SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the fifth studio album from heavy metal legends Black Sabbath. Their previous four albums are all classic early seventies heavy metal. Dirty, raw and mainly power chord driven music with the distinct wailing vocals from Ozzy Osbourne. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is a bit different from the first four albums because it is a bit more well produced and at times a bit more well composed ( not that it´s always a good thing). The raw and primitive productions from the first four albums are forgotten while listening to the polished sound on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

The music is still distorted and power chord driven heavy metal, but there are also some acoustic parts in the songs which contributes greatly to the diversity and even at times remind me of progressive rock. The progressive rock influence is of course also due to the fact that Rick Wakeman ( Yes) guests on keyboards. Most notable on Who Are You?. Most songs are still dark and heavy rock songs. Songs like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, A National Acrobat and Killing Yourself to Live are really heavy tunes while Sabbra Cadabra, Looking for Today ( which I find to be the weakest heavy song here) and Spiral Architect have progressive moments. The latter even has some symphonic tendencies.

The instrumental Fluff which is a mostly acoustic guitar and piano driven song was Toni Iommi´s reaction to the bad reviews that Black Sabbath got from the press in those days. He desperately wanted to show the world that Black Sabbath was more than a primitive heavy metal band. Even though Fluff is a beautiful song it´s a bit boring in my ears and easily my least favorite track here. Too bad Iommi would continue this trend on the next couple of albums trying to please the reviewers. Black Sabbath was always best when they played their most heavy songs IMO.

The musicianship seems to have taken a notch up since Vol.4 but maybe that´s more due to the polished sound than to the actual skills of the musicians.

I actually thought about giving Sabbath Bloody Sabbath a 5 star rating but came to my senses. The more I think about it the more I realise that I enjoy the more raw and primitive early albums from Black Sabbath more than this more polished version. But let me state that it´s not because I don´t think that Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is an excellent album, because I´m gonna give it 4 stars. It really is an essential Black Sabbath album and it comes down to personal taste if it´s a 4 or a 5 star rating IMO.