Black Sabbath – Mob Rules – 1981 I don’t love Mob Rules the way I do Heaven and Hell but it’s still terrific. It’s as though Iommi was challenging himself in the contest of Sabbath vs Ozzy because he’s in terrific form and Butler raises the stakes over the less Continue Reading
Black Sabbath
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard of Ozz – 1980 “Daddy, I want music, not talk!” my four year old daughter shouted to me as we were on a run to the pharmacy last night. “You got it!” I said and fired up Blizzard of Ozz, which was next on the Listening Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell
I thought Black Sabbath was over. We all did. Ozzy left or was kicked out. He had his own thing, which I adored. Black Sabbath was supposed to go in to that good night and disappear. The architects of metal were bloated and sad and devoid of ingenuity.How wrong were Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Never Say Die
Um…..What? Black Sabbath – Never Say Die! – 1978 Talk about sounding absolutely nothing like yourself. Never Say Die!, the last Sabbath record with Ozzy is one of the most confusing records I’ve ever head. Let alone from Sabbath. It’s as though, at times, a power pop group decided to Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy
Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy – 1976 That chukka-chukka guitar! The soaring Ozzy vocals! It can only be one thing: It’s the Blizzard of—what? Oh, this is still Sabbath? But why does it—? Ok. I’ll stop asking. This first song really sounds like, hey, waitaminnit..electric synth? What? And why does Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Sabotage
Black Sabbath – Sabotage – 1975 After two years off, primarily touring for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, their most well reviewed album to date, and partying apparently, Sabbath returns with the album you never hear about.Listening to it for the first time in ages I sort of understand why. If SBS Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – 1973 SBS opens with a demonstrative salvo. The title track, with it’s enormous verses and the quiet counter choruses, says we’re a long way from that industrial town. The boys are holding on to the mantle of metal god and refusing to let Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Vol.4
Black Sabbath – Vol. 4 – 1972 The world of dark metal gets a little sludgier in 1972. You can almost feel the band shedding off it’s working class England stink and sliding through a thick morass of L.A. debauchery. These are gods among men, these musicians. In 1972, before Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Master of Reality
Black Sabbath – Master of Reality – 1971 Is Master of Reality really just Paranoid Part 2? Sure. Why mess with success? In fact, what’s more interesting to me is that Iommi had hurt his hand before recording this record so he just tuned his guitar down a notch and Continue Reading
Listening Post: Purple Sabbath – Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Black Sabbath – Paranoid – 1970 Metal. Heavy Metal. Just what is it? I could go on some kind of descriptive bender. I could vomit adjectives till you and I are sick of reading them and writing them.Or.You could just pick up Paranoid and listen to the seven minute opening Continue Reading