1311. Black Sabbath / Tyr. 1990. 4/5

Following the decision of Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice to leave the band in 1982, the remainder of the 1980’s decade was a tough time for the band Black Sabbath, and moreso for its one remaining bastion, guitarist Tony Iommi. Through countless band member changes and record company changes and management changes, Iommi had to fight endlessly to keep the Black Sabbath name alive. Those different lineups had included multiple lead singers, bass guitarists and drummers, and while each of “Born Again”, “Seventh Star” and “The Eternal Idol” had its good moments, in general it was hard to keep up with what was happening with the band.
Better news came with the release of the album “Headless Cross” in 1989. Retaining the services of Tony Martin on lead vocals gave the band some credibility, and the recruitment of legendary drummer Cozy Powell an experienced musician to help compose and record with. The album was a return to form, and had featured a guest slot from Iommi’s mate Brian May as a part of the process. Despite reaching 31 on the UK charts, the band’s tour of the US was cancelled after just eight shows due to poor ticket sales. The European and Japan tours were more fruitful, while a 23-date tour of Russia with Girlschool gave them the distinction of being one of the first western bands to tour the country.
The band looked to strike while the iron was moderately warm and get back into the studio to record the follow up. Neil Murray, who had done some of the touring for the previous album, was now on board as a member of the band, and along with keyboardist and longtime Iommi friends and music partner, completed the line up for the new album. What was to come was something out of the box, and almost complete change of mindset. “Headless Cross” had arguably been the heaviest album by the band since the early 1980’s, and with lyrics that followed along that path. On the album that became “Tyr”, the music does not have the doom environment that the band had formerly invented. Here is an album that eschews much of that process for songs that have a far more keyboard oriented sound, almost reaching for a sound that mimics power metal without the speed or express synth sound that genre pertains to. And while this beckoned to turn off what remained of the Black Sabbath fan base from the outset, for those that hung around to see what it might hold, it became an album that held far more substance that what most fans know.

When it came to this album, the title, along with the name of several of the songs on the album, are based around Norse mythology, which led to many critics and fans believing that this was a concept album, something that Neil Murray discounted in an interview in 2005. He was quoted as saying that while some of the songs appear loosely related it was never written nor intended to be a concept album. However, the album’s departure from the darker lyrics of Headless Cross was discussed by Tony Iommi in his 2012 autobiography Iron Man, where he said this: “For our next album, Tyr, we went back to the Woodcray Studios in February 1990, with me and Cozy producing it again. On ‘Headless Cross’, Tony Martin had just come into the band and he assumed, oh, Black Sabbath, it’s all about the Devil, so his lyrics were full of the Devil and Satan. It was too much in your face. We told him to be a bit more subtle about it, so for Tyr he did all these lyrics about Nordic gods and whatnot. It took me a while to get my head around that”. It has been said that the album was originally intended to be titled “Satanic Verses” but for the same reason was discarded.
The album opens with “Anno Mundi”, a song that channels different versions of the band through its history. It is true that this doesn’t sound like that pure Iommi heavy styled riff from the original iteration of the band, but there are moments when you can almost believe that it harkens from the Dio years. It probably doesn’t harm this thought because of the similarity in voice between Dio and Tony Martin, but the song itself is of an epic type that that era of Sabbath wrote. It acts as a terrific way of drawing you in to the album from the outset, the soaring Martin vocals dominating throughout. This is followed by “The Law Maker”, a more traditional heavy song with the up-tempo speed and vibe, highlighted by Iommi’s riff and solo and Martin’s vocals showcasing his ability to adapt to whatever is thrown at him. The solid rhythm held together by Powell and Murray make this a simplified song but by no means an average one. “Jerusalem” has a very choir backed feel to the track, it sounds almost like it should be being listened to in a church, or at the very least a cathedral. It has that style and substance about it, replete with multi-layered vocals backing. “The Sabbath Stones” continues in the direction that “Anno Mundi” travels in, a heavier and perhaps more traditional epic track that still holds true to what the album opener was pushing as the album’s theme, with the quiet melodic breakdown in the middle of the track before building again to its conclusion. Martin’s vocals again showcase their best qualities while Cozy’s heavy hitting drumming powers forth.
The instrumental open of “The Battle of Tyr” opens the second side of the album by segueing into “Odin’s Court”, in itself a short quiet clear guitared moment that acts as the segue into “Valhalla”. Treating this three song set as one track is probably how most fans would approach it, with the first four minutes of “The Battle of Tyr” and “Odin’s Court” mostly forgettable, and “Valhalla” itself actually proving to be a far more inspiring song. And that is not to say that that four minutes is wasted space or clear air – it's just that even when listening to the album now, you are just waiting for the entrance of “Valhalla” to get the second side of the album to kick into gear. And then, we have what follows.
It is interesting that the band, in particular Tony Martin, has come out as saying that they do not regret putting the song “Feels Good to Me” on the album, and that they indeed like the track itself, but that it is quite different from everything else on the album. In an interview some years later, Martin was quoted as saying that the record company pretty much demanded that they include a song that was of a particular... standard... in order to release as a single. And indeed, that is exactly what it sounds like. It is composed to be a single release. It has practically none of the characteristics of every other song on the album. It doesn’t fit the sound at all, and as a result it sticks out like a sore thumb. It is hugely reminiscent of “No Stranger to Love” from the “Seventh Star” album, another of the top five most unlikely Black Sabbath tracks of all time. Could they not have just released this as a stand alone single? Or the B-side of another song, and let the radio stations just play the B side? Anyway. I don’t hate it, but it is so noticeable every time you play the album, for the wrong reasons.
The album then concludes with “Heaven in Black”, a closing song that lifts the tempo and mood of the album back to where it deserves to be, a faster paced effort that returns the energy to the album to end on a far more enjoyable note.
It may seem like an easy line to draw, but one of the reasons this album has a different sound from what many would consider to be a Black Sabbath sound is the absence of Geezer Butler on bass guitar. That is no slight on Neil Murray who is a brilliant bass guitarist and composer and plays terrifically on this album, but the songs do not sound as heavy because they do not have Geezer’s guttural distinctive tones underneath Iommi’s licks and riffs. It also indulges far heavier in Geoff Nicholls keys than other eras of the band. Now Iommi and Nicholls had been mates for years so it was probably a no brainer that they would eventually have this greater influence in the music, and this era was the best opportunity to do that, as even though the band has the name of Black Sabbath hanging over it, the music that is produced is in a different phase than what most would expect. Yes, Iommi’s recognisable riffs are here, but in the same way that Dio era Sabbath is different from Ozzy era Sabbath for obvious reasons, the same is echoed here.

How many people were actually keeping up with what the band Black Sabbath was doing after 1983? I am assuming not many. But given that my foray into the heavier side of music did not commence in earnest until the final months of 1986, I guess I was one of them. Because I pent 1986 and 1987 going backwards through their discography, that included those albums. I have one of my best friends from high school who eventually became my brother-in-law to thank for getting around to listening to “Seventh Star” and “The Eternal Idol”, because he bought those albums and I was then able to borrow them and tape them to a C90 cassette. “Headless Cross” and “Tyr” however passed me by at the time of their release. There was a LOT of music I was still discovering at this time, and those albums didn’t make the initial cut.
I was eventually gifted a CD of “Tyr” from a friend who decided he wasn't interested in it at all and gave it to me rather than hang onto it for no reason. This was in 1993, a year after “Dehumanizer” had been released, and before “Cross Purposes” was thought of. I remember thinking “Well, The Eternal Idol was good with Tony Martin on vocals. This should be good too!” So by now we had had the onset of grunge, and also that marvellous “Dehumanizer” album... so MAYBE my hopes were too high for this album?...
As it turned out, I enjoyed the album. It has lots of good moments. It just wasn’t one that I thought of to go back to very often. Eventually, it wasn’t until a few years later, when I had wearied of the 1990’s and much of its musical wares, that I began to go back to albums such as this and give them a more thorough workout than they received the first time around.
In amongst the ridiculously great and amazing albums that have popped up in this 2-3 week period I am currently reviewing and preparing podcast episodes for you lovely listeners, I have also had this one out and on rotation. And as I found almost 30 years ago when I first took this album seriously, I have truly enjoyed reliving it once again. OK, so maybe I don’t play it as much as I should, but every time I do, I do enjoy it. A couple of songs excluded. When the remastered vinyl collection came out last year I was the first in line to buy it so I could enjoy it on my turntable as well. And as I’ve already covered, there is a lot to enjoy here. Tony Martin’s vocals are still terrific to the ear, Cozy Powell's drumming is still as brilliant as always, and Neil Murray’s bass guitar is just so underrated. And who doesn’t want to listen to Tony Iommi play guitar any day of the week? Yes, these songs are so different to what has come on albums prior to this, but I don’t think there is any doubt that the band itself sounds marvellous. It may sound facetious to say, given how utterly brilliant “Dehumanizer” is as an album, and that although the reformation of the Mark III lineup of the band didn’t go on to record more albums, it is also a shame that this line up of the band didn’t have more moments in the sun, the chance to write and record a follow up to this album at that time rather than after the “Dehumanizer” effect. The music world changed too quickly at this time, and perhaps it wouldn’t have worked. We’ll never know. All I know is that despite the subtle change to the music and structure with “Tyr”, it is a most enjoyable album, and does present this lineup in the light they deserved to be in. If you listen to this album, and the others that have Iommi and Martin as the basis of the band, under the name of, say, “Headless Cross” instead of “Black Sabbath”, and not have the legacy that that name forces you to think with, then this works better, in the same way that the Iommi/Hughes albums “The 1996 DEP Sessions” and “Fused” work. Headless Cross, the new band with Tony Iommi and Tony Martin, Cozy Powell and Neil Murray, and their album “Tyr”. No expectations of doom and heavy metal. Just a band with the great Tony Iommi and other great players, doing something that doesn’t sound like Black Sabbath. Try it. You might like it.

