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Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath CD (album) cover

BLACK SABBATH

Black Sabbath

 

Prog Related

4.24 | 1056 ratings

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Hector Enrique
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Considered one of the seminal albums of Heavy Metal, "Black Sabbath" (1970), the eponymous band's debut, opened up a new dimension in the world of rock. There were already bands that showed hardened and raspy sonorities like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin or the Jimmi Hendrix Experience, but the young men from Birmingham had gone further, from the gloomy aesthetics of one of the creepiest covers that had accompanied any musical proposal until then: the ghostly and terrifying female character in a desolate and cold autumnal landscape of ochre and reddish (more sinister, almost impossible...).

And to confirm the darkest of omens, the disturbing "Black Sabbath" begins with the sounds of storms and chimes from the depths of the underworld itself, paving the way for the hypnotic development of one of Tony Iommi's most iconic guitar riffs based on the tri-tone (known as the devil's chords...) and accompanied by Ozzy's gravely vocals. And it is, from that point on, where the combination of jazz and blues influences, with the band's own dense and rocky atmospheres begin to flow, in songs like the bluesy and hopeful 'The Wizard', the mid-tempo "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" and its slight air to the opening chords of Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker", and the extraordinary "N.I.B." (Lucifer's love song...) with Geezer Butler's introductory distorted bass generating the space for Iommi's double- channel guitar improvisations.

On the other hand, the cover "Evil Woman" (by the little-known Americans 'The Crow') and its repetitive chorus, is a brief respite before giving way to both the psychedelic acoustic intro of the hard-rocking and rough "Slepping Village" and the aching "Warning" (extended cover of the British Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation), a huge new guitar improvisation by Iommi, very much in the style of the immortal Jimmi Hendrix, and with the complicity of Butler on bass and Bill Ward on percussion, closing the sombre work masterfully.

Part of the charm of 'Black Sabbath' is that, given the haste with which its tracks were recorded (in barely a day and a couple more for arrangements!), it sounds rudimentarily pure and authentic, a further factor that contributed to its consideration as a cornerstone in the creation of Heavy Metal and later offshoots such as Doom Metal. A straightforward and non-stop journey into the eerie unknown dimension.

Excellent

4/4.5 stars

Hector Enrique | 4/5 |

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