (Which it kinda did, I guess...There was a live version tacked on at the end...)

So I can clearly recall sitting in the back seat of the car, (it was about an hour and a half drive from Saginaw to Hale...) and listening to this cassette over and over on my walkman for the ride home...

It's such a vivid moment of time for me, and whenever I put on this record I'm instantly transported back to that day...Music can do that sometimes...Just preserve a perfect day for us, somehow...No one knows when or how this will happen...There's a lot of albums I own that I can't quite pinpoint the exact circumstances of when i first heard it (time, place etc) but this one I could...I hear the opening riff to "Hole in the Sky" and BAM! I'm riding in the back of a 1991 Ford Tempo!

Anyway, I promised a couple days ago to reveal what my other favorite Black Sabbath song was (besides "Snowblind") and we had one correct answer from a Ms. Gwendolyn Adcock from
Montpelier, Vermont...So she wins the dream date with Jamin 80...We'll be having dinner at Sarducci's Italian Restaurant located on the intersection of Main and Berlin...Just don't stand me up this time, okay? Oh, and you pay for the drinks and the restraining order...

Okay, here's the big reveal...

(Click on the video below for the suspense-building drum roll...Remember...this is a big deal...)

My favorite (or perhaps second favorite...I dunno...It's too close to call...) Black Sabbath track is ...

...Symptom of the Universe!

Yea, I just love "Symptom of the Universe." It's so damn heavy...That chugging riff cements its place as the first speed-metal song...And they also prove they're just too damn weird to settle for merely inventing speed-metal...They also toss in an oddball acoustic section in the song that represents some genre that hasn't been properly established yet...I don't really know how to explain the acoustic section...It has a slight Latin tinge mixed with some hippie grooviness...Who knows, you'll be so crushed by the main metal part that you won't even notice...

And I loooove all the long, multi-part epics on this record...I'm calling "Megalomania" my third favorite Black Sabbath song...That's right...All nine minutes and 46 seconds of it...I love the hazy first part with the "obsess...obsess...obsess..." echo vocals...Love the big Beatlesy melody that comes in during the "Why don't you just get out of my life?" section...Love the part where it sounds like Ozzy's singing "Feel it slipping away! Rubber Ducks of Sorrow!" Loveity love love love!



Hell, I even love the much-maligned "Am I Going Insane (Radio)." I especially love the keyboards that everybody else seems to hate, and I think the pop aspect of it suits them just fine. A lot of folks think this song was some desperate grab for a hit, often citing the "(Radio)" section of the title as proof, but in reality that's not what it's referring to...Apparently it comes from some saying "radio-rental" which is rhyming slang for "mental," so really it's just a humorous way to say "insane." So nyahhh haters...

The only track I don't care for is "Supertzar" which is just the band playing along to some Russian-sounding choir...



I don't think it's awful or anything...It's just the obvious weak point and sometimes gives me the urge to cut the record short, despite "The Writ" coming on next (an Arena-Doom song I immensely enjoy...)

I'll wrap this up so you can go on with your day..."Sabotage" is a great album and it tends to get overlooked, so if you haven't heard it in awhile or remember it as being a minor entry in their catalog, I say check it out one more time...The band kind of loses the plot after this record, but I think they're still in control here...So set aside 10 minutes and let's check out "Megalomania" by Black Sabbath...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

1973

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath  2. A National Acrobat  3. Fluff  4. Sabra Cadabra  5. Killing Yourself to Live 6. Who Are You  7. Looking for Today  8. Spiral Architect


Man, look at that title..."Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"...And that artwork A man writhing on a bed emblazoned with the numerals 666,  while skeletons and demons torment him...Hell yea! Surely, this must be the most downright heaviest, most evil Black Sabbath albums yet, right?

Ehhh, not so much...It's actually their cleanest, most professional and well arranged record yet...Strings, synthesizers, tons of harmonized guitar leads. Rick Wakeman on piano...Huh?

Luckily they ease us into the sound...The title tracks kicks things off here and it sounds exactly like you'd expect;  big bruising riff, Ozzy's graveyard wail, and one of the heaviest damn breaks in metal history...Ohhh, this is good shit.. I mean, all the heaviness breaks for a moment or two for the  "Nobody would ever let you know..." section, but it's cool...Unexpected....and it makes the rest of the song sound even heavier in its contrast..It sounds just like the Sabbath of old, but with a lot more production and songwriting tricks up their sleeves...

"A National Acrobat" comes next and is straight ahead hard rock, and "Fluff" isn't that surprising either...It's an acoustic instrumental, very much in the style of "Laguna Sunrise," just a bit expanded, but wait..."Sabra Cadabra" sounds like Thin Lizzy, and features a very prog rock Moog solo..."Who Are You" is almost all Moog...and then there's the incredible "Looking For Today" which has a great chorus that sounds so...happy?

It took a lot of listens for the rest of this album to sink in for some reason...It kind of just seemed like Black Sabbath largely dropping their previous crushing sound and going for a more traditional hard rock style,  but the songs didn't seem to be there...But give this thing some time to work...After a few listens the songs started to distinguish themselves and those impenetrably complex, constantly  shifting arrangements started to make sense and soon enough "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" jumped to the top of the heap as one of my favorite Black Sabbath albums...If it happened to me, it can happen to you...

So let's check out "Looking For Today" by Black Sabbath...Enjoy...

