Sabbathing the Sabbath

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Gypsy”

LAURA:

Here at Black Sabbath Sabbath, we’ve talked quite a bit about the representation of women across the band’s first handful of albums. Women are either objects of love or demonized wenches. This song presents yet another evil, witchy woman* torturing and horrifying our beloved Sabbath. “Gypsy” is torn from the pages of Black Sabbath’s musical interpretation of The Odyssey. I can’t help but listen to this track and think of Circe who imprisoned Odysseous on her island for a year before allowing him to continue on his journey back to Ithaca. Just as Odysseous wears aware on Circe’s island, our narrator here worries that his body and mine will waste away in the presence of this gypsy demon. I really, really wish there was seemless, narrative continuity on Technical Ecstacy. I think I would enjoy these bright, major, operatic rock episodes if they told an entertaining story. Nope, this is just a strange, stand-alone exercise in...? I’m not really sure what the point of this song is. It’s pretty standard fare classic rock. It just...is. Maybe that’s it’s point. “All Moving Parts (Stand Still)” which follows this track would make an excellent backdrop for some kind of fight-scene for our narrator and his escape from the gypsy, but it’s pretty disjointed and has nothing to do with the rest of the album. I am half tempted, though, to impose some kind of structure or force some kind of storyline onto this album. Otherwise, I’m not sure I’ll make it through...

*Yeah, I linked to The Eagles. What ya gonna do ‘bout it? JOHN:

What the fuck is a fatalistic ship?

Again, there are plenty of points to be made about the band doing something different on Technical Ecstasy, pushing themselves in directions unforeseen and unforeseeable based on any of their previous material. It’s strange and scary and this could have been a rough transitional album into what they became.

Or this could be a drug addled mess. This song … sort of sounds like that. A real pastiche mess from the Department of Too Much Cocaine. What’s either a very distorted guitar or a very strange keyboard plays an amped-up Tony Iommi-style riff over amped-up Geezer Butler lyrics, but with a weirdly upbeat energetic edge that can’t seem to find its balance, until the guitar cuts the way into the refrain, as if two songs by an average bar band were meshed into one. Except in this case, the bar band is, instead, a massively successful, arena packing band.

Towards the end, in fact, the entire song seems to lose its way. Rather than being an assemblage of parts melded, all the parts play at once in a strange, inaccessible cacophony. At this point, this is the weakest song on the album, going from average to middling to frankly unlistenable.

And also what the fuck is a fatalistic ship?

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“It’s Alright”

JOHN:

For Bill’s first official outing as lead vocalist on a song, he does pretty well, and rather than displaying the gritty hard rock the band had become known for, they wear their Beatles influence proudly on this song. It’s overproduced. It’s silly. But, dare it be said … Black Sabbath wrote a genuine pop song.

The song does not have the look, feel, or sound of a Black Sabbath song, right down to Bill’s vocals. Which is fine! It could have found a place somewhere on the radio quite easily, entrapping listeners into the satanic snare of Black Sabbath. But on the other hand, they’d have Technical Ecstasy waiting for them on the other side.

I’m thankful that this isn’t the direction Black Sabbath ultimately took. I will put that out there, first and foremost. But I will say: Technical Ecstasy is a flawed record, but part of that is because the band is stretching out into different terrain. It’s not easy going, and it extends the band into uncomfortable places like “trying to capture the groove and attitude of Led Zeppelin” to “making weird psuedo-goth” to “making a song that sounds like a strange Beatles b-side.” There are plenty of points for trying. And of the songs we’ve reviewed thus far, this comes the closest to succeeding. LAURA:

Two words: Into it. 

Black Sabbath does Elton John. Black Sabbath does Queen. Black Sabbath does David Bowie. Black Sabbath does Wings. I mean, listen to that bass line. It SCREAMS Paul McCartney. Good job, Bill Ward! Excellent work on drums and vocals. High fives all around. I like to imagine Ozzy throwing down a microphone, stomping off stage, and snacking on dead bats while Bill leads the band through this soft, comforting tune. Turns out Ozzy was supportive and everything was fine (dare I say ‘alright’?) in the end. Who’da thunk!? Even though “It’s Alright” is nothing at all like Black Sabbath, I’m going to give it my stamp of approval. Amazing? No way. Passable? Sure. I’d queue this up for karaoke and belt my little heart out shamelessly.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“You Won’t Change Me” John: 

In “Back Street Kids,” Black Sabbath sounded cynical. In “You Won’t Change Me,” the band just sounds tired, unable to rise to the challenge of a song that recalls some of the weaker moments in Ozzy’s solo material, rather than the high-highs of most second tracks on their discography, like “The Wizard,” “Paranoid,” “After Forever,” or “A National Acrobat.” 

