Black Sabbath Best Songs

As progenitors go, English quartet Black Sabbath is among the most notable in the history of popular music. For their era, Sabbath blazed a commercial trail into heavy music that in hindsight is difficult to conceptualize. Sure, the Jimi Hendrixes and Creams of the world had raised eyebrows and sales figures banging out loud rock and roll for a growing subset of hopped-up counterculture youth. But garnishing loud rock and roll with a heaping helping of nihilistic and occasionally demonic imagery was another proposition altogether...

Black Sabbath's once and current lineup came together in late 1968. Guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward had teamed up with bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne by that point, and soon chose as their musical direction a dark, gloomy aesthetic. The band's self-titled debut effort was recorded via live takes over two days on a miniscule budget, and made its appearance in early 1970. Opening with the title track, replete with cryptic references to subjects like death and Satan, Black Sabbath immediately set the tone for decades to come. Both "The Wizard" and "N.I.B." -- with their indelible freight train guitar riff progressions -- also became fan faves.

The band's sophomore LP, Paranoid, arrived later in 1970. This slab was chock full of classics: the dynamic Zep-like arrangement of "War Pigs" alternately creeped and exploded out of listeners' speakers, "Iron Man" stomped along like a heavy metal Goliath, "Fairies Wear Boots" gyrated on a figurative stripper pole, and on "Paranoid" Ozzy had apparently dropped a little too much acid for his own good. Many fans of the band considered Paranoid the quartet's finest work. Whether or not that was the case, Sabbath refused to let up, issuing Master Of Reality in the summer of 1971. Incredibly, the band's sound got even darker and heavier on this record, with Butler's bass tracks glomming onto the finished tracks like freshly-poured tar. "Sweet Leaf" and "Children Of The Grave", ostensibly the up-tempo moments on the collection, were overshadowed in scope by the droning "Lord Of This World" and the massive space-travel epic "Into The Void."

In 1972, Black Sabbath remained fixated on ultra-heavy riff ideas but ventured into the realm of exploring progressions on minor keys on that year's Vol. 4. The haunting pseudo-ballad "Changes" and delicate "Laguna Sunrise" each bore the slightest hint of potential mainstream accesibility, but most of the record was still well out of reach -- represented by the likes of the drug-addled "Snowblind."

All four band members -- but especially Ozzy -- drifted further into reckless substance abuse in 1973, and the group barely managed to record LP number five, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, before the end of that year. Its title cut closed with one of the most powerful riffs in the history of rock; most of the rest of the album, though, tinkered with elaborate elements like string arrangements and synth technology. 1975's Sabotage delved further into studio experimention, creating an almost Twilight Zone-inspired atmosphere on tracks like "The Writ" and "Megalomania." Sabotage's rawest cut of old school meat was the mega-riff blasting off in "Symptom Of The Universe."

Iommi elected to pursue his fixation with synthesizers to its extreme on Sabbath's 1976 disc, Technical Ecstasy. The rest of the band -- again, especially Ozzy -- was by that time largely disillusioned with the band's direction. Ozzy left the band briefly, but was back in the lineup for 1978's Never Say Die, whose title track was a bright, punchy conclusion to the group's first stint with the singer. Fed up with the band and phoning in his obligations -- not to mention wasted most of the time -- Ozzy was fired by Iommi in 1979 and replaced by New York frontman Ronnie James Dio.

The insertion of the former vocalist for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow rejuvenated Black Sabbath, who emerged in 1980 with Heaven And Hell. Dio's other-worldly wail fit in capably with Iommi's return to the more metallic resonance of the guitarist's mid-Seventies axe tone. Both the ever-ready-to-pounce title track and the operatic "Children Of The Sea" received heavy radio play. Ward walked away from the band during the supporting world tour; Iommi installed Vinny Appice in his place.

Dio stayed on for the ensuing year's Mob Rules. A denser record than its immediate forbear, highlighted by "The Mob Rules" (which filled a high-profile guest slot on the popular animated movie Heavy Metal), Dio packed up his rising popularity and split in 1982 to form his own band, and Black Sabbath subsequently descended into the veritable revolving door of players coming and going for the next fifteen years -- with Iommi remaining the only constant in the group's roster. Between 1982 and 1997, notable stand-ins included drummers Bev Bevan (ELO), Eric Singer (KISS) and Cozy Powell (Rainbow), bassist Neil Murray (Whitesnake), and vocalists Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple). Dio himself even returned in the early 1990s for a third album with the group (1992's Dehumanizer). But apart from that reunion, Iommi's baby was no longer a magnum force in the heavy metal genre: sales dwindled away with each successive record, and no Sabbath material received airplay during this period of exile from the spotlight.

Meanwhile, as Iommi was slogging along in irrelevance, Ozzy had risen from the depths of addiction and self-destructive behavior and sculpted an impressive solo career. His well-publicized resurgence were credited in large part to both his wife Sharon's career management and his dynamic pairings with guitarists Randy Rhoades and Zakk Wylde. In 1997, when the original quartet finally reunited after eighteen years, Black Sabbath's latter-day success derived primarily from Ozzy's involvement. 1998's live Reunion set included popular studio track "Psycho Man", which seemingly drew its inspiration in part from the venerable "Iron Man.".

In the new millenium, Iommi worked regularly with both Dio (under the moniker Heaven And Hell) and Ozzy. Black Sabbath strengthened its legacy as the grand-daddy of all heavy metal music on its well-received tours with both singers during the 2000s, and was expected to release its first studio album in 24 years with Ozzy at the mic in 2012.

Comments

1. Posted By Tanker on 12/28/2012

    most definitely one of the greatest all time bands...EVER!!!