Black Sabbath...The Dawn Of Heavy Metal

although led zeppelin,jimi hendrix experience and cream all started a couple of years before black sabbath,these bands as great as they were back then,can all be considered hard rock...nothing before or since has sounded like black sabbath when they burst upon the music world with their first album in nineteen seventy.the sounds they created with their first five albums especially are heavier and harder than anything before.they are filled with expressions of doom and gloom,paranoia and war,space travel and drug addiction with songs like [into the void,war pigs,iron man,paranoid,children of the grave,snow blind,sabbath bloody sabbath] and a lot more.but another dimension of their talent is revealed and another reason that they stand apart are the beautifully spaced out softer songs like [solitude,planet caravan,changes] and others that are spread throughout these albums.the song lyrics of black sabbath speak volumes,are without equal and vastly underrated...black sabbath to my ears were totally original and created the most awesome and intense rock music ever made,they were the dawn of heavy metal music...

Awesome band, and this could've been written yesterday....totally fits.

I've always enjoyed their B-Side stuff more.

reply to post by NuroSlam
it is true that no great band can be judged by only listening to their songs that are played on the radios narrow minded play lists...theres really not one bad song in black sabbaths first five albums and of all the songs they contain,i hear about 4 or 5 of them on the radio! they are pubicly supressed because they sing about subjects that most people would rather deny than face...war...drug addiction,ect,ect...[the same thing goes for iron maiden as well]..one of my very favorite black sabbath songs is,never say die,which is from their 8th studio album i think and the last with ozzy from their golden era, before he went solo in the early eighties

reply to post by blocula


I agree with both you and with NuroSlam


I think the important lesson to take from this is that these songs were written in the 70's and easily pertain to things going on today.

To put it into perspective... every generation suffers. We're not special.

As much as I absolutely love sabbath, its not uncommon for me when listening to it, to wonder how much better it would have been if iommi had full use of his fingers.

Star and flag for you! Black Sabbath was one of the very first heavy metal bands I was into. I got to meet Ozzy and Bill Ward (the drummer) back in the seventies. Very nice people to talk to.

I can't even begin to list off the amount of things in my life that are influenced by both sabbath and floyd. Yet to meet me you would think i'm actually part of the establishment!

reply to post by NuroSlam
part of reason for their unique sound is because of his fingers!...as for him maybe being better,listen to his fantastic guitar work in the songs [heaven and hell,neon nights and lady evil] all from the heaven and hell album from 1980...how could he be any better ! ?

Originally posted by blocula
reply to post by NuroSlam

 

part of reason for their unique sound is because of his fingers!...as for him maybe being better,listen to his fantastic guitar work in the songs [heaven and hell,neon nights and lady evil] all from the heaven and hell album from 1980...how could he be any better ! ?

[/quote

I agree, I think it cut the ends off in a machine accident. The strings hurt his fingers too much being wound so tightly, so out of necessity came genius he toned that sucker WAAAAAAAYYYYY down !!!!
I'm now hearing in my head the opening riffs of Electric Funeral !!!!!!
God I remember to this day where I was the first time I heard it ,and have been blown away ever since!

No arguements here, although I risk a mass flaming when I say that I do enjoy the albums with Dio a bit more.

reply to post by blocula

they are pubicly supressed

Haha Pubicly Supressed!!!

Sorry but thats a funny typo lol,yeah gotta agree love sabbaths seventies albums,totally original andgotta be in my top 10 bands ever!

two of my favorite black sabbath tunes.

reply to post by lektrofellon


no matter how hard i try and i even have a dictionary in front of me,i always seem to spell something wrong ! when leaving a comment the size of the letters are a lot smaller than when they appear in the thread,this may be why, l'll have to magnify the image as i'm typing.......

This predates Sabbath and is heavier than anything on their debut by far...

can you try another link? this one ^^^ doesnt work...

reply to post by blocula


Aah, alright, never posted a youtube link on here before! Showing my age now, not tech saavy, how about this...