I will admit: my Sabbath knowledge drops off after Sabotage, picks back up again in the Dio era, and slides off sometime after the first Tony Martin albums. Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die were a barrier I never crossed, though I always owned a vinyl copy of Technical Ecstasy that I could, theoretically, have listened to in the last 16 years. 

There is, ultimately, something deeply gloomy and vaguely compelling about “You Won’t Change Me,” though it isn’t, necessarily, a good song. If any song is the comedown from the angry energy of Sabotage, though, this is it. And credit where credit is due, the song attempts to do something different. And between that and “It’s Alright,” it seems that maybe Sabbath was attempting a new direction, but not necessarily doing a great job of it. After six solid albums of heavy metal, maybe it was time for a change. But at this point, perhaps the band wasn’t going to find it with Ozzy Osbourne – which is why Heaven and Hell sounds like a whole new band in many respects.

I don’t necessarily like this song, but I think there are some chances taken with the song that try to take the roots established and build something new on it, and it doesn’t sound far from some synth reliant doom or goth music. But if this were the prototype in some way for that, it wouldn’t make it a strong song — it would instead be a strange curiosity. 

Laura:

 The low-hanging fruit here is just too easy to take a meaningful whack at. “I’m just a man blahblahblahblahblah.” I’ll spare you a feminist critique this time, readers, because it’s too glaringly obvious. Again, Sabbath is showing significant weakness and insecurity with “You Won’t Change Me”. How can a song whose title is so declarative and strong be so insecure and pleading? Jesus Christ, Black Sabbath, we’re not your mom. Get out of here with this nonsense! The woes indicated here have nothing to do with gender roles or masculinity. Sure, we can talk about the humanity in this song and how we feel reflected within that, but I just can’t tolerate such pity. Have some self respect and get on with it. 

At the very least we’ve got some throwback to good Sabbath. “You Won’t Change Me” leaves room to breathe and hearkens back to slower, heavier days. It’s not great Sabbath, but it’s not the worst that we’ve heard yet. It’s a little to morose and lethargic for my taste--maybe (read: it is incredibly likely) the band has been self-medicating with heroine. At the very, very least I will give credit to the band for accurately portraying their depressed state in musical form. I listen to “You Won’t Change Me” and just feel so incredibly sorry for these dudes. They’re really losing it--and they’re losing it underneath a giant spotlight so everyone can see. Queue every song Sabbath has ever written about the perils of celebrity. Maybe they can find comfort in their own soundtrack? 

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Back Street Kids”

Laura:

And here we have a weird classic rock, synth infused, punk rock anthem brought to you by the fathers of doom...? I’m just shrugging my shoulders off while listening to “Back Street Kids”. It’s full of cheap shots and cheesy flare. What we know: all of the members have checked out of the band at this point, except for Tony Iommi who feels some sense of responsibility to keep it together. The band is facing an existential crisis and begins to waiver under the influence of other rock acts. They’ve tossed aside bluesy riffs in exchange for sincere jabs at palatable party jams. What’s missing in later Ozzy albums are large washes of fuzzed out guitar and slow, plodding melodies characteristic of Black Sabbath and Paranoid. Each album gets a little bit busier, more and more cluttered with audible junk.

As John points out, it’s painful to hear Ozzy belt out childish, self-affirming lyrics. This song is all peacock. It’s loud and in your face, but take a second glimpse and you can see the seams coming apart. Let me jump time and genres here to say that Sabbath has become the protagonists of The Dismemberment Plan’s “Gyroscope”. It’s glaringly obvious that they’re too wrapped up in self-analysis and insecurity to take a second and recollect themselves under the banner of heavy metal--a banner they helped raise. Damnit, Sabbath. All we can do is watch.

