29 сентября BMG выпустили лимитированный бокс-сет BLACK SABBATH, "The Ten Year War", включающий восемь студийных альбомов, записанных с Ozzy. Ремастеринг материала для этого релиза проводил Andy Pearce с оригинальных пленок.
1970 - Black Sabbath
Tracklisting:
01. Black Sabbath (6:18)
02. The Wizard (4:23)
03. Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Bassically / N.I.B. (9:44)
04. Wicked World (4:45)
05. A Bit of Finger / Sleeping Village / Warning (14:13)
Duration: ♫ - 00:39:23
Black Sabbath’s debut album is the birth of heavy metal as we now know it. Compatriots like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were already setting new standards for volume and heaviness in the realms of psychedelia, blues-rock, and prog rock. Yet of these metal pioneers, Sabbath are the only one whose sound today remains instantly recognizable as heavy metal, even after decades of evolution in the genre. Circumstance certainly played some role in the birth of this musical revolution – the sonic ugliness reflecting the bleak industrial nightmare of Birmingham; guitarist Tony Iommi’s loss of two fingertips, which required him to play slower and to slacken the strings by tuning his guitar down, thus creating Sabbath’s signature style. These qualities set the band apart, but they weren’t wholly why this debut album transcends its clear roots in blues-rock and psychedelia to become something more. Sabbath’s genius was finding the hidden malevolence in the blues, and then bludgeoning the listener over the head with it. Take the legendary album-opening title cut. The standard pentatonic blues scale always added the tritone, or flatted fifth, as the so-called “blues note”; Sabbath simply extracted it and came up with one of the simplest yet most definitive heavy metal riffs of all time. Thematically, most of heavy metal’s great lyrical obsessions are not only here, they’re all crammed onto side one. “Black Sabbath,” “The Wizard,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” and “N.I.B.” evoke visions of evil, paganism, and the occult as filtered through horror films and the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, and Dennis Wheatley. Even if the album ended here, it would still be essential listening. Unfortunately, much of side two is given over to loose blues-rock jamming learned through Cream, which plays squarely into the band’s limitations. For all his stylistic innovations and strengths as a composer, Iommi isn’t a hugely accomplished soloist. By the end of the murky, meandering, ten-minute cover of the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation’s “Warning,” you can already hear him recycling some of the same simple blues licks he used on side one (plus, the word “warn” never even appears in the song, because Ozzy Osbourne misheard the original lyrics). (The British release included another cover, a version of Crow’s “Evil Woman” that doesn’t quite pack the muscle of the band’s originals; the American version substituted “Wicked World,” which is much preferred by fans.) But even if the seams are still showing on this quickly recorded document, Black Sabbath is nonetheless a revolutionary debut whose distinctive ideas merely await a bit more focus and development. Henceforth Black Sabbath would forge ahead with a vision that was wholly theirs.
1970 - Paranoid
Tracklisting:
01. War Pigs / Luke's Wall (7:54)
02. Paranoid (2:48)
03. Planet Caravan (4:29)
04. Iron Man (5:55)
05. Electric Funeral (4:50)
06. Hand of Doom (7:08)
07. Rat Salad (2:31)
08. Jack the Stripper / Fairies Wear Boots (6:12)
Duration: ♫ - 00:41:48
Paranoid was not only Black Sabbath’s most popular record (it was a number one smash in the U.K., and “Paranoid” and “Iron Man” both scraped the U.S. charts despite virtually nonexistent radio play), it also stands as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Paranoid refined Black Sabbath’s signature sound – crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock – and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on Paranoid have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like “War Pigs” and “Iron Man” (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect – the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals and Tony Iommi’s lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, Paranoid defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.