1306. Black Sabbath / Sabotage. 1975. 4.5/5

Five albums into their career, and while Black Sabbath the band seemed to be going from strength to strength musically, off the stage they had come across some problems. They had played at the California Jam in January 1974 in front of 200,000 people, but had received barely a pittance as payment for the gig. Eventually they realised that the band, through manager Patrick Meehan, had been paid $US250,000 for their performance, but had only received $1,000 each as their share of the proceeds. This then led to more outrageous discoveries for the four bandmates, including that all of their property including their houses and cars were all owned by Meehan, and that they literally owned nothing themselves. This revelation saw the band decide to sack Meehan and hire Don Arden as their new manager, something that created a two year battle through the courts to not only try and sever their previous arrangement but also try and recoup lost royalties and payments. This album was written and recorded in the midst of this legal battle, with Meehan suing the band for unlawful dismissal. It was during this period that the band began to question if there was any point to recording albums and touring endlessly "just to pay the lawyers". All of this was obviously putting enormous strain and pressure on the band, and eventually inspired the title of the album “Sabotage” as they felt that these issues were creating a detrimental effect on trying to put together the album and tour.
In regards to the production of the album itself, it was co-produced by guitarist Tony Iommi and Mike Butcher. Iommi wrote in his autobiography about the time: “We produced “Sabotage” ourselves. The band disappeared most of the time so it was sort of left to me and the engineer. I got more and more involved with the production side of things, but it wasn’t like I would sit there and tell the other guys what to do, because they knew what to play, they put their parts to it. I just spent a lot more time in the studio because, when it came to doing the guitar bits or mixing, it would take longer and I’d be more into it than they were. I didn’t mind so much. I’d be there to the death”.
In the book “The Story of Black Sabbath: Wheels of Confusion”, Iommi again reflected, "We could've continued and gone on and on, getting more technical, using orchestras and everything else, which we didn't particularly want to. We took a look at ourselves, and we wanted to do a rock album – “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” wasn't a rock album, really”. And while both Iommi and drummer Bill Ward appeared to enjoy the recording sessions for the album, Ozzy Osbourne was obviously growing frustrated with how long Black Sabbath albums were taking to record, as quoted in his autobiography, "Sabotage took about four thousand years”.
Under all of this stress and strain, the band managed to find a way to get the album together, and to release their sixth album, the aforementioned “Sabotage”.

From the opening bars of the opening track, you can tell something is going on here with Black Sabbath. Because although they have had dozens of great songs up to this point of their career when they recorded “Sabotage”, and they had had songs with attitude and heavy riffs and amazing stylistic bass riffs through them – nothing quite prepares you for the opening of “Hole in the Sky”. Yes, that opening riff is a beauty, great tones from Iommi once again, and Geezer’s bassline immediately bounds to the front of the mix to hammer home that initial heavy interaction. But my word Bill Ward is hitting those drums and cymbals BLOODY HARD! He has done some remarkable things on previous albums, but this is a John Bonham styled attack on his instrument early on. The brilliance of the ‘go your own way’ style of guitar and bass during the chorus is amazingly composed and played. How do you come up with those two different riffing's and yet make it sound so awesome? The tempo holds together throughout the track, and Ward’s drum skin and cymbals must have had to have been replaced following the recording of the song. Anyone who doubted the direction this album was heading in knows full well at the conclusion of the first song.
And yet, even after all of these years, I question the decision to insert the 49 seconds of “Don’t Start (Too Late)” between the opening track and the one that is listed at number three on Side A of the album. The instrumental interlude, in the context of what has come and what is to follow, just doesn’t make any sense. Sure, let’s listen to Tony twiddle away on his guitar in a quite interlude that is nothing more than an interruption to the magnificence that is coming forth out of the speakers. It is not the first time the band has offered us these little nooks between tracks. Some work OK though the albums would be better off without them. Here on “Sabotage”, “Don’t Start (Too Late)” actually does sabotage what should have been a great abrupt ending to the opening track that then hit straight into what should have been the follow up track. That song, is “Symptom of the Universe”. And if they had done that, this album may well have been untouchable.
I still get the same feeling listening to the start of “Symptom of the Universe” as I did when I first heard it, all those years ago. That opening riff from Tony is so simple and yet so incredible. From the outset, it is what you expect that heavy metal is. And then the bass and drums join in to drive the power even further. But come on – that rolling drum solo from Bill Ward that comes in... have you ever tried to play that the same way Bill does? I suspect Bill was never able to play it the same way twice when it came to recording it either, but when you listen carefully to it, it is so incredibly unobtainable it just makes this song unique. It almost sounds out of time, and yet he pulls it back at the right moment to kick back into that hard hitting 2/4 time where, like he did on the opening track, he is hitting those damn things so hard. The drumming on this song once again highlights how important Bill Ward was on these early Black Sabbath albums. And then Ozzy chimes in, in that higher than high tone that sadly disqualified him from singing it in later years when he couldn’t reach those heights. In his autobiography, Iommi has this to say: “Sabotage has a couple of unusual tracks, like ‘Symptom of the Universe’. That has been described as the first progressive metal song, and I won’t disagree with that. It starts with an acoustic bit, then it goes into the up-tempo stuff to give it that dynamic, and it does have a lot of changes to it, including the jam at the end. That last bit was made up in the studio. We did the track and after that finished, we just started jamming. I started playing this riff, the others joined in, we kept it going and we ended up keeping it. Then I overdubbed it with acoustic guitar. A few things we’ve recorded came from jams like that. We’d just keep going on the thing and so the end of the song sometimes became longer than the song itself”. This is one of the great songs, to me one of five that I would suggest a person unfamiliar with this era of Sabbath has to listen to if they want to know what the band was like.
(War Pigs, Children of the Grave, After Forever, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Symptom of the Universe)
And then, to complete side one of the album we have “Megalomania”, perhaps and underrated song or a slightly forgotten song of this era of Sabbath. It doesn’t often get brought up in conversation, it rarely appears in best-of compilations, and it is a mystery as to why this occurs. The sprawling almost-ten minute journey is the true beginning of the journey to progressive metal. The 3 minute slow burn to open the track, with Ozzy’s sinister vocals along with piano and synth adding in underneath, then bursts forth with Iommi’s great riff and Ozzy’s vocals shattering into the highest echelons of his range, chanting and pontificating as the song grows into the powerful beast it becomes, with Geezer’s bass riffing under the chorus running up and down the fretboard, and Tony’s solo offering as surprising as it is brilliant. It is a wonderful track which really does showcase Ozzy’s vocals at their best. Iommi's final thoughts on the song in his autobiography were: “A lot of our songs tended to be long anyway. Like ‘Megalomania’: we carried on and on with that until we just faded it out. Some of those tracks were probably twice as long as you hear on the album, but we had to fade them out”.
Side 2 opens with “The Thrill of it All”, and Geezer lyrics are really throwing curveballs during this track. “Inclination of direction, walk the turned and twisted drift,
with the children of creation, futuristic dreams we sift
Clutching violently we whisper with a liquefying cry
Any identify the answers that are surely doomed to die”
One of the things that has always struck me about some of Ozzy’s vocals in this song is that they have a real Lennon/McCartney vibe about them, especially in the ‘oh yeah... OH YEAH!” part of the song. Ozzy has always professed to have loved The Beatles and while it was unlikely to be his intention that familiarity always strikes me here. This is followed by the mostly instrumental track “Supertzar”, that has the backing of an English choir to create the atmosphere that the band was looking for. Iommi commented in his autobiography: “I wrote ‘Supertzar’ at home with a Mellotron, to create choir sounds. I put heavy guitar to that and it really blended well. I thought, I’d love to try this in the studio, it would be great if we could use a real choir”.
The album’s only single release was “Am I Going Insane (Radio)”, probably the only track here that had any chance of getting airplay given the wonderful heaviness of the rest of the collected tracks. It’s a simple song with some synth thrown in that may help it sound a bit more commercial from what has come before it on the album. There is no outstanding drum fills of bass line, and Tony’s guitar for the most part is quite muted. Reportedly Ozzy was disappointed with both of these songs, and there is a certain amount of truth to the fact that they are completely different to the rest of the songs on the album.
The album concludes with “The Writ”, one of only a handful of Black Sabbath songs to feature lyrics composed by Ozzy, who typically relied on Geezer for lyrics. As will be obvious to those that knew of what was happening around the band at the time, the song was inspired by the frustrations Ozzy felt at the time over their court problems with their former manager. Ozzy noted in his autobiography: "I wrote most of the lyrics myself, which felt a bit like seeing a shrink. All the anger I felt towards Meehan came pouring out”. Thematically, "The Writ" and "Megalomania" are intertwined, according to Bill Ward, as they both deal with the same tensions arising from these ongoing legal troubles. “The Writ” is long tome venting the bands feelings about how their ordeal had been affecting them during this whole time, and interesting change from topics that the band had usually focused on in their songwriting. It is an openly sore wound that finishes off this album in the style that you would hope for an album that deserves its status as one of the band’s best.