John:

On the one hand, this has a really great riff and speed, even if it’s a little Zeppelin-esque. On the other hand, it has some of the most hackneyed lyrics the band has ever set forth, and one of the worst keyboard flourishes on this side of Styx.

There’s always something rotten to the core about songs self-referential about rock ‘n’ roll, as if a cheap ploy for people to embrace the “spirit of rock” within a song, a sort of mythological construct of the saving grace of rock ‘n’ roll, often at the same time that the genre was stagnating.* So hearing “Nobody I know will ever take my rock ‘n’ roll from me” in the midst of a riff that is, I’m sorry to say, basically “The Immigrant Song,” it all seems like a cheap ploy for audience approval.

It’s cynical. And that may well define Technical Ecstasy. A deep cynicism and pretension far, far on this side of Spinal Tap. To say Sabbath phoned in this song is an understatement. On the surface, it’s a tremendous rock song, but underneath that thin layer, there’s not much substance, like an orange peel filled with Cool Whip. * A few songs get a free pass, like “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Joan Jett.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“The Writ”

LAURA:

The last two tracks on Sabotage are painfully cluttered with hallmarks of the era in which they were written. The stereophonic tracking on “The Writ” is so distracting when all you’ve got is that weird egg shaker/hand percussion instrument SWOOSHING loudly in your right ear. “The Writ” is a final buffet of every style Sabbath has experimented with. Classic rock? You got it. The beginnings of heavy metal? Done. Some weird Renn Faire minstrel shit? Have a second helping. I want to like “The Writ”, and I do like parts of it, but overall I think the song is just waaaaayyyy too much.

I just have to take a moment and be a broken record about the broken record that is Geezer Butler. Lyrically speaking, we’ve seen theme before. “Looking for Today” takes a stab at tackling the woes of celebrity, and we’re revisiting that conversation with “The Writ”. SURPRISE: we have no new answers. I can’t help but roll my eyes.

Last year, John and I went to see Electric Wizard. After the show, I ended up getting into an argument with someone about the limitations of the stoner rock genre. Black Sabbath laid the groundwork for a sub genre of metal obsessed with drugs and darkness, and overtime that genre has adopted a few violent themes here and there. I’ve been told that I should not expect more from stoner rock/metal. I call bullshit on that. 90s bands like Acid King and even contemporary acts like Heliotropes do an excellent job of pushing the genre in interesting directions. My retroactive criticism of Sabbath is rooted in a current frustration with the one-dimensional aspects of a genre that I truly love. I’m probably not going to shut up about how terrible Sabbath can be, just like I won’t stop gushing about their incredible moments. I guess I’m just being long-winded about my inability to blindly follow Sabbath wherever Sabbath goes.

Too bad it’ll only get worse from here on out. As John mentions, we’re at the end of the rope on the Era of Good Sabbath. Let’s pour one out for old time’s sake and say a prayer to the Dark Lord as we move onward into lesser days...

JOHN:

Never. Angrier. Given that the song is about bad management and legal wranglings, it’s understandable. The song has a frayed energy that goes along with the general theme of anger and exhaustion exuded on the album. Ozzy’s banshee wail has never sounded more aggressive, and the weird sort of bass breakdown in the second minute of the song serves as an intense, brooding meditation before breaking back into an aggressive, angry song.

There are the tonal changes that came to define the album. I’m remembering an MTV special I taped long ago – around the time of Reunion – where a member of some band said that Sabbath was slowed down punk. This song is slowed down hardcore, aggressive song turns throughout a slab of song, delivered by an angry person screwed over by the system.

Strip out the keyboards, play this at 45 rpm … and this might be the most punk-rock Black Sabbath album, speaking to the same qualities of pissed off, disenfranchised, working class kids. But with those intact, it seemed, too, the antithesis of the punk that would come, especially with the arena rock nature of “Am I Going Insane (Radio).” I would, at the least, attend a concert of a good hardcore band doing their own take on Sabotage.

