When Black Sabbath's debut album arrived in 1969, cracks had already appeared in the "flower power" hippie culture of the era. Sabbath's gloom and doom sound seemed to be just what many of the former "love and peace" crowd were seeking. Those still embracing that world, though, didn't know what to make of Black Sabbath.
The Black Sabbath sound was really the start of the true heavy metal genre. Sure, bands like Cream, the MC5 and others had flirted with hard edged, heavy music. None had taken in to the same level of darkness before. Combining heavy distorted guitar and bass with cryptic and often occult based lyrics, Black Sabbath's sound was something new.
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath's self-titled 1970 debut showcased a blues turned dark and evil approach That blues aspect even showed up with Ozzy Osbourne blowing harmonica at points. The lyrics are more often than not fairly depressing and songs like "N.I.B.," "The Wizard" and the title track showcases occult themes.
As revealed in the DVD Black Sabbath: Paranoid Classic Albums, Black Sabbath were prone to long jams in the live environment in those days, and that aspect is shown clearly in the extended pieces that move into and out of one another. The disc was very different than anything else at the time, and even more than any other Sabbath album, was a huge influence on doom metal groups that would emerge much later.
Paranoid
The album "Black Sabbath" got attention for the band, but "Paranoid" was truly the disc that put them over the top. According to the film Black Sabbath: Paranoid: Classic Albums, the original title of the disc was to be "War Pigs," but the label refused to use that title while the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War.
"Paranoid" was destined to be Black Sabbath's biggest hit in terms of album chart success. The title track made the single charts, too. That's interesting because, according to the band in the same Black Sabbath: Paranoid: Classic Albums DVD, the track was an afterthought. The label asked for a 3 to 4 minute song to close things out, and they wrote it and recorded it in less than an hour.
Much of the material on "Paranoid" became classics, including the title track, "Iron Man," "War Pigs" and "Electric Funeral." The group showed a range of styles by including the spacey jam "Planet Caravan" and the almost jazz-like "Hand of Doom." "Paranoid" was released in 1970.
Master of Reality
"Master of Reality" continued the basic concepts (at least musically) started with "Paranoid." It also had more songs that would ultimately become Black Sabbath classics. "Children of The Grave" and "Into the Void" are two of those pieces and both feature the thundering Sabbath trademark form of heavy metal.
Some might find the lyrics of the album's two opening pieces oddly contradictory. "Sweet Leaf" is an obvious tribute to marijuana, while the lyrics of "After Forever" are really Christian rock. It was the first part of the 1970s and drug use and Christianity weren't necessarily considered mutually exclusive.
Volume 4
In a way, "Volume 4" (1972) reaches back to the group's debut album. At least one could make that assumption on the fact that there were once again multi-part songs. The now trademark Black Sabbath thunder, though, was more in keeping with the two previous releases.
While the piano based ballad "Changes" and the submarine sound-effects weirdness of "FX" were unusual for Sabbath, pieces like "Snowblind" brought a more typical Sabbath sound to new areas. "Supernaut" was arguably the heaviest song the group had done to that point.
By the time Sabbath released "Volume 4," they had created a whole new genre in heavy metal. They had achieved commercial success and earned the ire of many religious groups. They would continue forward for several more years with the same lineup of Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.
Source:
- All Music Guide: Black Sabbath