For anyone who has not already done so, the podcast titled And Volume for All, hosted by the outrageously talented Quinn, did several episodes on the original iteration of Black Sabbath in season one of said podcast back at the end of 2022, including talking about the album “Sabotage”. I highly recommend that you listen to those if you love amazing podcasts and especially on heavy metal. It is the best music podcast on the planet, and if you aren’t listening, then start now. You can thank me later.
I actually came to Black Sabbath AFTER I had first discovered both Ozzy Osbourne and Dio, and worked my way backwards through the Dio helmed albums “Heaven and Hell” and “Mob Rules”. It wasn’t a deliberate thing, just all a part of my own journey in discovering heavy metal music, which if you are interested, I outline on bonus Patreon only episodes available on that platform. You can find the link in the show notes.
On that journey, “Sabotage” arrived. I don’t really remember in what order I originally heard the eight albums of the band's original formation, but they were all within several months of each other. And as most of you listening to this album would know, there is a wonderful mixture and changes of style and substance about the songs on each album. The way that this foursome continued to try and change the wheel as they moved from album to album, adding and subtracting to the pieces they composed, is what made them the innovators they were during the 1970’s. They weren’t afraid of composing in jam sessions and changing course within a song or a slew of songs. And that is no different here on “Sabotage”. You can feel the aggression that comes on songs such as “Hole in the Sky” and “Symptom of the Universe” and “The Writ”. You can sense the desire to try new things on songs such as “Supertzar”, and the freeforming way they came up with ideas such as on “Megalomania”. In what must have been the most difficult circumstances to try and get in a headspace to write and record an album with everything swirling around them – they came up with this album. The first side of the album in particular for me is immense, amazing, incredible. Those songs – ignoring the 49 seconds between the opening tracks – contains everything wonderful about this band, and for me certainly some of Bill Ward’s finest work.
I have had the album out for the past couple of weeks – indeed, as we have just seen a few weeks ago the final concert appearance of the original Black Sabbath, I have had all eight of those original albums out over the course of the past few weeks again. And they are all amazing. But listening more closely to “Sabotage” because of this podcast episode, it again has struck me just what an amazing album this is.
Changes of substance came over the next two releases, ones that sometimes create conversations over their content, and it remains obvious that tensions created over the issues that were faced here eventually contributed to the parting of this foursome. But on this particular album, everything was running at full steam, and creating some of their best material of all.

1303. Black Sabbath / Live at Last. 1980. 5/5

Black Sabbath the band had been stuck in murky waters for a couple of years by the time that this album came to light. Everyone knows the story of the eventual dismissal of Ozzy Osbourne from the band, the health problems being faced by Bill Ward, and the difficulty in the band really knowing what they were going to do from that point. Then there was the entrance of Ronnie James Dio, whose wonderful vocals and writing appeared to revitalise the band with the release of their ninth album “Heaven and Hell” in April of 1980. Prior to this though, the band had parted ways with their previous management led by Patrick Meehan, and had been embroiled in a long running dispute. The culmination of this saw Meehan through a different record label re-release all of the Black Sabbath back catalogue without the band’s consent. As well as this, he also owned the rights to live recordings that had been made of the band in 1973 on the tour to support the album “Volume 4”. These recordings were made with the view to releasing a live album following the tour, but this idea was abandoned when the band felt they were unhappy with the way they had come out. Six years later however, a disgruntled Meehan decided that as he had the rights to the recordings, and on the back of not only the split in the band’s fanbase in regards to Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio being the lead singer of the band, and the fact that the new album “Heaven and Hell” had already sold very well, that he would release an album consisting of those live recordings. And so, once again, without the permission of the band, Black Sabbath had its first live album publicly released under the name of “Live at Last”.

If you are looking for a stunningly incisive review of this album, one that is full of interesting insights and dramatic revelations, then I’m afraid you are in the wrong place. That’s the difficulty with live albums, because the majority of them are very good. And this is no exception. Because the songs selected to be played on this tour that appear on this album are all very good. And the musician's performance of the band on these recorded songs is very very good. So there isn’t anything particularly enlightening that I can offer.
The songs here off “Volume 4” sound as fresh as they were on this tour. “Tomorrow’s Dream” opens up the album in a great way, even though I would love to have heard “Wheels of Confusion” as that opening. “Sweet Leaf” follows, and is particularly crushing through the middle of the song and into Tony Iommi’s guitar solo, backed by that ridiculous bass line underneath and Bill Ward’s hammering drums. Fabulous stuff, oh yeah baby! “Killing Yourself to Live” is one of the great classic Black Sabbath songs that still seems so underrated despite its obvious brilliance. It again is highlighted by Tony’s guitar with Geezer’s booming bassline running underneath, and Ozzy’s wonderful vocal lines over the top. What a great song this is, and this is a great version of it.
The “Volume 4” double up comes next though in reverse order from how they appear on that album, with the barnstorming “Cornucopia” charging through the middle of the album, and flowing into the utter brilliance of “Snowblind”, that opening solo show into the main riff – just magnificence. And Ozzy proclaiming ‘my eyes are blind but I can see’... Geezer’s lyrics are just so amazing in this song and Ozzy sings them so well. Then we have the heavy hitters from the big early albums, “Children of the Grave” and “War Pigs” either side of the album turnover. Both sound as huge, heavy and magnificent as they always have.
The medley of various pieces thrown together as a part of the wild and winding version of “Wicked World” here is surprisingly good. “Wicked World” sounds so much better here in the live environment than it does on the debut album, and the middle of the track has lots of great surprises thrown in such as “Into the Void” and “Supernaut”, and a drum solo from Bill Ward in the mix. At almost 19 minutes this alone is worth listening to the album for. Perhaps the only slightly disappointing ting about the album is that “Paranoid” is the closing track. It sounds so... simple and ineffective... compared to the wonderful and brilliant things the band has played before this. Yes, I get that they have to play it, even back then in 1973, but surely something else would have been a better set closer.

You’ve heard me say it before, and no doubt you will hear me say it again. Live albums should almost always be automatic 5/5 albums, because they contain the bands best songs in their best environment. Now, whether this is the case here given the complexities of how this release occurred is open to question. And I will once again raise another point about live albums, where I would prefer to hear the setlist as it was performed, and not chopped and changed. And that is not the case here. This album is a slightly rearranged selection of the songs performed over those two nights in 1973. Whatever the reason is for that, it doesn’t actually harm the flow of the album. Though, I guess this is mostly because I didn’t KNOW the order had been changed until four years ago, when the band released the Super Deluxe version of “Volume 4”, which contain the entire concert remastered for release. And it sounds fantastic.
None of that actually takes away from this release. As a snapshot of the band in this era it is fantastic. The band sounds terrific. Ozzy’s vocals are surprisingly good throughout, the fabulous basslines of Geezer Butler hold everything together, Tony Iommi's guitar breezes through the speakers and Bill Ward’s drumming is brutally proficient. The song selection is top shelf, and with just songs from the first four albums to choose from it just works.
I’ve had a couple of copies of this over the years, but in the last 12 months I managed to find a second-hand vinyl copy at my local record store Music Farmers in Wollongong, and that has been the version I have revisited over the last couple of days. And it is still as good as the first time I heard it. Prior to the Super Deluxe editions of albums coming out with the bonus live material, this was all we had of the original foursome recorded live, so it was always a special release. And, to be fair, it still is. If you want to hear Sabbath with Ozzy, this is still your best bet. “Reunion” is okay. The live albums from the last tour are okay. This has the lifeblood still running through it.