With the end of “The Writ” comes the end of the good era of Black Sabbath. From what little I remember, we’re in for a rough ride with Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die … though don’t worry, we’ll throw in some Dave Walker demos for the latter.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Am I Going Insane (Radio)”

JOHN:

This song is … strange. If Wikipedia is to believed, Ozzy wanted little to do with the song, which is understandable given the sort of pop-prog feel that sounds a little too close to some bands of the era like Boston. As Laura mentions, the song is just a mess. Intended as a radio single, it failed to enter the charts, which is understandable given that it may be the weakest track on the album.

Still, the song held a mysterious quality over me in my teenage years, as a song that seemed to speak of mental illness. Which, as it ends up, describes a lot of Black Sabbath songs. If “Paranoid” was an intense slab of metal about being mental, “Am I Going Insane (Radio)” is the worst qualities of post-breakdown Brian Wilson, adding too many elements to a song that needed far, far fewer. As it stands, it’s less a solid song and more a semi-interesting bit of ideas loosely held together. LAURA:

YES, Geezer, you are going insane and you’re dragging us all down with you. At this point I am just so sick and tired of Geezer Butler and his dumb lyrics. There are five years of separation between Black Sabbath and Sabotage, but I swear Geezer hasn’t aged or matured a single day by the time Sabotage is released. Themes that were at one point interesting or challenging become hackneyed and threadbare on this album. Not to mention “Am I Going Insane” is just a terrible fucking song. It’s painfully dated with synth and effects, and the laugh track at the end is just...tacky. I’ve defended other Sabbath songs for being a little campy or goofy, but I can’t find any saving grace on this track.

Overall I’d say Sabotage is a solid Sabbath album, but towards end it’s apparent the band has made some poor choices. I can’t help but listen to “Am I Going Insane” and feel that Sabbath was too caught up in cheesy trends of the time. How can the band be self aware enough to question its sanity but not question the creative motivations behind garbage like this song? Sabbath’s entire aesthetic is founded in heavy pentatonic riffs, and yet all we’ve got here are some wobbly rhythms heavily layered with overly-produced melodies. Like, what is this guitar solo? I’ve said this before: I really want to give Black Sabbath the leeway to experiment and try new creative approaches. I’ll keep circling back to “Planet Caravan” and praise Sabbath for their successful attempt at minimalist songwriting. But this? Ugh. My frustration with this song knows no boundaries. I could go on and on and on. I could even make some half-assed attempt at drawing a parallel between the lyrical content and the song’s composition (YES, YOU ARE INSANE FOR WRITING THIS GARBAGE AND THIS GARBAGE SOUNDS LIKE INSANITY), but I won’t. It’s not worth it. Let’s just forget this one, alright?

[blacksabbathsabbath]

Thanksgiving comes early this year, kids. Just got this on my YouTube video recommendations, proving that somes algorithms love us, no matter what Dehumanizer tried to tell us. - John

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Supertzar”

LAURA:

You know what, I’m not going to hate on “Supertzar”. Sure, it’s a softer track. Sure, it’s got some weird, unexpected choral shit going on. I don’t think these are necessarily bad changes for Sabbath. The band has indulged in some over-the-top cheese before, but this doesn’t come anywhere near the camp and gaudiness of other songs. “Who Are You” is so much cheesier than “Supertzar” and John’s “Lord of the Dorks” award should definitely go to “Fluff” first. Sorry, John, I still love you. We’ve got heavy, simple riffs and a straightforward melodic loop. It’s catchy and dynamic without heavy-handed political statements or cries for drug-fueled escapes from reality. We should be grateful that Geezer isn’t whining incessantly for a brief three minutes and forty-four seconds. And reading between the lines here, the marching drums echo to back to songs like “Children of the Grave” or “Electric Funeral”, which criticize the evils of war and violence. Look, maybe I’m giving Black Sabbath too much credit here. Whatever, I’ll do it. One could--if they wanted to--dig into “Supertzar” a bit. I see the heavy riffs and militant drums as a contrast to the light bells and angelic choir. We could think of this as a parallel between good and evil. Geezer LOVES that shit. It’s a stretch, but I like that stretch. I stand by that stretch. JOHN:

What the everloving fuck is this? Is this some Lord of the Dorks shit? Is this a parody of 1970s pop radio music excess? Some weird attempt to reincorporate prog-rock? The riffs on this song are strong, the choir is not.

