I can't believe I'm finally writing about this album. I feel like I have been writing about this album for months, referencing so many other songs and albums in comparison to this album. To me this album is such a watershed moment in music history. I know I am not saying anything new or revelatory, but there is a reason this is considered to be the first real heavy metal album. And to me it is that what the band did here is take all the hard rock that was going on around this time and added a level of doom and horror that was unlike anything before it. That was the atom bomb element that was ignited on this album. Now this is an album that I have been listening to since I was in 5th or 6th grade, I honestly can't remember when I first got a copy of this album. So in many respects this album has been played as much as any Beatles album and each song is an old friend like any song on a Beatles album. Now I say that, but I must say that listening to it this time through there was a bit of a revelation and that is that I listened to the original track listing that includes "Evil Woman" which was not on the American release. So the version of this album that I grew up on has Wicked World kicking off side two. So it was great listening to this album again with "Evil Woman" because that is one hell of a good track. And in my reading I learned that "Evil Woman" was actually a cover track and was the single off the album. And that all makes sense. While the track is great, it is a little more straight ahead rock and doesn't have that doom element that is so quintessentially Black Sabbath. It is more of a single.
Now I have to circle back to the opening of this album. I honestly think this is one of the all time greatest album beginnings of all time. The gentle rain sets a mood and then the haunting church bell in the distance. Then some thunder and the rain gets louder. And then some more thunder and then the thunderous opening chords just pound down on you. Tony Iommi really make a statement with this opening riff. He hits those first 3 notes or chords and there is this trilly thing he does and all of it sounds like the scariest horror movie ever. In that opening Iommi signals to the world that he is doing something different and if you go on this journey with him, it is going to be dark and scary.
Then the lyrics are so dark and Ozzy is amazing. But truly one of my favorite moments in the song is how at the end of the first first Ozzy bellows out "Oh no" as if the song and the evil and darkness is overtaking him. Sure he is playing a character, but man of man, I don't think the world had heard character like this before in a song. As the song continues the lyrics continue to paint a horrific picture that includes Satan and by the end of the second verse, things have gotten so dark Ozzy wails, "Oh, no, no, please God help me." I mean come on. I listen to this and I think about how Jim Morrison gets all this credit for his theatrics and his performance and his poetry and cinematics. But honestly "Black Sabbath" makes Morrison look like a mere amateur.
"The Wizard" is that perfect mix of drawing upon the hard blues rock that was happening at the time, and the English interest in English folk songs and folk horror. That harmonica is awesome. It is bluesy, but it is also for lack of a better phrase, so metal. Again Ozzy paints an amazing story with the dark Wizard. Again Tony Iommi is not only on fire, but he is burning down the forest and blazing a new path. But I have to call out Bill Ward's drums on this track. They are relentless and awesome. If Iommi is burning down the woods, Ward is hacking and slashing and beating his way through that forest along with him.
"Behind The Wall Of Sleep" is so good. I really like how how the band actually clears out this spaces for Ozzy's voice to cut through. It gives the song this very raw an immediate quality. If there is anything bad to say about this songs it is just that it isn't "Black Sabbath" "The Wizard" or "N.I B." which are honestly some of the greatest metal tracks ever put down. But that isn't really fair because this song is great on its own and fills out what could arguably be one of the best sides to a heavy metal album ever. And it sets up and slides with into "N.I.B." which as you can see from my previous sentences is simply amazing.
"N.I.B." opens with an almost funky bass line which fades out, but then in comes another of Iommi's archetypal heavy metal riffs. At this point some 51 years later this guitar riff is as ubiquitous and "Jingle Bells" to me. Similar to "Black Sabbath" this song has all the hallmarks of what make Sabbath and this album great. Killer guitars and lyrics as pitch black as they come. Now I know we've already listened to "Sympathy For The Devil" by the stones in which Jagger takes on the character of Lucifer. And that seemed kind of dark and the bad boys of rock and roll were pushing that whole Satanic envelope, but let's be honest that song sounds more like a gospel song than it does sound evil. "N.I.B." on the other hand when Ozzy cries out "My Name is Lucifer, Please take my hand." I believe that character. I feel like I am listening in on a Black Mass and it feels sort of helpless. It feels horrific. I feel like I am listening to something evil and scary. And just to be clear these lyrics:
Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who i am
My name is Lucifer, please take my hand
That is METAL. That folks is how you do it.
And then the back half of this song is just an instrumental orgy. The guitar on the bridge shreds. The end just builds and builds and is something that I dare say gets perfected on their next album with the last minute of "Iron Man." But I get ahead of myself. We'll get there soon enough. Needless to say, the end of "N.I.B." is heavy metal ecstasy. Tony Iommi lays down some guitar that I think could rival anything Jimmy Page laid down with Zeppelin.
I've already written about "Evil Woman." So I'll just move on to "Sleeping Village" which showed that even just as a band, they could conjure up horror. Sooo goood.
"Warning" which is another cover, is also a fine song and to me fits in a little better with everything Sabbath was laying down on side one. It is darker than say "Evil Woman." It sounds like Sabbath as apposed to "Evil Woman" which sounds like Sabbath doing a cover.
And lastly I do want to write about "Wicked World" which as I mentioned wasn't on the original release and as it turns out was the B-Side to "Evil Woman", and was included on the American release. So this song is pretty much an essential part of this album to me. I can understand how the record company or the band or whoever makes these kinds of decisions went with "Evil Woman" because it was safer and felt like a single, but "Wicked World" feels like Black Sabbath. I am so glad that this is what I've heard all these years when listening to this album. I think you could make an argument that maybe it is the weakest song on the album, but honestly, not by much. It has a couple killer riffs in it and I think sits well on the album. I think there is also an interesting effect on Ozzy's voice that is cold and kind of scary, almost robotic. It is different kind of horror, that isn't as supernatural as some of the other tracks, but is a different kind of scary. This is a precursor to "War Pigs" in how it is coldly laying out the horrors of the real world. I think contrasted against all the fantastical sounds, it becomes quite powerful. But I will admit that what I think they are exploring here also gets perfected on "Paranoid." with "War Pigs."
Okay, I have to wrap it up. I wrote about this album the way Stephanie wrote about Beatles records, except I didn't even go into any of the behind the scenes or production. I am really only writing what I felt as I was listening to the album. An album that brings this much in me is special and I can honestly say is one of my favorite albums of all time.
And with that this was something I saw today.
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