1232. Black Sabbath / Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 1973. 5/5

When a band comes around to writing and recording their fourth and fifth albums, its about the time that you expect true greatness from them – if they have it in them. Because by this stage the band will have been touring and writing almost non-stop for five years from the time their debut album comes out, to that period arriving. Thinking back on the great bands who have had a good degree of longevity, and thinking of their fourth and fifth albums, and in the main, it is those albums that are still beloved today. Black Sabbath is no different here.
Having been out promoting the band’s fourth studio album, “Volume 4”, through 1972 and 1973, the tour had come to a rapid conclusion with Tony Iommi’s collapse after one gig towards the end of the run, resulting in the remaining dates of the tour having to be scrubbed, and the band actually going on a hiatus for the first time since their formation four years prior, with each member going their own way to spend some down time away from the spotlight. No doubt it seemed like a good idea at the time, but whether it played out that way or not is open to conjecture.
To read all four autobiographies of the four members of the band, 1973 appeared to be a tipping point of sorts. All four admit to a rampant drug and alcohol usage, and especially cocaine which had become the drug of choice. When the band reconvened at a rented home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, in order to write for the new album, they found that nothing was forthcoming. Perhaps the break had severed the momentum that the band had gained, or just relaxed them enough that they were unable to get back into that writing groove again. Tony feared writers block, either from the drug use or the pressure he felt upon him to get the band started and find the riffs that he had in the past to create the basis of their amazing songs. Geezer found his irritation with Ozzy growing, as he felt that Ozzy was leaning too much on him to provide the lyrics to the songs, rather than contributing more of his own. After a month of almost zero output, the band returned to the UK and rented Clearwater Castle to work in. Whether or not it was mood and surroundings of the dank castle that brought back the right creative environment for the masters of doom, whatever the reason the band found inspiration returning. While rehearsing in a dungeon in the castle, Tony came across the riff that became the basis of the title track of the album, and suddenly the band was back in business, and with it the album that became “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”.

The opening salvo of the title track, that opening riff into the joining of bass and drums, and then Ozzy’s vocal, is a moment in time, one of those things that you still remember the first time you experienced it each and every time you start this album. Because it is unique, in such a way that any guitarist who first plays it at home must feel magic coursing through their fingers. From the distorted to the clear, from Ozzy starting off at a high octave and then going through the roof in the middle of the song, so much so that it became impossible for him to sing it in the years since, is iconic and amazing.
This is followed by the spine shuddering “A National Acrobat”, that opening riff which is such a changeup for the band with Ozzy crooning over the top. In many ways it is very un-Black Sabbath like, until you reach the middle passage, where the crunch comes back into the riff, and suddenly the true heaviness of the track is revealed. Tony directs the song throughout with riff and wah pedal, then plays it out with another un-Sabbath type riff. The whole song on first impressions is so much different from what you would expect the band to produce if you only knew those most played tracks, but by the end, it is amorphic. Some may call it underrated, while I just call it genius.
“Fluff” is an instrumental composed by Tony, in the spirit of other musical pieces the band has placed on previous albums between songs. As I’m sure I have said before, to me the albums would be better served not to have them there, breaking that flow, but they are. “Fluff” to me has always been like the music you hear when you are on call waiting, because in essence that’s how I feel when I hear it on this album, I’m on hold, waiting for the next song to start. At least when I come off call waiting here, I am not disappointed.
How good a song is “Sabbra Cadabra”? Brilliantly upbeat, both lyrically and musically, the piano and synth perfectly utilised even in a Black Sabbath song that does nothing to restrict the heaviness of the track in the slightest. Every time I hear this song, it lifts my spirits, whether they needed lifting or not. This is one of Sabbath’s greatest even songs, and a supreme accomplishment by making what is technically by the lyrics a love song into a song that a partner could never ever be disappointed in hearing you sing it to them. It is a brilliant way to conclude the first side of the album.

Side 2 then opens up with the equally brilliant “Killing Yourself to Live”, composed by Geezer as he was laid up in hospital recovering from the effects that his wild lifestyle was causing him. Well, both he and his bandmates. Here is another song that some would call underrated but I have always considered one of their best. The bass heavy under riff is what immediately makes this a noticeably Geezer influenced track, and hearing his fingers up and down that fretboard and being the solid basis of the song is what makes it for me. Ozzy’s vocal here is also perfect, not extending beyond what the song needs, and sung at a level that us mere mortals can actually get close to as we sing along. One of Sabbath’s best.
“Who Are You?” came about from an Ozzy composition, which he relates in his autobiography. He had gone out and bought himself a synthesiser, and while indisposed one evening he came up with this tune which he also happened to record. Tony expressed surprise at this in his book, as he claimed that Ozzy had no idea how to play the synth. Perhaps he didn’t, but the basic structure of the song he came up with made this song, and again, while it may not be in the absolute wheelhouse of what most consider to be the Black Sabbath heavy guitar and drum song, it incorporates the experimental side that the band had always had a knack of incorporating into their music along the way.
More of that can be heard on “Looking for Today”, though it is a much more basic song in format and layout. Overall, the vocals tend to hold the song together, though in a somewhat repetitive fashion that can get a little monotonous.
The continued movement of Black Sabbath from the founders of heavy metal and doom music to another plane continues with the amazing “Spiral Architect” which concludes the album. The way that this song rises and falls in platitudes, with heavy passages and beautiful vocals, the riffing guitars then complemented and even overridden in places by the strings that are a part of the track, is just amazing. It has been written in places and occasionally said in interviews that the band didn’t want to be held by the constraints of the music they wrote early in their careers, and that they always had the desire to expand their songs because of the artists they loved coming up through their childhood, such as The Beatles and even Jethro Tull, who Tony had flirted with prior to Sabbath signing their first recording contract. In some ways (and this is certainly the case on albums such as “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die”) this didn’t always work. Here on “Spiral Architect”, it is a rousing success.

How in the hell is this album 50 years old? I don’t often feel my age, but listening to this album today, and actually have it hit me that it is 50 years old, is just amazing.
Having not fallen into heavy metal until the middle of the 1980’s decade, I found all of Black Sabbath’s albums up to that time in a mixed up order, generally discovering them whenever either myself or one of my mates could afford one of their albums, at which point we would all bring in our cassette tapes and get a copy recorded for us. Apart from the Dio fronted albums, “Paranoid” and this album were the first Sabbath albums I owned, and perhaps that is why I have so much love for it. But I think there is a reaction here to what was happening in and around the band at the time. We touched on the drug and alcohol problems, which caused the tour to stop and the band members to go away for awhile, and then the difficulty that was faced in eventually coming up with ideas. All of that is perhaps a good thing, because the band’s previous album “Volume 4”, the episode of which you can find in Season 3 of this podcast, was one where the experimenting in formula arguably went too far too soon. Having the break, as short as it was, and finding the inspiration again from a gothic castle, seemed to bring back the real Sabbath. Yes, there was some additions to the music such as synth and strings in places to complement the formula, but it is the Tony Iommi guitar riffs, the Geezer Butler bass lines that boom through the speakers, the Bill Ward drumming and Ozzy Osbourne vocal brilliance that shines back through every song on this album, that creates what is one of the band’s masterpieces. Could the band have created it if they weren’t all in the midst of trying to kill themselves with drugs and alcohol? Or what may they have done with clear heads?
I don’t know how many times I have listened to this album over the past month. A lot. And having the vinyl spinning in my own Metal Cavern at home, coming at me out of the speakers, and feeling the bass thumping in my chest, and Ozzy’s vocals screaming through my eardrums, is still such a satisfying experience. It is an impossible task to try and rank Sabbath albums, through generations, or simply through the first eight albums they produced. Suffice to say that this is still a joyous experience every time I put it on. It lifts spirits, it pounds away the angst and anger, and just leaves you in a far better mood once it is done than you were in before you started. And if an album can do that, it is something to keep close and use it for that at all times.

1224. Black Sabbath / Reunion. 1998. 5/5

For almost 20 years from 1979, when Ozzy Osbourne finally parted ways with Black Sabbath, the fan base constantly speculated about the possibility of a reunion of the original foursome to not only tour but to record a new album. No matter how good other lineups of the band happened to be, or how enjoyable the albums that they released were, there was a somewhat morbid anticipation of what might occur should the individuals Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne ever get on the same stage again, and then the studio.
There were some close calls along the way that tried to amount to something but eventually fell short. The four did get on stage together to play a three song set at Live Aid in 1985, but it was a far cry from an outstanding success. Up against the biggest bands of the era, they failed to show the same energy that came from many of the other acts, and they all went their separate ways once again. Then there was the ill-fated appearance at what was to be Ozzy’s final touring performance when Iommi, Butler and Ward agreed to support Ozzy at that gig, and then come out at the end as the original quartet to play a couple of songs. It resulted in that current formation of Black Sabbath, with Ronnie Dio and Vinny Appice, collapsing on the spot. From here there was an attempt for these four to get together and compose some new material, but old scars and wounds seemed to reopen, and the venture once again fell apart as they all moved on again.
Eventually in 1997, for Ozzy’s own Ozzfest festival, Ozzy, Tony and Geezer came together to play as Black Sabbath, with Mike Bordin from Faith No More filling in for an absent Ward on drums, and played a set of classic songs to a rousing reception. This led to yet another bout of ‘will they-won't they’ discussion on a possible reunion. Following the success of these gigs, the four got together, and managed to agree on playing two nights in their home city of Birmingham in November 1997, which they would record to release as a live album under the name Black Sabbath. This was despite their still being concerns over Bill Ward’s ability to play two gigs given his health problems. Another former Sabbath drummer in Vinny Appice was on hand to step in if required, which fortunately did not eventuate. And so, the fans finally got what they were after, a true Black Sabbath reunion, even if it was only on stage. Or so everyone was led to believe.

