Nick Young:Listened to: MP3
The Beatles were Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne’s first musical addiction- he said so himself in a NY Rock interview conducted in 2002. It’s difficult at first to trace their influence at first on the Sabbath’s 1970 debut, but if you’re not hearing it by the album’s second track, the monstrous, Zeppelin-in-Hell Tolkien rocker, “The Wizard,” then clearly you’re not paying attention. These guys took the blues and explored them in the darkest way possible, but nowhere during the span of the album’s forty minute runtime did I believe that they weren’t having fun doing so. Just as Led Zeppelin did, Black Sabbath conveyed the idea that they were giants living amongst us. As the massive footsteps of The Beatles could no longer be heard circling the world, the torch was passed to a new breed of larger-than-life musical juggernauts. Call them Satanists, call them masters of reality, what they will truly be remembered for is being the band that essentially created heavy metal music and brought it to the masses.
The first instrument to be heard on Black Sabbath’s debut LP is a funeral bell toll. How incredibly badass is that? “Black Sabbath” divulges the ghoulish story of a frightened man being swallowed whole by Beelzebub. The last lyrics before the unholy annihilation are “No, no, please, No!” In this case, no means yes. We want to be overtaken; otherwise we’ll never be able to embrace the satanic swagger of “Behind the Wall of Sleep” and “N.I.B”.
My personal favorite is the über-heavy witch repellent anthem “Evil Woman.” Having just dealt with a particularly evil woman myself, one who probably wishes I was dead, I can see where Ozzy was coming from. This really is a wicked world that we live in, but albums like "Black Sabbath" help make it all the more enjoyable.
-Nick
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Mike Natale:
Listened to: MP3
Go into your room, turn off the lights, and put on Black Sabbath’s debut album. 6 minutes in, and 50% of you will have already crapped yourselves. I’m serious. Iron Man and Paranoid may be the more popular Sabbath tracks, but when Ozzy yells “Oh no!” 2 minutes and 16 seconds into Black Sabbath, that is still the most terrifying thing in the fucking world.
I remember buying this on CD in a Waldbaums (which for our non-LI readers is like Stop & Shop but for some reason less uncomfortable) for $6.99. I remember having my mind blown. I remember this CD get stuck in the CD player in my high school’s weight room. I remember trying to use a 10lb weight to smash the CD player, which doubled as a radio which was playing the hippity-hop all the other lifters were enjoying, to get back Sabbath’s debut album. I remember learning that if you dare to tamper with the music while certain people are in the middle of deep squats on a smith-machine (which, big fucking deal, it’s a smith-machine. If I throw off your concentration, you just hang the fucking bar up. Oooooh, how dangerous) you will get your ass kicked. I remember being more upset that I had lost my CD copy of Sabbath’s debut than I was that my lip was so swollen I sounded like Jabba The Hutt. But enough of the personal anecdote (as Nick clicks the link to figure out what-in-the-fuck a smith-machine is), let’s get to the review.
In 1960, Kennedy said we stood on the edge of a new Frontier. Ten years and one half-hour long “horror rock” album later, and we were once again on that edge, this time musically. 40 years after its release, and this is still one of the heaviest, coolest, and most badass albums ever. All those yelping, howling tools in bands with names like “I Bleed Black” or “Darkness On The Edge Of The City” or “If We Pick A Really Dark Name And Growl, Girls With Low Self-Esteem Will Show Us Their Pierced Nipples ain’t got shit on Sabbath. First off, let’s set aside the ultimately terrifying opening track, simply because if I listen to it one more time I won’t get to sleep tonight.
“The Wizard”, not only one of the heaviest, most kickass metal songs ever, as well as being one of the first, but I’d go so far as to say (and I’d have to check with James to verify) the only heavy metal track to use a harmonica. Listen to that heavy-ass bass, that growling guitar (which, fun fact, has that heavy sound because Tony Iommi lost his finger tips and had to tune down his guitar as to not hurt his fingers.
Then we move on to “Wasp/ Behind the Wall of Sleep/ Bassically/ N.I.B.”, a mini-opera of sorts, where the true musicality of Sabbath comes across. Some times in all the darkness and theatricality, you forget how truly talented these men were. Every riff is catchy (Even though it does leave me wanting to listen to Iron Man) and every yelp of Ozzy’s has the conviction most singers can only hope to bring to their music.
So then we get to the 14 minute long “Wicked World”. The first minute is like a creepier Doors track, before it bursts into something so Zeppelin-esque you lean in to see if you hear Robert Plant’s voice in the background. Just when you think that, of course, we cut back in to vintage Sabbath, which, I guess, wasn’t vintage at the time, so…fuck, I had a late night last night. Remember, if you want cohesive, objective analysis, that’s why Nick’s here. All I can say is listen through to when the music dies down, and suddenly goes into a solo and bass riff that belongs on a darker Dark Side Of The Moon. (Hmmm, a heavy metal take on Dark Side Of The Moon called “A Darker Side Of The Moon”…see you guys later, A Call For Conquest and I are off to go make some money).
By time we get to the last track, with the cymbal beat like “Last Nite” by the Strokes (Not so fucking original now, are you, you snide little bastards) the average listener will already be enthralled. If your not, well, what does bring you joy, huh? Why do you have to be so difficult to please? Seriously, if you’re not enjoying Sabbath, we’re gonna have a tough time when we get to Joy Division.
All in all, this might be one of the more solid debut albums I’ve heard, and I regret not grouping it in with The Doors, Grace, and Appetite For Destruction when I did my Zeppelin review. Anyone who likes anything remotely considered heavy metal, which is anyone but die-hard Jimmy Buffet/James Taylor fans, I guess, ought to listen to this album. Even if Sabbath had hit their peak here and never produced the masterful Paranoid, they’d still be one of the greatest bands of all time. And think, it all happened because their guitarist lost his fingertips…hm…if I can get my guitarist close enough to a wood chipper…
-Mike
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Tomorrow is Tommy. Yeah, The Who’s Tommy. Speaks for itself, but let’s add some more speaking for shits and giggles.
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