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by blocula
I used to love Sabbath and had the first few LPs on vinyl. I remember buying a 2nd hand 'We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll' and some big-ass spider crawled into one of the sleeves, got squished, and kind of melted the side...Ozzy would appreciate that.

It's a rare day that Sabbath get airplay, but Ozzy's Randy Rhodes 'Tribute' sometimes sees the light of day after a couple of pints. Crowley solo is still amazing.

Sticking to the Sabbath, 1st album is best imo and N.I.B. hasn't been posted...so...



@ Terra Sarranum - King Crimson? Not bad. Cadence and Cascade is the track I remember best. This is the one you wanted, somehow you'd doubled the url string.



ETA: If we're listening to King Crimson, Aphrodite's Child isn't too far off. This track has a legendary solo that's half as long as the entire song!

i like king crimson,how could i not,king crimsons first album was only four months before black sabbaths first album...but black sabbath blows them away!...play any king crimson song you want and then play ,war pigs or into the void, by black sabbath...turn them up loud, the way they were meant to be heard...no comparison at all...then play the studio version of solitude by black sabbath...wow!

reply to post by blocula


reply to post by blocula


Cream and Hendrix were both from 1966 and can in no way be considered Heavy Metal though some will try and claim they are,along with 'The Who' and 'The Doors',funnily enough !!!

Whatever way you look at it the three who laid down the blueprint of Heavy Metal were Zeppelin,Purple and Sabbath.Defining the different approaches Heavy Metal would take it's true that Led Zeppelin were more traditionally blues rock inspired whilst Deep Purple had that more classicslly inspired sound.Black Sabbath could be said to have put the 'heavy' in metal though with their unique sound and gloriously hammer/wheatley-esque lyrics.(mind you,what Sabbath sang it could be said that Page sought and lived !!!).

Deep Purple were formed in 1967 but the classic line up that created the sound they are famous for didnt come together till 1970.Led Zeppelin formed in late 1968 and released their first album Zeppelin I 1968/1969 and Zeppelin II and in 1969.Black Sabbath formed in 1969 and their first album was released in 1970 so the three bands were contemporary in every way.

Page an already famous and most sought after sessions gutarist had been a member of the much loved Yardbirds when they finally split for good,being left with the name and live commitments he went about putting together a band to not only play out the contract but a vehicle for his new ideas what how rock could and should be.So when the New Yardbirds soon th become Led Zeppelin emerged they already were known to the rock world.

The same is true for Deep Purple.Ok the classic mk2 line up may have been new when they released 'In Rock' but the band were known after an initial top hit in even though they failed to follow up with anything as sucsessful afterwards.

In 1970 on release of their first album Black Sabbath they were unknown and completely new with a heavy,melodic and dramatic sound that was unique.Part of the reason was Tony Iommi,who lost the tips of two fingers in a sheet metal press and used artificial tips which gave his playing a singular sound.He also detuned his guitar to slacken the strings which helped him to cope with having false fingertips but also gave the band that low,heavy sound - dropping the guitar from E down to C# !!!

The lyrics also added to the feel of the band - as Ozzy Osbourne later said you couldnt sing about love and how happy you felt to the riff of Black Sabbath.Nowadays everyone knows Ozzy Osbourne as the casualty of excess,the clown from the tv series.Either that of the guy who bit off a bats head or snorted a line of ants in the 80's.It's hard to believe now that the working class birmingham lad who wrote the rather simple yet classic words to 'Paranoid' would become the subtle and intelligent wordsmith of later albums. - Listen to the lyrics of Volume 4,Masters of Reality or Sabotage and you'll hear the words of a highly imaginative,articulate and intelligent artist.And yes I do mean Ozzy Osbourne.lol !!!!

Tony Iommi was a unique and versatile guitarists but he always suffered in comparison to Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore who are far in away two of the best rock guitarists of all time(I'd argue Page was probably the best alongside Hendrix but that's another story).Yet Iommi was a guitarist of real talent and despite his heavy playing incredible sublety aswell !!!