But while Zeppelin inflated and amplified the form, and Purple embellished and adrenalized it, Sabbath made a giant leap for metalkind. Like Sabbath, they also had a blues-based background (with a dash of psych thrown in). Compare them, for instance, to the two other titans of the emerging ‘hard rock’ scene at the turn of the 70s, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. It’s this essential difference from everything else around them that makes those first six albums so special. Or a bassist (and lyricist) like Geezer Butler or a drummer like Bill Ward, for that matter. And you’ll never have a singer like Ozzy Osbourne, possessor of one of rock’s great primal voices. But you’ll never be able to rival the impact that Sabbath had, that visceral rending of the old blues rock order that turned muck into metal. Sure, you can study Tony Iommi’s riffs and guitar tone, assemble the vintage amps, and make a pretty good facsimile of their sound (as countless bands have done). The thing is, nobody sounds like Sabbath, certainly not at the time and not even today. I don’t think every one of these albums is a ‘classic’ in its own right, but as a body of work, they track the incredible trajectory of a band re-defining rock music, both musically and philosophically. But while it’s tempting to buck the trend, I have to say that I’m broadly in agreement with this assessment of Sabbath’s output. Out of this ferment has come the idea of the classic first six albums, stretching from Sabbath’s eponymous debut in 1970 to Sabotage in 1975.įor those of us who’ve been in for the long-haul (relatively speaking), it’s easy to feel both a sense of vindication and defensiveness when the rest of the world finally catches up with you. Partly this was due to the influence of grunge (Melvins, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Earth, Tad and even Nirvana owed a debt to Sabbath), and partly to a new generation of death/ doom/ black metal bands re-discovering once again the joys of down-tuned riffs and wailing/dismal vocalising. ![]() Their star had shone again briefly when ex-Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio had stepped into the breach for a couple of albums, but now, they had Ian Gillan singing for them, for God’s sake…īut over the past few decades, the critical consensus has slowly changed. Even Kerrang! were sniffy about them, the prevailing view being that they were yesterday’s men in comparison to the cream of the NWOBHM and the emerging thrash scene in LA. For the ‘serious’ music press, they were a decrepit metal band fit only for council estate longhairs and denim-clad adolescents. When I first began listening to Sabbath at the start of the 80s, their reputation was in the doldrums. ![]() At this point, we’re pretty much all agreed that Black Sabbath are one of our most important bands, up there with the Beatles and Kraftwerk in terms of their radical re-shaping of popular music’s sonic landscape.
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