1971 - Master of Reality
Tracklisting:
01. Sweet Leaf (5:05)
02. After Forever (5:26)
03. Embryo (0:28)
04. Children of the Grave (5:17)
05. Orchid (1:31)
06. Lord of This World (5:25)
07. Solitude (5:02)
08. Into the Void (6:10)
Duration: ♫ - 00:34:24
The shortest album of Black Sabbath’s glory years, Master of Reality is also their most sonically influential work. Here Tony Iommi began to experiment with tuning his guitar down three half-steps to C#, producing a sound that was darker, deeper, and sludgier than anything they’d yet committed to record. (This trick was still being copied 25 years later by every metal band looking to push the limits of heaviness, from trendy nu-metallers to Swedish deathsters.) Much more than that, Master of Reality essentially created multiple metal subgenres all by itself, laying the sonic foundations for doom, stoner and sludge metal, all in the space of just over half an hour. Classic opener “Sweet Leaf” certainly ranks as a defining stoner metal song, making its drug references far more overt (and adoring) than the preceding album’s “Fairies Wear Boots.” The album’s other signature song, “Children of the Grave,” is driven by a galloping rhythm that would later pop up on a slew of Iron Maiden tunes, among many others. Aside from “Sweet Leaf,” much of Master of Reality finds the band displaying a stronger moral sense, in part an attempt to counteract the growing perception that they were Satanists. “Children of the Grave” posits a stark choice between love and nuclear annihilation, while “After Forever” philosophizes about death and the afterlife in an openly religious (but, of course, superficially morbid) fashion that offered a blueprint for the career of Christian doom band Trouble. And although the alternately sinister and jaunty “Lord of This World” is sung from Satan’s point of view, he clearly doesn’t think much of his own followers (and neither, by extension, does the band). It’s all handled much like a horror movie with a clear moral message, for example The Exorcist. Past those four tracks, listeners get sharply contrasting tempos in the rumbling sci-fi tale “Into the Void,” which shortens the distances between the multiple sections of the band’s previous epics. And there’s the core of the album – all that’s left is a couple of brief instrumental interludes, plus the quiet, brooding loneliness of “Solitude,” a mostly textural piece that frames Osbourne’s phased vocals with acoustic guitars and flutes. But, if a core of five songs seems slight for a classic album, it’s also important to note that those five songs represent a nearly bottomless bag of tricks, many of which are still being imitated and explored decades later. If Paranoid has more widely known songs, the suffocating and oppressive Master of Reality was the Sabbath record that die-hard metalheads took most closely to heart.
1972 - Black Sabbath, Vol. 4
Tracklisting:
01. Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener (7:48)
02. Tomorrow's Dream (3:09)
03. Changes (4:42)
04. FX (1:39)
05. Supernaut (4:31)
06. Snowblind (5:26)
07. Cornucopia (3:52)
08. Laguna Sunrise (2:50)
09. St. Vitus' Dance (2:28)
10. Under the Sun / Every Day Comes and Goes (5:50)
Duration: ♫ - 00:42:16
Vol. 4 is the point in Black Sabbath’s career where the band’s legendary drug consumption really starts to make itself felt. And it isn’t just in the lyrics, most of which are about the blurry line between reality and illusion. Vol. 4 has all the messiness of a heavy metal Exile on Main St., and if it lacks that album’s overall diversity, it does find Sabbath at their most musically varied, pushing to experiment amidst the drug-addled murk. As a result, there are some puzzling choices made here (not least of which is the inclusion of “FX”), and the album often contradicts itself. Ozzy Osbourne’s wail is becoming more powerful here, taking greater independence from Tony Iommi’s guitar riffs, yet his vocals are processed into a nearly textural element on much of side two. Parts of Vol. 4 are as ultra-heavy as Master of Reality, yet the band also takes its most blatant shots at accessibility to date – and then undercuts that very intent. The effectively concise “Tomorrow’s Dream” has a chorus that could almost be called radio-ready, were it not for the fact that it only appears once in the entire song. “St. Vitus Dance” is surprisingly upbeat, yet the distant-sounding vocals don’t really register. The notorious piano-and-Mellotron ballad “Changes” ultimately fails not because of its change-of-pace mood, but more for a raft of the most horrendously clichéd rhymes this side of “moon-June.” Even the crushing “Supernaut” – perhaps the heaviest single track in the Sabbath catalog – sticks a funky, almost danceable acoustic breakdown smack in the middle. Besides “Supernaut,” the core of Vol. 4 lies in the midtempo cocaine ode “Snowblind,” which was originally slated to be the album’s title track until the record company got cold feet, and the multi-sectioned prog-leaning opener, “Wheels of Confusion.” The latter is one of Iommi’s most complex and impressive compositions, varying not only riffs but textures throughout its eight minutes. Many doom and stoner metal aficionados prize the second side of the album, where Osbourne’s vocals gradually fade further and further away into the murk, and Iommi’s guitar assumes center stage. The underrated “Cornucopia” strikes a better balance of those elements, but by the time “Under the Sun” closes the album, the lyrics are mostly lost under a mountain of memorable, contrasting riffery. Add all of this up, and Vol. 4 is a less cohesive effort than its two immediate predecessors, but is all the more fascinating for it. Die-hard fans sick of the standards come here next, and some end up counting this as their favorite Sabbath record for its eccentricities and for its embodiment of the band’s excesses.