So what we have here is a two CD set, unless you have just purchased the brand new anniversary release on 3LP’s, that contains a great mix of songs from Black Sabbath’s era of 1970 to 1978, the era of the band that many hard core fans believe is the ONLY era of the band. And, looking back now, it’s probably a little hard to believe that these guys were still amazingly young. They were all under 50 years of age when this was recorded, well within the prime of their playing existence. And it comes across here beautifully. All of the songs played are classics, and while the versions may not be as fast of energetic as they were back when the band was in its prime in the 1970’s, they sound magnificent on this album. The production and recording of the two nights is done perfectly, and the result is a fantastic live album.
You get the songs you expect. The opening battle cry of “War Pigs”, the psychedelic ramblings of “Fairies Wear Boots”, the drug anthemic lines of “Sweet Leaf” and “Snowblind”. The majesty of “Black Sabbath” and “Iron Man”, the heaviest riff ever written in “Children of the Grave” and the afterthought of “Paranoid”. All are performed here exactly as you would expect, and their impact is significant. There are the other great tracks you would expect to hear as well, such as “N.I.B” (complete with a stage intruder at the end of the song proclaiming his love of Ozzy and the band before being dragged off) and the fantastic “Electric Funeral”, the power doom of “Into the Void” and “Lord of This World”. Each of them is terrific.
There are a couple of surprises, but none of them is a disappointment. In fact for me they are a highlight. Who would have expected “Spiral Architect” to make the cut, and yet it is a brilliant version of this classic song. I’m not sure anyone was expecting “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, if only for the reason that there is no way Ozzy could have sung this song in its original pitch, even at that stage of his career. But play it they did, and Ozzy’s subtle change in the way he sings it just gives it a different character that is fun to hear. And the wonderful version of “Dirty Women” from “Technical Ecstasy” is perfect, and great to have a song this far into their catalogue get a run for this album.
Perhaps the biggest talking point at the time of this album’s release was the addition of two new studio tracks, “Psycho Man” and “Selling My Soul”, both written by Ozzy and Tony. These were done in Aril and May of 1998, when there was a concerted effort to try and write for a new album. The sessions went slowly however, and eventually these two songs were all that eventuated from them. The differences in their styles are obvious, and given where each of the four members were at in their careers at that point in time, perhaps it is not difficult to understand how it would hard to write together again.

And we’re back with my overly typical comment – and if you are listening to these episodes in release order you’ll know exactly what I mean, as this is the third live album in a row I have podcasted on – in that a live album should ALWAYS be a 5/5 experience, because you have the band’s best songs in their best environment. And with “Reunion”, you absolutely have that. The return of the original line up of Black Sabbath, playing a bunch of their greatest ever tracks in front of an ecstatic audience, and having the time of their lives.
This truly is a terrific live album. Sabbath to this point had not done many live albums, and had barely taken the chance to do so when this line up was together. It is only in recent years, with the re-release of deluxe versions of those classic albums, that they have included rare and unreleased recordings of concerts from those grand old days, and they are all quite brilliant. But for the most part, despite the hurriedly released “Live at Last” album, this line up hadn’t had a proper live release. And this absolutely does the band justice. Bill’s drumming mightn’t be anything like he did in the day but it still fits the bill (pun intended). The ‘wall of noise’ known as Geezer and Tony is simply superb, both still supreme on their instruments, while Ozzy’s vocals are still amazingly good throughout.
I bought this within a few days of its release and loved it immediately. It was one of the highlights of my music purchases of 1998. My best memory of listening to this album was being at a get together at a mates house in my home town of Kiama, where he was renting a house that looked down the local beach into town. We had this album cranking during the BBQ and beers that went into the night, and it was brilliant singing along and air guitaring to each song as it came on. I highly recommend listening to the album this way.
The quartet tried again to write a new album in 2002, but they just couldn’t find a way to make it work, which Iommi always regretted as he believed that the songs they did produce were top shelf. Eventually, following the Heaven and Hell project and then Dio’s sad demise, Iommi, Butler and Osbourne did write and record a final Black Sabbath album titled “13”... but that story is for another day.

1223. Black Sabbath / Never Say Die! 1978. 3.5/5

It would be fair to say that it was remarkable enough that this album ended up being made at all with the original foursome intact, as the lead up to its release was anything but smooth. The previous album “Technical Ecstasy”, the episode of which you can listen to in Season 1 of this podcast, had been a tough time writing and recording, and it had received a lukewarm reception on its release. The fact that the band had begun to expand its music (along with its mind with a furthering of drugs and alcohol) meant that the changes in the songs produced had brought some indifference in their fan base.
Following the tour to promote that album, and while in the process of beginning rehearsals for the next album, Ozzy Osbourne suddenly quit the band. Aside from his own problems, he has said in interviews and books that he had just become tired of the same quartet, and wanted to do something different. This brought about two situations, firstly with Sabbath immediately bringing in Dave Walker, who had sung in many bands including Fleetwood Mac and Humble Pie for a short time, and getting to work writing new material, and secondly Ozzy pulling together his own musicians in order to do the same. In early January 1978, Black Sabbath with Walker on vocals played live on a BBC music program. It was to be the only time they did so with this formation. Ozzy’s new band had been in rehearsals at the time, when suddenly he had a change of heart, and returned to Black Sabbath. No defining reason has ever been aired for this change of heart, though one could suspect that if Ozzy had seen or heard of his former band already playing together on British TV, perhaps he realised that he wasn’t ready to move on. Either way, Walker was out and Osbourne was back.
The difficulties didn’t finish there though. Back in the fold, Ozzy refused to sing or play any material that had been written with Walker as a part of the band. It mean that the better part of 6-8 weeks worth of material was unusable, and that the band had to start from the beginning again. As they had booked a studio in Canada to record in, it meant that the band had to pull double duty in order to write and record the new album. To do this, they actually hired out a cinema during the day where they could get together to write, before heading into the studio at night to try and put down the tracks as they went. The studio itself also produced a sound that was not to the band’s liking, so they tore up all the carpet in order to help improve that situation. On top of that, there was copious drugs and copious alcohol, such that often the band arrived at the studio to record, only to pack up again because one or more members were unable to perform. And it was no secret that the band themselves were just not getting on like they used to. Add all of this together, and in many ways it is remarkable that the album was made at all. Once it was released, there were many fans and critics who wished that it hadn’t.

Seriously, if you were asked to judge an album just on its first track, you would be giving “Never Say Die!” full marks, because the title track is an absolute ripper. Bombastic, fast, a great riff and bass line and hard driven drums. Truly one of the best Black Sabbath tracks, hands down. No one can deny that it immediately pulls you in to the album and sets it all up for the brilliance to come. And then it ends, like running into a brick wall, and you are left with the rest of the sodden mess. That's a bit harsh I know, but after the beginning its hard to describe the rest of the album in glowing terms.
Following the genius that is present on much of the first six albums, it feels as though the well had well and truly gone dry by the time this came out. Yes, the band had problems, drugs and alcohol were rampant and Ozzy was more or less finished in his enthusiasm for the task at hand, but given the great opening track you would have hoped for more following it. Instead, it mostly becomes a freeform instrumental recital, with fusions of jazz and early electronica replacing the great guitar and bass that the band it built on.
There is a fine line when it comes to comparing albums, and while this album simply cannot be held in the same esteem as the band’s first six albums, there are glimpses of the real Black Sabbath beyond the title track. “Johnny Blade” lyrically and musically is interesting, in that Ozzy actually sings off the riff rather than with it, Tony’s phasing guitar sound enhanced by Don Airey’s keyboards create a sound that harks to the previous album and the way it began to transcend what Sabbath had done to that point in their career. “Junior’s Eyes” began its life as one of the songs written while Dave Walker was in the band, but was transformed lyrically into being about the death of Ozzy’s father, who had passed just prior to his leaving of the band the previous year. “A Hard Road” was the second single released from the album, which did chart (marginally) in the UK, but contains little of the hard core elements of what made Black Sabbath great. The drums are not that frenetic and hard hitting style that Bill Ward had been renown for, the guitar and bass play along nicely together without actually making themselves known in the song. It’s all very genteel and is missing the attitude the band was once known for.
“Shock Wave” is perhaps the most Sabbath sounding song on this album. Tony’s guitar has its sound back, and his solo is true Iommi. Geezer’s bass plays as that second guitar that makes the best Sabbath music and Ozzy sings like he means it. “Air Dance” is a nice enough song but it just isn’t a Sabbath song. It sounds like it is about to break out on a couple of occasions during the track... and the just doesn’t.
“Over to You” is in a classic Sabbath style, not in the bombastic sense but in the psychedelic sense, a song that could almost be found of the “Volume 4” era of the band. No solo to speak of, but Tony’s riff and Geezer’s bass moving up and down the fretboard underneath gives the song a solid sound throughout. Ozzy’s vocal line is his best performance on the album as well.
The closing two tracks are a bit out of the box though, even for this era of the band. “Breakout” is an instrumental, but it is really just a jazz infused track, with horns and brass, and sounds more like the intro to “Saturday Night Live” than a Black Sabbath song. Ludicrous. This then segues straight into the closing number, “Swinging the Chain”, that has similar features but at least has less of the brass horns, which instead are replaced for the most part by the harmonica. Ozzy even refused to sing on "Swinging the Chain", leaving Bill Ward to add the vocals as he had done on “I’m Alright” on the previous album.
There is so much out of whack on this album, it is difficult to believe that it came together at all. Once you get into the deep dive of the time, and read each of the four members autobiographies and get to this part of their lives, it becomes a little clearer as to why this is such a conglomerate mash up.