In an album that pares back the proggy weirdness of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, a song that features the English Chamber Choir is a distinct turn back to the prog. In an album that seems all about the angry energy and the simplicity, this song seems downright indulgent. But from the point of view of an album about exhaustion, this King Crimson-ass song seems a little more understandable. After all, this is a song seemingly fueled by drugs, but it’s so … out of place.

It does not seem to tail well with “Megalomania,” nor is it a particularly good intro to “Am I Going Insane (Radio).” I would wager that this, not “Don’t Start,” is the legally required out-of-place song on every Black Sabbath album, even with the proggy keyboard flourish of “Am I Going Insane” making slight (but only slight) thematic sense with this song.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“The Thrill of it All”

JOHN:

Of any song on Sabotage, this comes closest to evoking their earlier material, around Master of Reality. It still has the rough hewn edges of the rest of the album – indeed enough that it still qualifies as a sort of proto-thrash – while still reminding you of a simpler time (four years before this album was released.)

There’s a case to be made for Sabotage as Sabbath’s best album. I’m not sure I’m willing to make that case, but I will make the case for it as Black Sabbath’s heaviest album of the Ozzy-era. It’s infused with an angry energy that neither Technical Ecstasy or Never Say Die could rise to the occasion of, and was the band at their most emotional, with that channeled into thunderous riffs, aggressive vocals, and a general malcontentness that sounds like much of late 1970s and early 1980s metal and crust punk. Indeed, after listening to this song, I had to binge on a bunch of Amebix just to feel that proper heaviness all over again.

So while I may not make the case that Sabotage is the best album, I will say this: it laid the best blueprint for everything that was to come from 1975 to 1985, which is the metal that broke the mold of a sort of “slightly harder rock” label that made Aerosmith a “metal” band and instead created a brand, an identity, a culture, and a sound that came to identify the underground of the genre. There’s a combustible mix of thrash, speed, doom, and power metal in this album and indeed in this song. Those terms just didn’t exist yet – it was up to other bands to take away their own piece of this song as the germ for what was to come. LAURA:

Holy shit, have I been eager to get to this song. First and foremost: monster riffs from start to finish, “Thrill of it All” plucks at all my heartstrings. It appeals to my love of both heavy hitting metal grooves and cheesy stretches of synth and guitar that evoke imagery of “Sabbath the musical”. It’s dramatic and over the top. This is a song John and I haven’t chatted about too much, so I’m eager to see if we’re going to disagree like we do over “Sabra Cadabra”... Lyrically, “The Thrill of it All” is a hot mess. I am 110% searching for the opportunity to sing, “Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it' / Cause I've got no reason to lie, yeah” while headbanging dramatically in a public place. As always, Geezer is super upset with the state of the world, jonesing to rebel, and looking for some kind of justification to get high. Do it to it, Geezer. It’s all you ever talk about and clearly no one is has stopped you yet.

There is one lyrical gem that I can’t help but praise: “If my songs become my freedom, and my freedom turns to gold / Then I'll ask the final question, if the answer could be sold”

Geezer, thank you. You’ve finally asked a relevant question. At this point, Sabbath can do whatever they want. They’re beyond secure as the kings of heavy metal, though perhaps at this time--1975--it’s not as obvious as it is in retrospect? Just run with me on this tangent for a minute: three minutes in and this song screams Wings’ “Band on the Run” (which, by the way, was released in 1973. Is there a link between McCartney and Sabbath? Personally, I’m willing to start that conspiracy theory). ANYWAYS, Sabbath and Geezer can pose all the hypothetical, philosophical questions they want. Maybe those questions are infuriating. Maybe we never get good answers from a band that is willing to whine all the goddamn time while never offering a valid solution. Sorry, Geezey, but getting blazed just isn’t the answer. You’ve been preaching drugs and Jesus for five albums and yet you are still unhappy and whiny. Whatever. At this point, though, the success of the band surpasses their sometimes childish intentions and we’re all riding that wave. “The Thrill of it All” gets my stamp of approval.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Megalomania”

John:

This is one of Sabbath’s more unusual songs. It sounds, at first, sort of like a cut from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath inserted in the midst of some proto-thrash, a prog-rock song about exhaustion.