1973 - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Tracklisting:
01. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (5:47)
02. A National Acrobat (6:15)
03. Fluff (4:09)
04. Sabbra Cadabra (5:57)
05. Killing Yourself to Live (5:42)
06. Who Are You? (4:11)
07. Looking for Today (5:01)
08. Spiral Architect (5:27)
Duration: ♫ - 00:42:29
With 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, heavy metal godfathers Black Sabbath made a concerted effort to prove their remaining critics wrong by raising their creative stakes and dispensing unprecedented attention to the album’s production standards, arrangements, and even the cover artwork. As a result, bold new efforts like the timeless title track, “A National Acrobat,” and “Killing Yourself to Live” positively glistened with a newfound level of finesse and maturity, while remaining largely faithful, aesthetically speaking, to the band’s signature compositional style. In fact, their sheer songwriting excellence may even have helped to ease the transition for suspicious older fans left yearning for the rough-hewn, brute strength that had made recent triumphs like Master of Reality and Vol. 4 (really, all their previous albums) such undeniable forces of nature. But thanks to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’s nearly flawless execution, even a more adventurous experiment like the string-laden “Spiral Architect,” with its tasteful background orchestration, managed to sound surprisingly natural, and in the dreamy instrumental “Fluff,” Tony Iommi scored his first truly memorable solo piece. If anything, only the group’s at times heavy-handed adoption of synthesizers met with inconsistent consequences, with erstwhile Yes keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman bringing only good things to the memorable “Sabbra Cadabra” (who know he was such a great boogie-woogie pianist?), while the robotically dull “Who Are You” definitely suffered from synthesizer novelty overkill. All things considered, though, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was arguably Black Sabbath’s fifth masterpiece in four years, and remains an essential item in any heavy metal collection.