“Never Say Die!” as an album has always been one of those difficult albums to reconcile with. When I first started listening to heavy metal music, I was exposed to Black Sabbath through a ‘best of’ collection from the time, that perhaps somewhat obviously had no tracks from this album on it. And it was at that time that I was listening to Ozzy’s solo albums and the Dio Sabbath albums, rather than the Sabbath albums of the second half of the 70’s decade. They were the ones that grew in significance to my listening. One of my best mates, who is now my brother-in-law, did get both “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die!” on vinyl, so I got copies of them from him, as well as hearing them often when I was around at his house as he manned the phones at the taxi base his family owned at the time. But this was never an album I just put on to listen to, there were so many better Sabbath albums that I could choose when I was after that kind of sound.
I don’t hate this album, but to me it isn’t Black Sabbath either. I listen to this the same way that I listen to sections of the Tony Martin era of the band, or even “Seventh Star”. These albums in particular are all so different from the sound and genius they created on the first six albums, and that’s the real trick to the situation. If you listen to and compare any of those albums with this one, then the other albums win, hands down, no question. But, if you just put this album on and listen without expectation, the everything flows in the right way. “Johnny Blade”, “Junior’s Eyes”, “A Hard Road”, “Air Dance” - none of these songs are “Symptom of the Universe”, “Children of the Grave”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “War Pigs”. They can’t be. So when I listen to this album and not expect Black Sabbath... it kinda works. For the most part. Not completely.
I’ve had a CD copy of this album for some time, but this year I was able to get the special vinyl release of the album that came out for Record Store Day, and I must say it is still the best way to listen to all Black Sabbath, putting the vinyl on the turntable and turning it up. It works for me for this copy of my album. I can’t say to you that everyone will enjoy this album. I can only offer that it is worth giving it a try.
If nothing else, the aftermath led to better things for all sides - Ozzy was fired after the band spent a year trying to write a follow up to this album, and he left to form Blizzard of Ozz where with the help of some wonderful musicians and writers he was able to rediscover his mojo, while the remainder of the band recruited Ronnie James Dio as Ozzy’s replacement, and well and truly rediscovered their magic. Despite the fact that Ozzy returned 35 years later to record the final Black Sabbath album “13”, “Never Say Die!” put a pin in that original lineup of Butler Iommi Osbourne and Ward. It was a somewhat tame way to conclude a period of music that this foursome had helped to create and then dominate. But then, perhaps the title track is what set up what came next.

1177. Black Sabbath / Volume 4. 1972. 4/5

If you go back to those first three Black Sabbath albums, it is still amazing to hear just how awesome they are, how brilliant the song writing is, and how amazing the playing from those four musicians is. Sure, there is some quirkiness about a few of the songs, especially I guess from the self-titled debut album when they were still coming out of the hippy happy late 1960’s period. But from that had come songs that as influential today as they were when they were released - “Black Sabbath”, “N.I.B”, “War Pigs”, “Iron Man”, “Paranoid”, “Sweet Leaf”, “Children of the Grave” - and practically every other song. All three are outstanding albums, fuelled by alcohol and marijuana.
Following the end of the tour to promote “Master of Reality”, the band headed back into the studio in the US to start the process of coming up with their fourth album. By this time however, their tastes had changed, and cocaine had come onto the scene. Both Ozzy and Tony in their autobiographies describe how speaker boxes full of the white powder were delivered daily to the studio as the band worked. Is it any wonder that the blizzard of white found its way into the lyrics of several songs recorded for the album.
Was it a deliberate ploy to make any significant changes to the style that the band employed in their music for this album? No one really seems capable of making a wholehearted answer of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to that question. There is of course still plenty of the aggressive style in their music on some of the tracks that eventually made the final cut for “Volume 4”. But there is also little doubt that there is a little more experimentation in the track list. And for some people, myself included, it feels as though it was a bridge too far, or at least too quickly. Tony Iommi himself was quoted as saying in 1975 that the album "was such a complete change – we felt we had jumped an album, really ... We had tried to go too far."
Having said all of that, is the album really that much different from what had come before it? The first thing that I have to say is that this is still a great Sabbath album, don’t be fooled into thinking it isn’t. But it is different, and the songs are different, and that could be for several reasons. It could be that the band wanted to head in a slightly reformed direction with their music. It could be, as has been suggested in several forums, that it was the change in drugs that the band were using at the time that created these musical changes. And others believe it was just the next step in the generation of the music.

Let’s go about this album two ways. Firstly, just put it on and listen to it from start to finish. Conclusions? Another great Black Sabbath album. Like the albums that came before it, the great songs are broken up by little musical interludes that aren’t really songs but are labelled as such. And some of those make you wonder “uhhh... why?”. But by the end of the album, you’ve heard great vocals, great riffs, great drumming, and you leave happy.
OK. So that’s the easy version. Here’s another version.
The album opens with “Wheels of Confusion”, a song that goes through three different phases from start to finish. It could almost be three different songs put together, or at least three different sections that eventually were melded into place. Bill Ward’s drum bashing through the middle of the song is amazing. Those drummers from that era – John Bonham from Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon from The Who, and Bill Ward, never left any skins left on the shells. How their sticks survived at times in beyond belief. The mood is fantastic and is a great opening to the album. This is followed by “Tomorrow’s Dream” which continues in the same instance, with a great riff from Tony and amazing complementing bass riff from Geezer.
“Changes” is the immediate first change to what is going on. The song is all through piano and keyboard, and Ozzy singing over the top. It isn’t a ballad as such, but a piano based thought piece. Apparently, the story goes that there was a piano at the home that the band were writing and recording this album, so Tony taught himself how to play the piano while he was there, and then came up with the chords that make this song. I mean, really, it must suck to be talented, right? That’s an amazing thing to do, to just teach yourself an instrument, and then come up with the chords that produce a song that is such an amazing piece of Black Sabbath history, because it is so different. Fantastic lyrics written by Geezer as well, and Ozzy sings it perfectly. Amazing.
“FX” is a waste of space. I mean, what is it doing here? It fills in one minute and 39 seconds on the album, and more or less just acts as a go between, from the quiet serenity of “Changes” to the smash ‘em and crash ‘em that returns with “Supernaut”. Surely there was a better way to do this. Probably just by not adding it. Tony has said in the years since that he agrees with this sentiment. Anyway.
Yes, then “Supernaut” crashes back in with Tony’s brilliant riff and Bill just smashing away on the drums, along with his own solo piece in the middle of the song. This has always been a great song, and sonically here it is brilliant. Tony’s guitar sound is perfect, surprisingly fitting in to close out the first side of the album excellently.
Side Two opens with the amazing “Snowblind”, a song that remains one of my favourite all time Black Sabbath tracks. No prizes for guessing what the lyrics are about, but everything about this song for me is a work of art. Bill’s drumming, Tony’s iconic riffing, the three different main riffs that make up the song are just outstanding. Geezer’s bass guitar, following its own path separate from the guitar but somehow drawing the whole piece together, and Ozzy’s great vocals, able to move between the manic and the serene. It’s a great song, a triumph. “Snowblind” was also the title the band wanted to use for the album, but the record company shied away from it. For some reason...
The rest of side two is still great, but it is a different level to what has come before it. “Cornucopia” and “St Vitus Dance” change things up a bit again. “Laguna Sunrise” is Tony’s instrumental piece, apparently written after waking up and watching the sunrise over Laguna Beach where they were writing and recording. And “Under the Sun” completes the album in a jaunty vision of what has come before it.

