When: Released September 18, 1970
Why? I’ve never heard a Black Sabbath song, and this album is considered one of the foundational albums of heavy rock.
What? Eight songs, lasting just over 40 minutes, that some say herald the birth of heavy metal as a genre.
First Impressions: I expected the songs to sound overlong and repetitive. Not a bit. I was truly surprised to find that I really enjoyed this album. The 1970 production—particularly the dead drums that sometimes sound like cardboard—reminded me so much of the first Queen album (Queen, 1973) and even moments in the original Jesus Christ Superstar (1970). Those are very positive connections for me.
Despite the band’s name and image, the lyrics are anti-war, anti-drugs (ironically), and story-based (as in the science-fiction “Iron Man”), making this a highly entertaining and varied experience. However, I can’t help wishing that some songs could have seen a revision or two: “Geezer” (Terry) Butler’s lyrics range from solid to lines that Ozzy can’t sing well at all. I did find that Ozzy, similarly, was inconsistent from song to song; sometimes confident and strong…sometimes less so. I do miss any additional voices—Ozzy could benefit from support, even just doubling his own voice, especially on choruses—but that doesn’t seem to be the Sabbath approach, at least not on this album. Tony Iommi is definitely a riff master on guitar and I enjoyed his contributions, but I can’t say I noticed anything distinctive about his playing on first listen.
So? I don’t think this is “groundbreaking heavy metal”—Zeppelin was producing virtually identical-sounding material in the rock vein around this time, and with far heavier drums. And rather than delivering a full-frontal heavy attack, there are breakdown moments here when Sabbath sounds more like a jazz-fusion group than the future of hard rock. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I’d absolutely listen again to every single song.