Black Sabbath...The Dawn Of Heavy Metal

How in the world did I manage to miss this thread for ssssoooo long? I saw Sabbath live, as my very first concert experience... a festival type thing they had in Northern CA - called "Day On The Green". The bill was Sabbath, Molly Hatchet, Journey,, and another band or three that the years have caused me to lose memory of.

I had just moved to CA from Florida ( divorced parents situation ) and my dad knew that I'd developed a liking for Molly Hatchet ( Hey, I was like 12 or 13 - cut me some slack! ) So the old man bought two tickets and, loathing rock music himself, he sent me there with his 20 to 21 year old girlfriend ( and Dad was probably about fifty at that point... he was a man with issues, but man did he have a way with the pretty ladies. And, besides, as a guy in the throes of puberty being escorted to a concert by a hot 20 or 21 year old blonde? Definitely too cool! All so I could see my favorite band, the Hatchet. So off we went, me and my dads Freudian nightmare of a situation girlfriend.

Fast forward about 12 hours. I walk into the house about as amped and electicified as a person could be. Gloriously wearing the T-shirt the daddy issues Daddies girlfriend has purchased for me.... Only it did not say Molly Hatchet on it at all.... It was a picture of a few angels casually sitting and smoking and it said BLACK SABBATH - Heaven and Hell.

After that I went on a rampage buying the entire Sabbath back body of work. I'd fallen in love with Dio era Sabbath, but liked the Ozzy stuff too ( this has reversed over the years and I now consider Ozzy the best Sabbath version, not the Dio incarnation ). When Mob Rules came out? I went nuts! I seriously went through at least five or six versions of it on cassette because I kept wearing them out.

After that? Dio quit and I got into Born Again, with Gillan pretty well. It rocked. And I continued to LOVE Dio ( At least until the Lock Up The Wolves range of time ). But, as time passed, I got into harder, newer, more edgy music. Metallica ( pre black album ) Flotsam and Jetsam, and a bunch of others - and I also was maturing enough to begin appreciating more of the music that came before my time (The Who, The Doors, etc). And I stopped following Sabbath after Gillan left because I did not like the voice of the singer who followed.

But as for the Ozzy Sabbath? Well it's about 34 years after that day I walked into the house in a Heaven and Hell t shirt, filled with electricity.. and I never have stopped listening to the Sabbath. I have their entire discography (legally) on my hard drive right now. I keep trying to get into most of the later stuff ( Even the one album return of Dio ) but it doesn't have the same effect on me as everything from "Black Sabbath" through "Born Again" does.

So... borrowing a term used in a Biohazard cover on the Nativity In Black CD...

Dropping some respect for the almighty Black Sabbath....

~Heff

For me Sabbath somehow passed me by and I never really got into them till I was 19 nearly 20.I started my life long love of rock music to the strains of Highway to Hell somewhere in late 82 or in 83 (I cannot be without that particular album to this day !!!)

Almost straight away I discovered Iron Maiden/Iron Maiden and Blizzard of Ozz before discovering the Metallica's and Megadeth's yet simultaneously delving into Hendrix,Purple,Who,Cream,Stones and the band that runs as deep with me as AC/DC ~ Led Zeppelin.

I'd also discovered the electric guitar (another passion that still grips me till this day !!!) and my tastes diversified in all directions of rock,metal and blues yet somehow Sabbath still passed me by.

It wasn't till my younger brother went to university and found Sabbath that he turned me on to them but I was so ready to hear them when I did and their effect was no less strong for waiting a while longer !!!

I love the use of tri tones in the early albums in particular,Black Sabbath being the obvious example giving it that dark,eerie and stark sound full of foreboding along with the bluesy groove of Sleeping Village or The Wizard.Tony Iommi's almost Jazz flavouring that he displays in songs like Planet Caravan rarely geta a mention.

For me though Masters of Reality and Volume 4 are the pinacle.The relentless riff to Into the Void still hits me every time I hear it and I love to play it just as much.I love Solitude too,I mean the lyrics are almost cheesy when you simply read then yet they don't sound it one bit when Ozzy sings them,Plus the guitar sound is gorgeous.

For all the accusations of devil worship and their music corrupting if you listen to the lyrics they more often are opposed to evil and taking the wrong path !!

For me I don't have the same love for Sabbath once Ozzy left in the same way the post Gillan Purple lost something.

Has there every been another frontman like Ozzy.I'd seriously consider him to be the best if for me that spot will always be occupied by the one and only Bon Scott but that's another discussion for another day.lol