Black Sabbath: Vol. 4

Black Sabbath: Vol. 4

1972

Vertigo Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener  2. Tomorrow's Dream  3. Changes  4. FX  5. Supernaut  6. Snowblind  7. Cornucopia  8. Laguna Sunrise  9. St. Vitus Dance  10. Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes


If I was forced to choose my favorite Black Sabbath album, I'd  have to choose this...It's kind of like a more varied, more coked-out version of "Master of Reality." They even thank cocaine in the liner notes...

This record seems so 70's to me...So beautifully 70's! Even though I'm listening to it on a CD player right now, I can't process the fact that I'm not listening to an 8-Track...

Yea....That's more like it...An orange 8-track...I'll also accept a vinyl record with a big ol' dustbunny on the needle...

Anyway, so much great stuff here...When the brief guitar noodles give way to the behemoth riff at the beginning of "Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener" is just monumental in my mind...

...and this is the record with "Snowblind" and "Supernaut" on it..."Supernaut" sounds like nothing less than a wrecking ball bouncing down a street, and "Snowblind" has such a convincingly icy tone that the temperature usually drops a few degrees every time I play it...I'm calling "Snowblind" my favorite Black Sabbath song...At least in the top two...In two days we'll find out what other song is vying for that title...Try not too get too excited for the revelation...Here's a few step you can take to calm yourself down if  you find yourself getting overly anxious for the results...

1. Relax. It's perfectly acceptable to continue your day-to-day activities while waiting for the Friday Night Record Party to post...In fact the time may go by faster if you keep yourself occupied with busywork (feeding your children, going to work, taking care of sick relatives...)
2. Stop Negative Thinking. Don't worry, I'm not going to OD on Slim Jims and Mountain Dew in the next two days, and even if I do, it's not a big deal...I usually write these things a couple of days in advance, and I usually have them set to autopost...
3. Use Coping Statements. "There are things in life that are out of my control...Like, I can't help it if everyone is against me! That's their problem not mine!"
4. Accept Your Feelings. "Aww, it's probably gonna be some shitty song like "Supertzar" or something off of  "Never Say Day" anyway..." 
5. Look at the fluffy clouds...

Oh, and this has Ozzy's first power ballad on it...Sure, Sabbath had a couple of slow songs before, but I feel "Planet Caravan" and "Solitude"  fall more into the category of  bongwater soft rock...."Changes" is epic and heartfelt and Ozzy is loud and clear this time...I wasn't  the least bit surprised when a live recording of this became a hit later in his career...But really "Changes" and the gentle acoustic instrumental "Laguna Sunrise" are the only respites from the heaviness...

"Laguna Sunrise" has always sounded like a fruity cocktail that you'd drink on vacation...I'm kind of sad that it doesn't really exist, so I'm going to make up a drink on the spot called a "Laguna Sunrise." Now, I'm just throwing out these ingredients off the top of my head, so don't blame me if you mix one and it tastes bad...Blame Tony Iommi or something...

Laguna Sunrise:

4 cups orange juice
2 oz rum
1 1/2 cup champagne or sparkling wine
and I don't know how about 1 cup Gingerale? That sounds pretty good...
Garnish with a 'luude...

Alright, so let's sip on our Laguna Sunrise and listen to "Snowblind" by Black Sabbath...Cheers...

Black Sabbath: Master of Reality

Black Sabbath: Master of Reality

1971

Vertigo Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Sweet Leaf  2. After Forever  3. Embryo  4. Children of the Grave  5. Orchid  6. Lord of This World  7. Solitude  8. Into the Void

This was another one I originally had on vinyl...It was another one I had left in Michigan, but I recently just picked up a replacement vinyl copy at Revolver Records in Tempe, AZ...In my mind this is the most Black Sabbathy Black Sabbath album ever...Track after track of thick, doomy metal and the odd acoustic/atmospheric interlude...Uncharacteristically, however,  the album features very christian-rock type lyrics... I mean, check out "After Forever:

"Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say
If they knew you believe in God above?
They should realize before they criticize
that God is the only way to love..."

or "Lord of This World":

"Your world was made for you by someone above
But you chose evil ways instead of love..."

Woah, is this Amy Grant or Ozzy Osbourne?!



I don't know if this was all done in response to the constant allegation that the band was some sort of Satanic Death Cult or what, but it does distinguish it from their other albums, lyrically....Also notable, is that on this record, Black Sabbath downturn their instruments to C# and get an even heavier sound..that's immediately striking as soon as that big wooly "Sweet Leaf" riff begins (after a couple seconds of coughing, appropriately)...There's something about that fuzzy sound that practically forces you to crank the volume up...

And it's just a fact that the leaden gallop of "Children of the Grave" is just  the heaviest shit ever, even with all those weird bongos flying around everywhere...and that creepy ending with the wailing feedback and "children of the graaaave..." whispers still has the ability to creep you out some 40 years later....

For the longest time I had no idea who was singing lead vocals on the flutey soft-rocker "Solitude." That gentle, lilting voice emanating from my speakers certainly sounded nothing like Ozzy...Years later someone cleared it up for me, telling me it was Bill Ward...Oh, okay. That makes sense...But wait, it doesn't sound much like Bill Ward either...

The general consensus is that it's Ozzy, but in actuality I can't find any definitive proof of that...But after listening to a demo version on youtube, which features a vocal that  sounds very similar to the final take, but with just a touch more Ozzy-ness, I think it's safe to say it's Ozzy...You can judge for yourself...

So yea, Sabbath's sludge masterpiece...Just listening to it will give you the munchies...So let's grab a bag of Cheetos...

...and check out "Children of the Grave" by Black Sabbath...Enjoy...