You may well have already guessed that I had a hard time getting into this album when I first got it. Unlike the first three albums, which are full of songs that everyone knows, “Volume 4” has relatively few songs that well known to the average fan, and that along with the change in out and out heavy songs at the time that I got the album threw me a curveball. It was also at a time when my real music focus was on the ‘modern’ heavy metal that was coming out in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and at the time that didn’t fit my listening profile.
Over the years that of course changed, and the more I heard “Volume 4” out of the mix of these other bands, the more it grew on me. And much like the band themselves went on to suggest, it is an album that perhaps came too early in their career to be completely understood. And in retrospect, given the changes that came on the albums later in the 70’s decade, this is much less of a change than came then.
In recent years, this album has become a regular one that I pull out to listen to, much to my surprise. During the covid lockdown weeks and months I actually listened to the whole Black Sabbath discography, and went about ranking all of the albums in order (my order of course, which disappointed many people, and brought back the argument over what constituted a ‘real’ Black Sabbath album – but more of that down the track on a future episode). During that period, I ranked this at number 9 overall, which I think is probably still reasonable. It is far better than some of the later albums that came with different members, but isn’t quite at the level that ranks it as one of the greatest. But what I remembered during that period, and have again over the last few weeks, is what a solid and joyful album it is to listen to. “FX” is a mistake, but Black Sabbath didn’t make many of those in these years.
On its release, this album reached number 1 in Australia, the only country it did so. And last year it received a Super Deluxe release with demo versions and a brilliant concert as recorded at the time, which I spoke about recently on the episode reviewing their “Past Lives” album. All of this makes for a great Sabbath album, one that still stands the test of time, 50 years on. In fact, you will scarcely be able to believe that this ground breaking album and its amazing tracks can possibly be 50 years old.

1173. Black Sabbath / Past Lives. 2002. 5/5

Live albums. Yes, I’ve spoken about them before, and if you know this podcast at all, you know that my opinion is that live albums should always rank as top marks, because they should almost always contain the best songs of the band, in their perfect environment. Of course, that is not always the case despite what I think.
This compilation was released in 2002, and I’m not sure whether it was an afterthought or not. During Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward’s time with the band through the 1970’s, Black Sabbath hadn’t released an official live album, which seemed like an oversight. As it turned out, it wasn’t until the band had recruited new singer Ronnie James Dio that a live album of those years appeared. Titled “Live at Last”, and despite its success, the album was released without the permission or knowledge of the band. The album was, however, released legally by the band's former manager Patrick Meehan who owned the rights to the recording. The first official live album from Black Sabbath was 1982’s “Live Evil”, and album that will be reviewed later in Season 3. Then, in 1998, the original foursome got back together for a tour and released the live album “Reunion” to wide acclaim. So, was there a reason that this album needed to be released? By the time 2002 rolled around, it appeared that any pretence that Black Sabbath would ever record another album had gone, and that they were just playing their annual gig at Ozzfest. Was it just for nostalgia? An attempt to keep the band in the limelight in the modern day by releasing recordings from the past? Or was it just an excuse for the band to say, “okay well, we accept that ‘Live at Last’ existed, but now we are going to release it on our own terms”? I don’t know the answer, but I know that as a fan of the band I still found a way to procure a copy, just to satisfy my own interest in what they had released along with that long held old fashioned album.

“Past Lives” contains two discs. The first disc is the re-release of the “Live at Last” album. That album was taken from recordings over two nights in March 1973 from Manchester and London. Now, something that has cropped up in recent reviews of other live albums has been the action of not having the songs in the order they were played in the concert they are taken from. And that occurs here again. Now while it doesn’t disturb the listening pleasure of the album (especially when you don’t KNOW what the order of the songs was when they were played) that still sticks in my craw a little. Of course, I was completely unaware of this being the case, until the recently remastered and deluxe edition of the album “Volume 4” was released. As a part of that package, the original analog tapes of these two gigs were remastered and released as a part of the boxset. They left in the onstage banter that this album eradicated, but also put the song back on the order they were played! Imagine my surprise when I first heard it. Now as I said, it isn’t a big thing, and this album is great to listen to, but if you happen to get a chance to listen to that remastered edition of the tapes on “Volume 4”, check it out.
The second disc here contains recordings from 1970 and 1975. Again, it’s interesting that they mix these up a little, with the 1970’s tracks acting as bookends to the 1975 tracks. Now it’s easy to pick up the differences in when and how these were recorded, and even in the way Ozzy sang the songs as the years differed. In 1970 it was at the high point of his range. By 1975 he occasionally adapted to compensate for the ridiculousness of his vocals on some studio versions of the songs.
This isn’t a clean live album, and by that I mean that it hasn’t had a dutiful effort to record these shows to the ultimate sound. But neither are they bootlegs, recordings made by fans with their cheap cassette players. If anything, this is an excellent compromise, live recordings with all of the pieces intact but with a rough and ready sound that exemplifies just how a Sabbath show must have sounded in those early to mid 1970’s. You get the incomprehensible drumming of Bill Ward, where you can imagine his hair and beard flowing over the kit as he rained down upon it, the gutteral bass guitar of Geezer Butler that is perhaps the one thing that gets missed a bit in the recording mix, the massiveness of Tony Iommi’s guitaring, and Ozzy’s quite brilliant live vocals that still stand the test of time. And the songs – it is just a who’s who of the great Sabbath tracks of the 1970’s. There is really nothing to complain about.

Prior to the re-release of the Black Sabbath early album with the deluxe versions coming out with unreleased live concerts that had been remastered, “Live at Last” had been the one peek at that time in the history of the band. To be fair, even now it is worthy. And its re-release as a part of “Past Lives”, with the extra disc of two other years of the band live, is really amazingly important. For the very reason that Black Sabbath, and this original foursome, is so significantly influential on heavy metal actually becoming a thing, and growing to what it is now, 50 years later.
All those who were old enough and fortunate enough to see the band live in those days must still be grateful for the experience. And for those of us since who have seen pieces of that genius by seeing those four artists performing in other arenas in later days, such as Ozzy on his solo gigs, Heaven and Hell with Tony and Geezer, and then the final almost-complete reformation on the album “13” and the two subsequent final tours, have at least seen that genius in those forums. But it wasn’t the original band, and the band in those early days at their peak, before drugs and arguments killed the vibe. And that is what makes “Past Lives” such an important release, one that gives you a window to that time, and lets you experience what it must have been like.
This is an album worth listening to, probably in a darkened room and letting it all sink in. This continues to be such an enjoyable experience, and one that if you haven’t heard all the way through before, you should definitely consider doing.

1136. Black Sabbath / Mob Rules. 1981. 5/5

Black Sabbath the band had appeared to be a washed up entity as the new decade had approached, with Ozzy Osbourne having been moved on and the rest of the band ambivalent about moving forward. The addition of Ronnie James Dio as new lead vocalist and lyrics writer, lifting that burden from Geezer Butler’s shoulders, brought about the amazing and legendary Heaven and Hell album, and the sales of that album and the tour that followed breathed a second life into the band that had in many ways started it all in regards to the heavy metal genre. The band had lost drummer Bill Ward during that tour. Ward, who had become a full blown alcoholic by this time, claimed it was intolerable for him to get on stage with Ozzy. He had been replaced mid-tour by Vinny Appice, who then became a full member of the band for the writing and recording of Mob Rules.
All of the band members have acknowledged that the writing of the album was different than it had been for Heaven and Hell. The initial writing of that album had been purely Tony and Ronnie, after Geezer had quit the band for a period, and was done in their lounge rooms with small amps in an intimate atmosphere. For Mob Rules, the band bought their own studio and soundboard in an attempt to save money and give them the time to come up with new material. With the noise turned up loud, not everyone involved found it a perfect way for writing, and so the writing didn’t come as naturally as it had for the previous album. It also created a different type of song for the album. Martin Birch was again producing, and there does seem to be a different bombarding within some of the songs on this album compared to the previous album. Sonically it is a much bigger and louder noise throughout, and with the lyrical matter being dragged further away from the darker side that the band sang about during its first incarnation, the band feels like a completely separate entity than the one that contained Osbourne and Ward – and this has been a disputed argument over the years, with those in the corner of the original band suggesting these albums should never be associated with the band name Black Sabbath because they are of such a different sound and focus than the first eight albums of the band’s discography. When this foursome eventually reunited under the name of Heaven and Hell many years later, many felt it was a much better fit than to have both Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, along with Dehumanizer 11 years later under the Black Sabbath label.
The band and Martin Birch have been accused of doing a carbon copy of Heaven and Hell when it comes to the style and arrangement of the tracks on Mob Rules. I’ve never really agreed with that statement, as to me the tracks here are in places more of a commercial bent than those on the previous album. Indeed, some of the tracks have been criticised for this, especially by Ozzy Sabbath fans. The second side of the album comes under the most scrutiny, particularly for the songs “Country Girl”, “Slipping Away” and “Over and Over”. “Country Girl” is seen as a similar track lyrically as “Lady Evil” from “Heaven and Hell”, and certainly comparisons can be drawn between the lyrical content of those two songs. “Slipping Away” is compared to “Walk Away”, and the closing tracks “Over and Over” and “Lonely is the Word” again are compared to be like for like. Now if you play both of these albums, and you then play these tracks next to each other, you can come to a conclusion that the formula in regards to the style of song being placed in the same order of the tracks of the album can be argued, and successfully. I can’t say that I have ever honestly thought about it much, as I just love both albums for what they are, but having thought about it for this album review I have to say that it is a fair point, that the success of the format of the previous album may well have ensured that a similar format was used for Mob Rules. Is that a bad thing? I wouldn’t have thought so. I’d have been more concerned about whether a similar number of songs where the mood and tempo is changed from the real big hitters of the album affects the overall enjoyment of said album. In this regard, that is a matter of personal taste.
I still like all three songs, but would I ever put them on a playlist for the car? Probably not. Do they compare to the outstanding tracks on the album? No. “Country Girl” is a song with the right groove and singable lyrics, but it was seemed a strange choice to me to be put into a live setlist, as Sabbath did for the Mob Rules tour. “Slipping Away” talks about regeneration, turning the page, starting over, and turns up the tempo further to keep the momentum of the album going. And “Over and Over” is such a typical Dio-written song lyrically that perhaps it doesn’t feel as though it fits a Black Sabbath album – but my word I love this song. Emotionally and emotively Dio’s vocals here are truly magnificent, soaring to the heavens and stealing the show, before Tony’s amazing guitar solo that goes on forever to play the song out is an underrated and often forgotten moment of brilliance in his amazing career. Yes, it is much like the album closers of Dio first two solo albums that were yet to come, but it is a brilliant piece of music and song writing.