1975 - Sabotage
Tracklisting:
01. Hole In the Sky (3:59)
02. Don't Start (Too Late) (0:49)
03. Symptom of the Universe (6:29)
04. Megalomania (9:42)
05. The Thrill of It All (5:56)
06. Supertzar (3:44)
07. Am I Going Insane (Radio) (4:14)
08. The Writ (8:45)
Duration: ♫ - 00:43:38
Sabotage is the final release of Black Sabbath’s legendary First Six, and it’s also the least celebrated of the bunch, though most die-hard fans would consider it criminally underrated. The band continues further down the proto-prog metal road of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and this time around, the synthesizers feel more organically integrated into the arrangements. What’s more, the song structures generally feel less conventional and more challenging. There’s one significant exception in the blatant pop tune “Am I Going Insane (Radio),” which rivals “Changes” as the most fan-loathed song of the glory years, thanks to its synth-driven arrangement (there isn’t even a guitar riff!) and oft-repeated one-line chorus. But other than that song and the terrific album opener, “Hole in the Sky,” the band largely eschews the standard verse-chorus format, sticking to one or two melody lines per riffed section and changing up the feel before things get too repetitive. The prevalence of this writing approach means that Sabotage rivals Vol. 4 as the least accessible record of Sabbath’s glory years. However, given time, the compositional logic reveals itself, and most of the record will burn itself into the listener’s brain just fine. The faster than usual “Symptom of the Universe” is a stone-cold classic, its sinister main riff sounding like the first seed from which the New Wave of British Heavy Metal would sprout (not to mention an obvious blueprint for Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?”). Like several songs on the record, “Symptom” features unexpected acoustic breaks and softer dynamics, yet never loses its drive or focus, and always feels like Sabbath. Less immediate but still rewarding are “Thrill of It All,” with its triumphant final section, and the murky, sullen “Megalomania,” which never feels as long as its nearly nine and a half minutes. But more than the compositions, the real revelation on Sabotage is Ozzy Osbourne, who turns in his finest vocal performance as a member of Black Sabbath. Really for the first time, this is the Ozzy we all know, displaying enough range, power, and confidence to foreshadow his hugely successful solo career. He saves the best for last with album closer “The Writ,” one of the few Sabbath songs where his vocal lines are more memorable than Tony Iommi’s guitar parts; running through several moods over the course of the song’s eight minutes, it’s one of the best performances of his career, bar none. Unfortunately, after Sabotage, the wheels of confusion came off entirely. Yes, there were technically two more albums, but for the non-obsessive, the story of Osbourne-era Sabbath effectively ends here.
1976 - Technical Ecstasy
Tracklisting:
01. Back Street Kids (3:47)
02. You Won't Change Me (6:38)
03. It's Alright (3:59)
04. Gypsy (5:08)
05. All Moving Parts (Stand Still) (4:58)
06. Rock 'N' Roll Doctor (3:27)
07. She's Gone (4:52)
08. Dirty Women (7:07)
Duration: ♫ - 00:39:56
Black Sabbath was unraveling at an alarming rate around the time of their second to last album with original singer Ozzy Osbourne, 1976’s Technical Ecstasy. The band was getting further and further from their original musical path, as they began experimenting with their trademark sludge-metal sound. While it was not as off-the-mark as their final album with Osbourne, 1978’s Never Say Die, it was not on par with Sabbath’s exceptional first five releases. The most popular song remains the album closer, “Dirty Women,” which was revived during the band’s highly successful reunion tour of the late ’90s. Other standouts include the funky “All Moving Parts (Stand Still)” and the raging opener, “Back Street Kids.” The melodic “It’s Alright” turns out to be the album’s biggest surprise – it’s one of drummer Bill Ward’s few lead vocal spots with the band.
1978 - Never Say Die!
Tracklisting:
01. Never Say Die (3:49)
02. Johnny Blade (6:28)
03. Junior's Eyes (6:43)
04. A Hard Road (6:05)
05. Shock Wave (5:15)
06. Air Dance (5:17)
07. Over to You (5:23)
08. Breakout (2:35)
09. Swinging the Chain (4:05)
Duration: ♫ - 00:45:38
After going their separate ways for a brief period following the emotionally taxing and drug-infested Technical Ecstasy tour, Black Sabbath and singer Ozzy Osbourne reconciled long enough to record 1978’s Never Say Die! – an album whose varied but often unfocused songs perfectly reflected the band’s uneasy state of affairs at the time. Even the surprisingly energetic title track, which seemed to kick things off with a promising bang, couldn’t entirely mask the group’s fading enthusiasm just beneath the surface after a few repeated listens. The same was true of half-hearted performances like “Shock Wave” and “Over to You,” and there were several songs on the record that sound strangely disjointed, specifically “Junior’s Eyes” and the synthesizer-doused “Johnny Blade” – as though their creation came in fits and starts, rather than through cohesive band interaction. But when it came to wild, stylistic departures, one’s disappointing realization that the lurching, saxophone-led “Breakout” came from – and then went back to – absolutely nowhere was easily offset by the stunningly successful oddity that was “Air Dance.” Arguably the most experimental song in Black Sabbath’s entire canon, this uncharacteristically mild-mannered and effortlessly evocative ballad saw Tony Iommi’s normally bullish guitar giving way to simply mesmerizing piano flourishes performed by leading session keyboardist Don Airey. If only it had represented a bold new direction (albeit one that die-hard fans would never have accepted) rather than just another sign of the band’s quickly fraying sense of identity, Black Sabbath’s original lineup may have found a way to save itself – but Never Say Die!’s incoherent musical aggregate in fact betrayed the harsh reality that it was indeed too late. So even though those same die-hard Black Sabbath fans and completists will likely find some redeeming value in Never Say Die! after all these years, the original lineup’s final gasp will hold little interest to the average heavy metal fan.
