Sleeping Village is the second side’s original track and certainly fits in more with the stuff on side one, bringing something of the folk horror trend of the time (most notably seen in films like The Wicker Man) to proceedings while closer Warning (originally by The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation) really allows the instrumentation to take flight, again particularly the lead guitar of Iommi, as it becomes an extended jam track across several different movements. Black Sabbath backstage in1970ĭespite this Sabbath’s interpretation still manages to head into darker territory and is undeniably heavy thanks in great part again to Osbourne’s delivery that remains unique. The second half of the album is a rather different affair combining, as it does in its original form, a pair of covers and another original.Įvil Woman (originally by Minneapolis rockers, Crow) is the first of these covers and it’s clear from the off it comes from a far more standard blues rock outlook than anything on side one. that is for me, the record’s stand out track and, only three songs later, takes what was established on Black Sabbath and elevates it entirely. ![]() With the scene set the first half of the record goes on to back up this case as The Wizard adds a blues harp to proceedings, showing the band’s evident antecedents but also demonstrating how this is something different.īehind The Wall Of Sleep takes the lyrics to possibly the darkest places on the whole album though remains the more overlooked of the four songs on side one, before it morphs, through that bass line, in the monumental N.I.B. Meanwhile Geezer Butler’s bass is, in many ways the unsung hero rooting the foundation with impressively busy, but never over-busy, riffs that allow the slower guitar licks to stand out and Bill Wards then powerful twisted blues drums finishing the package. ![]() The opening is, of course, iconic with the rain lashing down and the distant clanging of a church bell before the first slow, monstrous riffs breaks the stillness in a way that’s still sending reverberations around the music world.įrom there the song Black Sabbath is an instant calling card for the band as it moves from slow, doom laden grooves to intricate soloing on Tony Iommi’s guitar while the lyrics combine aspects of Hammer horror with something more truly dark, particularly as they are rendered in Ozzy Osbourne’s plaintive, fearful manner. ![]() ![]() Black Sabbath, (l-r) Butler, Iommi, Ward, Osbourne Amongst the subjects of discussion beloved of heavy metal fans from the relative merits and nuances of the sub genres of black metal to which band has the best cash in branded beer and how much of it can you drink in one sitting, one subject always gets things going and that is what was the true genesis of heavy metal (it certainly wasn’t Genesis).įifty years ago this month Birmingham quartet Black Sabbath made one of the strongest claims for that when they released their debut album Black Sabbath that opens with the song Black Sabbath (they definitely had a strong idea about getting their branding across even then).Īll jokes aside, and whatever your view of metal (if you follow this blog you’ll know I love a good slice of the heavy stuff), there’s no denying that this was and remains a landmark, as important as Elvis’ That’s Alright Mama, The Beatles’ Love Me Do, Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols or Nirvana’s Nevermind, so I thought that for its fiftieth birthday I’d give it a long over due re-listen (rather like Star Wars in movies it’s a record I’ve heard enough to not need to listen to that regularly, it’s just permanently lodged in my consciousness).
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