Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath – 1970

Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath is their eponymous first album (duh!). I have seen plenty of lists that list the first 4 or five albums by the band as absolutely perfect. I may not go so far, but their impact on the genre cannot be overstated. There is a lot of Blues approach to these early albums though. Even if they’re considered to be breakthrough albums for the Heavy Metal genre historically, they’re not that hard when you hear them in today’s music climate, as they might have been on their original release.

Unique

The unique aspect about Black Sabbath, especially in the early stages of their career.Iis that it’s actually not the most famous members, Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne, who are the most interesting. Granted, it may not have had much continuation without Iommi’s dedication, as revealed in the book Iron Man. Which is about Iommi’s life. But the fact remains for me, it’s Geezer Butler’s bass playing and Bill Ward’s drumming that are the great highlights here on the debut album!

I’ve owned this album for a long time, so it’s definitely not a new acquaintance. But once upon a time, I fell so in love with the title track that I hardly listened to anything else. So, the other tracks are quite unfamiliar to me, despite being big classic hits like The Wizard and N.I.B.. Of course, I recognize them, but if someone asked me to hum them, I probably couldn’t. However, the opening lines of Black Sabbath – “What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me” – are no problem.

Is it passé?

So what can one say? Can an album originally released in 1970 withstand scrutiny in today’s music climate? Is it passé? Does it sound dated? Clearly, it’s not new material, but at the same time, it’s undeniably timeless music. It doesn’t matter if Ozzy plays harmonica rather than singing well on The Wizard. There’s a dedication to the music, and it’s evident that the guys are doing what they’re passionate about. If you read Iron Man, which I certainly have, you realize that the local pub was also of great importance at that time, and most of the recording time was spent hanging out there.

But to continue answering my own questions, I must say that it’s undoubtedly an album that still holds up. Maybe it’s not suitable to bring it out every day, but every time it does come out, I ask myself why I haven’t listened to it in so long. Musically, it’s groundbreaking for its time, but even though Black Sabbath is often labeled as early Heavy Metal, I don’t think they’ve reached that point yet on this album. I would categorize this as hard rock and nothing else. Granted, the sound is dark, darker than Deep Purple, of course, but it feels like the blues is there, and the blues is the foundation of classic hard rock, not Heavy Metal