SABOTAGE

"Sabotage" was the last of the great Black Sabbath albums. It also tends to get overlooked for some reason, though it is (along with "Paranoid" and "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) highly progressive, dark, heavy and loud. This time around, the album was going to be centered solely around the band with all of the extra orchestration from the previous album left off. During the recording of this, their 6th album, the band was experiencing a lot of stress resulting from legal battles with their former manager. The band's anger from this was front and center on the album, and only worked to make it even better and stronger, though it had an effect on the band. This, along with the growing inner conflict in the band, was the underlying foundation for the album.

"Hole in the Sky" is a perfect opener which instantly displays the heaviness of the album with some of Osbourne's angriest vocals. A sudden cut off at the end of the track leads to a short acoustic Iommi solo which quickly fades being replaced by another strong and heavy track "Symptom of the Universe". This track has been credited as being an influence of thrash metal's development, most specifically in the main riff. The song features many riff changes as it continues and the last section of the song (the more acoustic section) comes from an in-studio spontaneous jam. Once again, the anger comes through in the frantic playing by all of the band members and most obviously in Osbourne's vocals, even in the excellent sudden change to acoustic in the last section.

The anger and power comes to a head in the amazing "Megalomania", an almost 10 minute track that begins slow and dark with some cool echoing effects in the vocals and Iommi creating a mysterious and atmospheric feel through the organ. A sudden change at 3 minutes sees an up-tempo shift as a new riff is introduced and a new melody starts in the vocals with a bridge that even brings in a boogie-style element. The song then shifts around with the riffs and styles for a while. There is also a lower and darker voice singing along with Osbourne in the lead up to the "chorus" during this time. The music follows this pattern for a while, but builds in intensity as an almost symphonic sound comes in with Iommi adding synths in with his guitar improvisations.

More heaviness mixed with interesting song structure changes and great riff continue with "Thrill of It All" which also utilizes a moderate tempo that is actually quite catchy in a way. Towards the center of the song, layers of synths are added in that actually brighten up the track without being overbearing or annoying. This is another big difference between "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "Sabotage" in that Iommi pretty much plays all of the keyboards, where in the former album, keyboard duties were handled by all four of the members. "Supertzar" is another instrumental. It's driven mostly by Iommi's guitar but with a lot of atmospheric keys and some very dark non-verbal vocals provided by the English Chamber Choir". The track is surprisingly dark, but lightened up a bit with chimes that add a nice layer to it all.

This is followed by a mostly synth-lead track called "Am I Going Insane (Radio)". This was the single for the album, but the band members were mostly disappointed with it, and it is also the weakest track on an otherwise perfect album. The last track returns to excellence with "The Writ", an almost 9 minute track with lyrics by Osbourne. Most of Black Sabbath's lyrics were done by Butler. Osbourne was inspired by the legal battle that the band was experiencing at the time and are a stab at the previous manager and at the music business in general. It starts off quietly with a soft processed bass which is suddenly interrupted when the band kicks in with a return to dark heaviness and a return to the true anger they were feeling. It follows this pattern for a couple of cycles, then enters into another style which alternates with heaviness led by the guitar and keyboard-led softness that sounds somewhat inspired by "Fluff" from the previous album, but with Osbourne's vocals continuing throughout both styles. The track ends on another heavy guitar riff which takes the album to the end.

The stress and anger is what drives this album, but it might be that the underlying events kept the band from focusing too much on their inner battles. At least, they pulled off another virtually perfect album, but unfortunately, it would be their last one. Osbourne would get more disenchanted with the band and lose interest. Even though they would record two more studio albums with their classic line-up, they sound forced and seem like they are also rushed. It must have been difficult to even record the sub-par material that would appear on their next two albums. The band intentionally moved away from the dark and heavy sounds and added more keyboards, but they were definitely poorly directed. Yes the band had keyboards previously, but at least they were well used.

Anyway, this album still manages to get to masterpiece levels, both in progressiveness and in heavy metal aspects. Even if it wasn't as popular as some of their other albums, it has still been revered as one of their best. Sabotage would be their swan song to excellence as after this, the band would fall apart.