So there are moments here that are challenged as being ‘great’ or ‘subpar’ - but let’s look at the remainder of the album. The opening salvo of “Turn Up the Night” kicks the album off in perfect fashion, a great riff from Tony and Dio jumping in from the outset with his anthemic vocals charging along. “Voodoo” is a moody and slower tempo follow up, and a track that is also vastly underrated as a song in the Black Sabbath catalogue. It is one that is often overlooked when discussing Sabbath songs, but to me has always been a terrific one. This then moves into the first of two epic tracks on the album, the amazing “The Sign of the Southern Cross”, an amazing song which features Geezer Butler’s remarkable experimenting on the bass guitar, drilling up sounds that are the base track of this song. The changing mood of the track from quiet and reflective to loud and hard mirrors the bobbing of the ocean, and always makes me think of that whenever I hear the song. The entire song is a triumph and remains one of their best. This then segues into “E5150”, the instrumental pause before the busting opening guitar riff of the title track “The Mob Rules” rips in and sets off another burst of energy and Iommi riffing goodness. This is the song that Heaven and Hell opened with as they toured the world in the late 2000’s, and what a way to open a concert.
That leaves the only song I haven’t yet mentioned, a song which to me is perhaps one of my favourite ten songs of all time. It is “Falling Off the Edge of the World”, which sits comfortably between the high energy of “Slipping Away” and the genius completion of “Over and Over”. The song builds from the opening words with atmospheric keys to the hard core drums, bass and guitar, and then once again into the solo riff that opens the gates, and the band is unleashed into the fury of the main song. Vinny holds the beat together on the drums as Geezer dominates with the underlying bass riff and Ronnie powers through the range of his vocals and smashes the song to send shivers down the spine, before Tony breaks into his solo piece that raises the song to its peak. I personally think this song is a masterpiece, with all four members of the band contributing heavily to the greatness of the track.

I didn’t find Black Sabbath and all of those bands until some years later after this release. 1986 was my real awakening to heavy metal music, and perhaps amusingly enough when it came to Black Sabbath the band, it was the Ronnie James Dio fronted albums that caught my ear first. As a result, it was both Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules that became my go to albums when it came to Black Sabbath. Now while Heaven and Hell was certainly the star, Mob Rules was the album that always felt bigger, harder, heavier and with more energy. Maybe I just played it with more bass on my stereo, or perhaps it was the differing styles in the drumming between Bill Ward and Vinny Appice that brought about the slight nuances in the songs between both albums. Whatever it was, even the three songs that may be considered the forgotten tracks of the album always sounded bigger and brighter than the ones off the previous album.
This album, along with so many of my discoveries over those couple of years at the end of high school, was massive for me. Each song is imprinted in my mind and still stirs memories of those days each and every time I put on the stereo. Everything about it is pure magic. Vinny’s drumming seals the songs tight. It might be uncomplicated, or at least sound that way, but it is the basis of everything that comes over the top of it. Geezer’s bass work is truly amazing as it always had been and always is, and the riffs he plays acting as a second guitar are still incomprehensible. How can this band have such a deep and full sound with just a guitar and a bass? Tony lights up the album again with his guitar riffs and solos, and it is a joy to hear the best of him on every song after the relative disappointments on the last two Ozzy-fronted albums. And I will never have enough superlatives to describe Ronnie James Dio’s vocals let alone his song writing ability.

I will always wonder what could have come if this foursome had stayed together instead of breaking up following the tour for this album. Reasons for the break up have varied, with stories about Dio sneaking in to the studio for the mastering of their live album that followed this, Live Evil, in order to raise the vocals in the mix, having been hosed down a little in recent years. In the long run, it appears that whereas Tony and Geezer had been in control of the band in the past, they were not ready for someone like Ronnie to come in and want a similar amount of say in what happened in and out of the studio, and it eventually caused the split. Ronnie and Vinny went on the form Dio and record Holy Diver, another of those albums that I devoured during 1986, while Tony and Geezer eventually brought in Ian Gillan and recorded Born Again. I still enjoy the Born Again album, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Holy Diver. Just what kind of follow up to Mob Rules could these four have produced if not for their egos? Perhaps the Dehumanizer album ten years later actually is the answer to that question.

890. Black Sabbath / Technical Ecstasy. 1976. 2.5/5

Every band is entitled to an album where they go outside of their comfort zone, play outside of the box, experiment with their sound, and generally mess with the minds of their diehard fans to the point where they question what the hell was going on when the album was written and recorded. Think Megadeth's Risk, think Helloween's Chameleon, think Metallica's career after 1991. Even for a band that began it's life in the flower power era of the late 1960's and early 1970's, Black Sabbath's Technical Ecstasy is a greatly diversified effort from the catalogue that precedes this, and as a result takes a great deal of effort to get used to.

I didn't hear this album until ten years after it was released, and so came into it from a different direction and amongst a lot of other bands I was discovering at the time. I don't know if I would have a different feeling about it if I had been older and gotten each album as it was recorded, rather than grabbing the whole Sabbath catalogue almost in one hit at second hand record stores in the late 1980's. This resulted in the most appealing albums getting the lion share of listening time, and the ones that didn't immediately grab me getting far less playtime.
The changing landscape of music at the time - with punk beginning to take hold in the UK and bands like Foreigner, Eagles and ELO starting to dominate the US - obviously made a big impression on Sabbath when writing this album. It is slower, almost brighter and creates much less impact as a whole. The increase in piano, keys and synth, along with a less dramatic lyrical aspect, makes this an album that would seem to try and cover all musical genres but sit within none of them. While the opening track "Back Street Kids", the closing track "Dirty Women", and to a lesser extent the long winded "You Won't Change Me" have elements of the Black Sabbath everyone knows, the remainder of the album is a mishmash of experimentalising that is uncomfortable to listen to. The Bill Ward penned "It's Alright", which he also sings on, contains acoustic guitar and piano, while Bill croons along in a ballad that doesn't sit well. Bill can sing, and the band can play, but really this song just doesn't sound like a Black Sabbath song at all. The same for "She's Gone", it is a real departure from the norm. It's not as if they haven't done this before, but whereas a song such as "Changes" sounds powerful and uses the change in direction well, these two songs here don't have the same impact.
The other three songs on the album aren't overly bad songs, but they are average, something that remarkably few songs before this album could be accused of being. "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" is a repetitive riff and lyric combination but Ozzy's enthusiasm helps to ease the pain. "Gypsy" and "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)" contain the right elements to make them solid Sabbath tracks, but perhaps it is just the surrounding tracks that wipe a bit of the gloss off them.

I'm sure there are people out there who love this album, who will defend it to the end as a wonderful piece of the Black Sabbath history. For them I am very pleased. You could even use the terminology that an average Black Sabbath album is better than most other bands best albums. That too could be argued. While I don't have any problem listening to Technical Ecstasy if anyone should happen to put it on for a spin, I cannot say that I ever have the desire to pull this out of the sleeve and listen to it. I did so again for this review, but given that there are so many other brilliant Black Sabbath albums to choose from, the question will always be why would I deprive myself of those to listen to this once again?

Rating: "I walk the lonely streets in search of a friend". 2.5/5