Об альбоме (сборнике)
BMG [Release date 29.09.17]
Black Sabbath’s Ozzy-fronted albums have been given a monster remaster and the full luxury box set re-issue treatment. It is quite a piece of work.
The package has even had a roadshow of launch events. The playback shindig at the Gibson Rooms recently was used to give the audio quality of the new MQA digital format a full state-of-the-art PA system workout.
We were also treated to some good chat with Tom Allom, engineer on the first three landmark Sabs albums and Andy Pearce who has sprinkled his magic remaster dust over this eight-album package.
The exposed brick basement was low-lit and packed with label and band execs sporting Black Sabbath crucifix USB sticks on chains around their necks. You could be forgiven for thinking that the assembled media types, tech heads and hacks were in for a dark sermon. However, I was grateful for the dim surroundings which hid my blatant wardrobe malfunction. Inexplicably, I was wearing my ‘Fender’ T-shirt to a Gibson-hosted bash.
We learned that ‘The Ten Year War’ box set has been two years in the making: tracking down and comparing original tapes, cleaning up the sound, perfecting the digital quality, clearing the tracks with the band.
The name of the package comes from a rare brochure produced by the band themselves which pulled together some early press clippings slaughtering them and their style. We heard entertaining snippets from original Rolling Stone reviews, amongst others, that rubbished ‘Black Sabbath’ with some inexplicable – with the hindsight that 47 years brings – comparisons to Cream and Eric Clapton.
Of course there simply were no other benchmarks for what Sabbath were bringing to the party. In a nutshell, that’s why, all these years later, we gathered in a dark basement to mark a relaunch.
Allom raised a laugh when he said that he wasn’t a fan of the band at first. “I just didn’t get it. But they were so professional. We recorded that album in two days. Like a live set.”
Stories about the recording process were gold. Like not needing to mic up Geezer’s bass because it was so loud already. And Bill Ward recording the entire ‘Paranoid’ album with his foot in plaster.
Andy Pearce said he recognised that there was a burden of cultural responsibility for his part in the process. The event majored, understandably, on the quality of the remasters and on the significant improvement to the digital sound brought through MQA technology.
The burning question is what do we have here?
Black Sabbath (1970)
Black Sabbath (1970)
Tom Allom said that the thunder, rain and tolling bell in the first few moments of the album was producer Rodger Bain’s idea. Genius, of course. Oft copied, never bettered. Even the most cynical minds must sense the foreboding drama that gives way to Iommi’s colossal, ground-breaking riff and Butler’s doom-laden lyrics. Defining moments in rock ‘n’ roll and I make no apology for the verbosity.
The remastering process has added value to the overall sound, but it’s often in the detail where the benefit is felt to best effect. Take ‘NIB’. The opening riff is as deliciously thick as treacle. Every distorted vibration of the strings on Iommi’s black Gibson crawls out of the speaker like we are in the studio with Allom and the boys.
‘Black Sabbath’ has lots of complex moments as well. This first album set the template for pretty much for the rest of their career for involved arrangements, time changes, and songs within songs. The instrumental sections on ‘Warning’ have psychedelic and blues influences. There’s a real Doors feeling about the track. ‘Sleeping Village’ picks up with remarkably clarity the double tracked guitars, flowing into some prog-like instrumental breaks. And where does Ozzy’s High Plains Drifter-style harp on ‘The Wizard’ come from?