Slow and despairing at first, it continues on the theme of this album, which is to say that Black Sabbath seems very tired of their management, their label, and themselves. There’s a sudden total change about halfway through where the tempo picks up and it becomes more in line with the proto-thrash of the rest of the album, including a “STING ME” thrown in the midst of the song. Once again, it recalls some New Wave of British Heavy Metal music that would come later, sounding not out of line with Venom or the “SUCK ON THIS” at the beginning of “The Small Hours” by Holocaust, one of the most brutal metal songs of all time.

There are also many, many unusual production and composition choices here, including echoed vocals, wavy guitar distortion, the cowbell Laura mentions, keyboards, and plenty more. It’s a song that seems, in some ways, like a mis-put-together puzzle of the band’s whole career, but is strangely affecting in its own way while not necessarily being a great song. But it’s got a whole lot more to say for itself than that, with a palpable feeling of unwinding that brings about the intended sense of unease.

If only someone had left him alone. Laura:

Ah, “Megalomania.” The song I sing to my cat when she demands breakfast at ungodly hours of the morning. “Why don’t you just get out of my life, Deb?” Too bad she doesn’t understand Black Sabbath...

In the past I have knocked Sabotage a bit, but this time through I am falling hard for the high drama of this album. “Megalomania” is a great, slow burn. Clocking in at almost ten minutes, it’s a real test of patience. We’re dragged into a slow, melancholy beginning as our speaker, a schizophrenic, feels completely out of control. Pissed at God, (Damn it, Geezer, can we move past this shit already?) this schizophrenic seems to have sold his soul to the devil--the human obscene--in exchange for demigod status. If “Changes” on Vol. 4 is about a werewolf (which, c’mon, let’s just run with that), “Megalomania” tracks our narrator’s transformation into some god-like entity. At first we start slow and trudging and the, BOOM:

COWBELL.

Yes. It’s a shame Blue Oyster Cult gets all the cowbell fame because “Megalomania” does a great job showcasing the limitations of such a glorious instrument. Now, this is where I start to doubt my interpretation of the song. Geezer writes, “Well I feel something's giving me the chance to return It's giving me the chance of saving my soul.” Are we dealing with demonic possession here? Sabbath is always going on and on and on about the great battle between good and evil, and maybe our schizophrenic is just possessed by some evil entity? Who is the megalomaniac here: our narrator, God, or Satan? WHO KNOWS? I am inclined to say that Geezer is our megalomanic here for drawing this entire story arch for more than 9 minutes. By the end I have to admit that I’m a little taxed.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Symptom of the Universe”

Laura:

It’s taken me a long time to warm up to “Symptom of the Universe”. It’s not that I disliked it from the start, it’s just that it’s never been my brand of metal. This song is considered the birth of thrash and that genre does not do it for me. With the passage of time and some acceptance of its thrashy drums, I’ve grown to love “Symptom of the Universe” as the blending of genres. The song starts with that now-iconic guitar riff and Ward’s drumming is like a second punch to the gut. We chug along at a steady pace with a few bridges that crush while still leaving room to breathe. To me, this is one of the most disjointed Sabbath songs. The parts are all sort of cobbled together, jumping erratically back and forth until we get to that smooth, classical dad-guitar ending. Ohhh yeeeaahhhhhh.

Considering what we know about the band and their drug habits, it’s not difficult to see why Sabbath’s songs follow such crazy ups and downs. Add to that all the legal headaches the band dealt with  throughout the recording of Sabotage, and I can see how Geezer’s lyrics would err on the side of, well, the insane. I could throw out a few interpretations of the lyrics, but I’d rather crowdsource that information. Before metal turned hard in the 80s (though not that hard considering how many Van Halen songs were definitely written for a female audience), many metal songs dealt with heartache, love, betrayal, and all the stereotypical trappings of country, R & B and other genres. Sabbath just took love beyond the sober, terrestrial experience to something way more coked-out and spaced-out.  

If you’re curious, The Melvins have an excellent cover of “Symptom of the Universe” that takes its thrash roots to a tinney, gainey extreme. I would like to suggest it was actually recorded in a giant tin can. And, since I’m talking awesome Melvins covers, check out their cover of KISS’ “Goin’ Blind”. So brutal. So good. John:

Jesus. This is just a slab of song.

