Black Sabbath - BLACK SABBATH*****

Black Sabbath/The Wizard/Behind The Wall Of Sleep/NIB/Evil Woman Don't Play Your Games With Me/Sleeping Village/Warning

Self titled debut album from the Midlands rock group Black Sabbath, who have been widely credited with launching the heavy metal genre. They would continue to enjoy massive support throughout the seventies and beyond. (US:23 UK:8)

"Black Sabbath is an excellent record that belongs in any serious 70s rock collection. The most striking thing about this eponymous debut is how the band's trademark sound appears almost fully formed. There's a marked indebtedness to 60s blues rock here that is largely absent on subsequent releases, but Black Sabbath still sounds utterly unlike anything else from early 1970. The eerily spacious guitar lines, occultist lyrics, and gothic ambience - this record must have come as a complete shock to listeners of the day."

"Black Sabbath open their self-titled album with the sound of a brooding thunderstorm and church bells, which go on to become a slow, heavy, six minute declaration that heavy metal has just been born. Indeed, looking at the various themes of heavy metal (mentioning the occult, a darker sound throughout), it becomes clear that Black Sabbath was the first metal album ever and also the darkest sound that had ever been produced by a band up until that point in 1970."

"Black Sabbath recorded their first LP and subsequently changed the face of rock music. They pushed aside the blues roots that dominated the UK rock scene of the day, and forged a sound built on a somewhat new idea: the riff. Other bands had played with the concept of a guitar riff being the central building block of a song, but Sabbath put the weight of the entire band behind it, all instruments present firing at full power at a small but imposing collection of chords. And believe it or not, that innovation is the essential component and differentiating factor of heavy metal music, especially the more 'extreme' sub-genres."

"Black Sabbath is one of the great opening tracks in rock history. It's as dark as one can imagine. That thick, heavy Black Sabbath guitar sound is there right from the beginning, rising out of darkness like the undead from a blackened, stench-ridden tomb. Backed by those fat, sinister drums and the death bells that ring from the depths of Hell, and topped with Ozzy's deranged vocals, Black Sabbath serves notice that evil incarnate is indeed blanketing the earth."