Pioneering. ****½
Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)
Paranoid (1970)
Within months, the band, Bain and Allom were back in the same studio for the follow up. Allom explained that the band still had plenty of material tucked away in their kit bag from their early Sabbath and pre-Sabbath days playing under the name Earth.
The album, like their debut, was in the can in equally short order. However, not quite so smoothly. The unsuspecting record buying public had taken to ‘Black Sabbath’ and its terrifying sound in droves. Consequently, the label wanted a hit single. So Iommi and the band decamped to the pub and pretty swiftly came up with ‘Paranoid’. At the last minute this also became the album title. The label had their hit and the band had, arguably, an even finer album.
Certainly the standout tracks have withstood the ravages of time. We all know about ‘Paranoid’. Alongside it, the heroic, cacophonous riffs of ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Iron Man’ remain spine-tinglingly good in their cleaned up form. The biggest sounds of their entire career are on this platter.
The band already seemed more assured here. Particularly Ozzy. On ‘Electric Funeral’ the mainman was already developing that wry, ironic style of vocal delivery that he employed to great effect on subsequent outings. ‘Hand of Doom’ sees him experimenting with shades of a drawling tone and hints of the gruffer, belly growl that surfaced in full effect on later albums.
The contrasts are there too. The whimsical ‘Planet Caravan’ keeps everything grounded, ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ is built around a gorgeous blues shuffle for its main theme; and ‘Rat Salad’ chucks in a hint of the breadth of Ward’s drumming.
Emphatic. *****
Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality (1971)
Master of Reality (1971)
This was the last album recorded by the Rodger Bain/Tom Allom axis. Tom comments that it was harder to record and took more time because the band had used up their well of early material. The schedule of touring, promoting, recording was already taking its toll on the time to write songs.
The end result is an album even heavier and darker than its predecessors. Iommi down-tuned his strings on ‘Children Of The Grave’, ‘Into The Void’ and others to produce a dense, hard sound given a dry twist in these remastered versions. The sounds and lyrical themes were to become so influential amongst the later doom and stoner generations.
Ward’s drumming on ‘Children Of The Grave’ is spell-binding. Allom commented that he and Geezer Butler had a great understanding in the studio and their timing and playing evoked a jazz style. Certainly Ward’s playing on these albums contrasts massively with the same material played live on the recent ‘The End’ tour where tour drummer Tommy Clufetos was heard to smash seven shades of shining out of his kit.
‘Sweat Leaf’ inspired by some new recreational habits and ‘After Forever’ provide the album’s most accessible tracks. The latter also features the first hints of synthesizer, played by Iommi, which gives the track a distinctive flavour.
Influential. ****½
Black Sabbath - Vol.4 (1972)
Vol 4 (1972)
Although at the time Vol 4 was regarded as experimental with its use of strings and spare ballads, the album stands up massively. The harsher, shadowy stance of ‘Master of Reality’ still forms the core of this Iommi-produced record – witness track likes ‘Tomorrow’s Dream’ and the immense ‘Cornucopia’. But there’s a whole lot more going on that sees the sound stretch out.
The opener ‘Wheels of Confusion’ sets the tone with Ozzy’s almost uplifting vocal melody over the top of the guttural main riff. The instrumental passage towards the end of the track is delicious. Likewise, ‘Supernaut’ is simply superb. A crunching couple of riffs set the track up over Geezer’s swelling bass and Ozzy punching holes through the wall of sound with sharp lyrics. Even funky flamenco guitar interlude works. I’m not sure the band ever bested this.
Unless, that is, you consider that they did so on the very next track. ‘Snowblind’ was to be the name of the album, a transparent reference to its cocaine-influenced recording process, until the record company put their foot down. Ozzy’s vocal performance is one of his most plaintive and Bill Ward weaves some challenging patterns over the bassline. The spikes of synth and lead guitar lift the track into the stratosphere.