I’ve always been bad at being a musical completist. Not that it’s affected my life too terribly much. But as big a Sabbath fan as I am, it took me YEARS to listen to Vol. 4 on repeat, so content was I with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality. I was always aware of Sabotage, Technical Ecstacy, and Never Say Die but never fully made the leap into the albums, though I owned the two former.

But what I did know was “Symptom of the Universe,” thanks to We Sold Our Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll. Or at least a borrowed copy of it. It always impressed me as a heavy, heavy song, but I never listened – or at least deeply listened and internalized, short of a few spins through – Sabotage and got the sense of what the album involves. I knew “The Writ” was about their manager and that the album was the last great Ozzy-era album. What I didn’t understand was how visceral, seething, and angry it was. If the rest of their career veered between what we now consider doom metal and some strange stadium prog rock, this album is the Ur of thrash.

In “Symptom of the Universe” there are some real stylistic notes of what would become the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Twist Ozzy’s vocals a little, and this song is essentially a Diamond Head jam, except a few years before Diamond Head. The aggressiveness recalls early Bay Area speed and thrash metal. There’s more energy to Sabotage and especially “Symptom of the Universe,” but it’s an angry energy, a coked out band ready to break free of everything.

There’s also a continued fascination with all things cosmic, and a want to commune with the universe. It may just be the same drugs talking, or perhaps that leaving your body means not being in a band ready to smash their management’s head in. But in the lyrics referring to love, there’s a contrast between the aggression of the song and the more peaceful lyrics. So maybe “the universe” is just a world outside people trying to cheat them, drugs piling up, tensions growing. Or Geezer was in a lovey-dovey mood and just wanted some peace, love, and understanding when he wrote the lyrics on several layers of bong rips.

[blacksabbathsabbath]

“Don’t Start (Too Late)” 

JOHN:

Another of Sabbath’s “barely a song” flourishes, this one is more experimental in sound than others (short of maybe “F/X”), running through a menacing, Flamenco-ish riff before leading us into “Symptom of the Universe.” While some of the instrumental interludes Sabbath wrote served as a peaceful interlude to something heavier, there’s a paranoia-inducing quality that makes “Don’t Start” fit with the theme of exhaustion, frayed nerves, and tattered edges. In under a minute, it wordlessly conveys the kind of menace that says “there is no peace to be found in this album.”

LAURA:

If I am going to run with my hypothesis about “Hole in the Sky”’s abrupt ending, then I’d like to suggest that “Don’t Start (Too Late)” is the peaceful reprieve greeting us when we’ve crossed the space-time continuum and arrived in a parallel universe.  “Don’t Start (Too Late)” provides a quick transition to another rocket-blast track, “Symptom of the Universe”. There’s a lot of heartache and frustration later this album, and Sabbath calls for an escape several times throughout. Are we really that surprised? These dudes are always looking to be rescued...The first three tracks on Sabotage lay the foundation for what could have been an interesting, perhaps cheesy, space concept album. Let’s enjoy “Don’t Start (Too Late)” and its 49 seconds of calm before the album takes a turn for the heady and pained.