The album is probably the most complete of the Ozzy era. Where, for all the drug-intake, somehow their experience shone through before cynicism, infighting and narcotic abuse became too corrosive.
Sublime. *****
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
The title track is an absolute killer. A sprawling riff complemented beautifully by Ozzy’s soaring vocal. There are some tender moments here, immediately counterpointed by sharp, biting guitar and descending rhythms. The outro is exceptional. Light and shade in an expansive format, the way that only Sabbath can pull off.
Nothing else on the album comes close. For my money, ‘SBS’ is the least intense, most disjointed of their Ozzy-era output. There were reports that the band were pretty much burning out by this period. This collection could well be testimony to that view. Or maybe the desire to experiment left a mark. Even the microscopic remastering of this material can’t build in cohesion and, well, heaviness. There are moments – all of ‘Killing Yourself To Live’, bits of ‘A National Acrobat’, most of ‘Sabra Cadabra’ – that hit the heights, but the overall impression is of a lack of direction and power.
A middling effort, lifted significantly by the title track alone.
Inconsistent. ***½
Black Sabbath - The Ten Year War box set - Launch
In June 1970, Black Sabbath recorded Paranoid at Regent Sound Studios in Soho. Some 47 years later, and shortly after the end of The End tour, invited members of the press returned to the same venue to see Sabbath launch The Ten Year War collection.
The hosted launch provided glimpses of the history of recording Sabbath through the personal appearance of metal royalty Tony Iommi, supported by Bill Ward via a recorded interview.
Iommi, in person, was warmly greeted as he reminisced about the development of Sabbath as a band, the development of the sound and how the band developed its local fan base and the initial distaste for the band by the UK press. The title of the box set reflects that for ten years the British press did not universally support the band.
Whilst Iommi commented that touring had come to an end, For Sabbath fans there was some potential good news though as he hinted that there was wish to work with the other band members again and this may include some limited live work.
Report and photo: Paul Clampin
Black Sabbath - Sabotage (1975)
Sabotage (1975)
Despite on-going litigation with their former manager during the recording of this album, ‘Sabotage’ was a massive return to form. It strikes a productive balance between heavy, dirty tracks and the experimental, creative sound.
‘Hole In The Sky’ and ‘Symptom of the Universe’ are epic, power-laden slabs of darkness. Ozzy is visceral with Geezer’s monumental lyrics. Sabbath at their muscular best. The latter has been cited as a catalyst for the 80’s thrash movement.
The remastering really comes into its own on the impressive ‘Megalomania’ where the cleaned up keyboards on the early section provide added substance; and on the thumping bass under the raw and then synthesised mid-section riffs. Ozzy here is smashing up the lyrics with real zeal and energy. The use of backing vocals brings a rarely used dynamic. The frontman is similarly animated on album closer, ‘The Writ’, a track for which he penned the lyrics. This album captures some of his best singing.
When Sabbath are on form they have a knack of chucking ingredients into the mixing console and coming out gems instead of turkeys. ‘Supertzar’ could be film music in more clumsy hands with its choir placed front and centre, but somehow hangs on to an edge; ‘Am I Going Insane (Radio)’ has a commercial twang that nevertheless easily stays the right side of a pop mediocrity.
Expansive. *****
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy (1976)
Technical Ecstasy (1976)
Technical Ecstasy doesn’t always get the praise it deserves – sometimes from the band themselves. Yet it has plenty of high points: ‘Back Street Kids’ is a traditional Sabbath barn-storming album opener; ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Doctor’ still gets the blood pumping with its scything riff, honkey-tonk piano and Bill Ward in powerhouse mode; and ‘Dirty Women’ has a great guitar/keyboard groove, surprisingly given an airing on the recent ‘The End’ tour.
Nevertheless, it is easy to see why it is less loved than the earlier classics. In some ways it is a product of the times. The turbulent music scene, not to mention tensions within the band led to an album lacking intensity. The tracks are on the whole shorter and less complex than on earlier outings. More worryingly, the production feels lightweight and a little too clean.
That said, this was the last Sabs album I got to know, back in the day, and it is a grower. The remastered tracks reveal subtleties and layers that are less obvious on earlier albums. The keyboard on ‘You Won’t Change Me’ comes shining through and Geezer’s grinding, funky bass on ‘All Moving Parts (Stand Still)’ gets a welcome boost.
At worst, the album stands accused of being half-hearted. Ozzy doesn’t attack the vocals (‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Doctor’ and bits of ‘Dirty Women’ excepted) in the way he does at his best. And some of the compositions are lazy and hackneyed. For instance, there’s no excuse for ‘Gypsy’ and ‘She’s Gone’ is excruciating in the way that ‘Changes on ‘Vol 4’ is tender.
This is far from a bad album, but it does suffer in comparison with earlier heavyweight classics.
Polished. ***½
Black Sabbath - Never Say Die (1978)
Never Say Die! (1978)
More educated ears than mine will tell you that this was an album too far for Ozzy and that the material suffers as a result. But taken at face value, there is a lot of good stuff going on here. At least initially.
Picking up the thread of shorter, tighter songs pioneered on Technical Ecstasy, ‘Never Say Die!’ sticks with the direct approach. The title track sets the driving, defiant tone for what we can once again call Side 1.
Next up, ‘Johnny Blade’ has a brilliant lyric, delivered in ironic-style out of the side of Ozzy’s mouth over a dark keyboard/guitar riff. ‘Junior’s Eyes’ follows in a landslide of smash-and-grab riffing, another great lyric allegedly about Osbourne’s father, and a blistering solo. Then into the pumping grind of ‘A Hard Road’ with an almost anthemic chorus. These four tracks fit together so well and are master strokes of sequencing.
If this album was an EP, it would be solid five star. Sadly, there is a Side 2. This is where events take a nosedive. ‘Shock Wave’ has a gritty riff, but takes in a few too many distractions along the way. ‘Air Dance’ is a weak, stylistically confused mish-mash and ‘Over To You’ has the most insipid delivery of any of Ozzy’s vocal performances over a rambling piano. ‘Breakout’ and and ‘Swinging The Chain’ are underwhelming tracks to bring down the curtain on the first and by far most important phase of Ozzy’s Sabbath career. As the lyric goes in the latter track, “We’re so sorry, sorry that it happened that way.”
Unfocused. ***
Black Sabbath - The Ten Years Box Set
The box set (2017)
Where does this leave us then? For your £200 (retail price), The Ten Year War package gives you eight albums on heavy-weight splatter-vinyl encased in original artwork gatefold sleeves; the Ten Year War brochure; the Black Sabbath cruci-stick USB of all eight albums; and a few other goodies. When all is said and done, is it worth it? Well, the remasters sound fantastic. The music stands up absolutely, notwithstanding a few later album wobbles. Even the digital quality, disregarding the hype, is better than other technological offerings to this point. The tracks still sounds excellent even through a non-MQA player. So, yep, absolutely. To the collector, this is worth every penny. *****
Review by Dave Atkinson
Состав
Credits
Artwork [Cover Artwork] – Shepard Fairey
Bass – Geezer Butler
Coordinator [Project] – Ian Bennett, Steve Hammonds
Design – Mick Rimmer
Drums – Bill Ward
Guitar – Tony Iommi
Lacquer Cut By – Greg@Finyl Tweek*
Remastered By – Andy Pearce, Matt Wortham
Vocals – Ozzy Osbourne
Доп. информация
Black Sabbath are one of the world’s most popular and enduring heavy metal bands and are constantly credited with inventing and defining the genre. To this day, the world of metal – fans and artists alike – cites Sabbath as being both influential and inspirational. “The Ten Year War” is 8-album box set brings together the first eight Sabbath studio albums in one place, plus a swathe of other rarities, and celebrates the band’s achievements on the stage, in the studio and in the public eye. Featuring 2009 Remaster.
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发表于 2021-9-25 13:31:58
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