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JOHN:  “Hole in the Sky” represents the beginning of “weird Sabbath,” the era where the band begins experimenting with different, weirder song structures. It’s certainly not Sabbath’s strongest era -- I maintain that Sabotage is the last good Ozzy-era Sabbath album. It’s a “return to form” after the proginess of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but has its own weird, unique vibe. “Hole in the Sky” is one hell of an album opener. The riff has a different structure from much of the churning of previous albums. Dare I say, it’s got a little boogie to it, with Ozzy’s vocals so perfectly cutting right through it all. There’s a vibe in this album of a band at its peak about to fall apart. It’s fascinating to see this album as a beginning of the end, but it’s a hell of a way to go out, and had the band moved on t after Sabotage, we might have had a band that went out on top instead of miring for a couple more albums and becoming something completely different under Dio. There’s a uniquely aggressive sound to “Hole in the Sky,” a way that it grooves and menaces toward the listener. It’s a man at his wit’s end, a thread running throughout Sabotage. It’s one of the most satisfying album openers the band has produced, and in hindsight, a frayed band teetering on the edge of self-destruction, creating an interesting duality. LAURA:  If “Planet Caravan” is the cerebral space exploration soundtrack, “Hole in the Sky” is like a rocket ship blasting the listener through the space-time continuum. Will they make party spaceships in the future? One can only hope! I like to imagine interiors garnished with all the trappings of 1970s culture--shagg carpets, disco balls, lava lamps--and  “Hole in the Sky” plays at the start of every party ship voyage. The verses are repetitive and predictable, but they’re hypnotic--not boring. Iommi’s guitar lick is just so damn catchy and hard hitting. This is a strong start to the album, though I’ve always wondered why the song ends abruptly. After years of listening to this song completely puzzled, it hit me: “Hole in the Sky” is a black hole. Duh, man! We’ve got front row seats to the magnificent explosion of a supernova before we’re torn from this universe and the song itself. At the end of the song we’ve crossed the event horizon into the deep unknown. Someone, please, hand me some space cake. Copious amounts of space cake.  I’ll reserve “Planet Caravan” for floating past Saturn to the outer planets and beyond. “Hole in the Sky” is the celebratory liberation soundtrack for my dramatic exit from this universe into the unknown. Let’s just hope I don’t greet Sam Neill on the other side...

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We’re back in action, dearest Sabbath lovers. Expect a new post soon as we continue our Sabbath journey with Sabotage.  \m/  <3  J & L 

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An incredibly creepy Black Sabbath–infused Christian kids song remixed for Christmas (For the heads up, thanks to Paddling Pete!; For the original song/video, click here; For a related video, click here http://christiannightmares.tumblr.com/post/38368544453/merry-creepy-christmas-happy-birthday-jesus-a)

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Sorry we've been MIA. In the meantime, enjoy this. 

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“Spiral Architect”

  JOHN:

The weirdest thing about Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is its willingness to portray one of the darkest bands of the 1970s as bright and sunny at times. I feel that each album has been loosely a concept album, but this album is the most complex of them.

I mentioned that there are weird Gnostic overtones to this album, which is ultimately about the struggle of good and evil and the ultimately illusory nature of the world. If this is a Gnostic parable, this song is the moment that comes to a head and the song’s narrator, whoever it may be, achieves the moment of Gnosis.

“Of all the things I value most of all, I look inside myself and see my world and know that it is good, You know that I should.” The narrator goes through a litany of false prophets … perhaps those spreading the religion of the Demiurge? … before arriving at a contentment and a knowledge of their own internal goodness and knowledge. They’ve seen the divine spark.

This is also maybe the proggiest song on the album, with abrupt tonal shifts, plenty of keyboard and even some fake audience cheers.

Oh, and I love this song.

LAURA:

Here we go, Black Sabbath: The Musical!

I love this song. It’s bright, a diversion from Sabbath’s usual moody blues, and it incorporates the blending of genres that I’ve been craving. We’ve got a successful usage of Sabbath’s experimentation with minstrel picking, a hard hitting secondary introduction with guitar licks, and then the verse starts with steady-paced groove.

The lyrical content of this song is fantastic in the literal sense: a fictional narrative of an unknown spiral architect creating a good life for themselves in a fantasy world. “Spiral Architect” is stripped of the moral quandaries and pithy political observations. Like the spiral architect builds their city, Sabbath uses layers to craft this epic, final track. I’m even kind of okay with the audience applause and bass outro, which ties up the album as if it were a live, theatrical performance. Though Sabbath Bloody Sabbath may not deserve a raucous standing ovation, “Spiral Architect” is a great song deserving of praise.

Though I don’t know which order these songs were written in, placing “Spiral Architect” last gives the illusion that Sabbath finally worked out all their musical transgressions by the end of the album. Here is a band whose mastery is epitomized in the marriage of multiple music genres. By the end of “Spiral Architect”, I’ve forgotten all of my frustrations with Sabbath and remember why I love the band.

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Black Sabbath to Record New Album, Plan Final Tour

Black Sabbath said they will record one final album and plan a last tour for next year.

What say you Sabbath-heads? Did you have strong opinions one way or the other on 13 or The Devil You Know? How do you think this final album will turn out?