Converting to the House of Sabbath: Rediscovering the Ozzy-Era

As Black Sabbath’s latest world tour gets underway in support of their new album 13 we look back at their greatest moments from a fresh perspective.

 

I remember my first curious encounter with Black Sabbath as a young’un, hiring out a rather rickety and uninspiring Greatest Hits CD that condensed almost a decade’s worth of pile-driving rock into a pathetic misshapen 11-track assortment. Things didn’t get any better when Kelly and Ozzy Osbourne released that awful version of the already pretty abysmal ballad ‘Changes’, by which time I’d already reached for the sick bag.

So, now a certified thirty-something, I decided to give the Aston boys another go, coming across three lovely-looking deluxe editions of the first three albums in a local record shop. “You know, I’ve never liked Osbourne’s voice”, I say to the long-haired chap at the till, more intrigued by the instrumental versions included on the re-releases, “If only he was like Robert Plant”. “Yeah”, winces my new heavy metal companion as he bags the CDs, “but you’ve gotta hear all the Ozzy albums”. Giving polite acknowledgement I tentatively hand over the £30 and collect my purchases.

In two minds about my purchases, I stomp home to prepare for my metal baptism, practicing my best satanic hand signs. But, from the moment the first disk disappears into the hi-fi, I find I’m pleasantly surprised. I’m presented with some cracking and surprisingly varied rock music. It’s not all Satan and devil horns. In fact, the band were certified hippies at the time. It’s only the track ‘Black Sabbath’ itself that sounds overtly ‘horror’. Other tracks on the eponymous debut are pretty straight ahead long-haired blues-rockers but guitarist Tony Iommi’s axe-work is often dark and doomy. This is partly a legacy of his finger-severing factory accident which in turn lead to Iommi slackening the strings of his guitar to make it easier to play on his remaining finger tips and severed stubs, effectively lowering the tone, and gifting a distinctive drone to the heavy metal world. Conversely, Sabbath can sound a little jazzy and even mellow, as Iommi was also inspired by the similarly disabled renowned French guitarist Django Reinhardt.

So, reloading the hi-fi, I move on to the much-lauded Paranoid album, filled with familiar guitar shop riffing such as Vietnam protest song ‘War Pigs’, apocalyptic ‘Iron Man’, and the speedy head banging title track. And eventually progressing onto Masters of Reality, I am ecstatic when I am reunited with the sludgy stoner rocker ‘Sweet Leaf’, sampled on Beastie Boys’ ‘Rhymin and Stealin’, and grungy ‘Into The Void’, which I recognise from Soundgarden’s spot-on cover version.

Next thing I know, I discover that I have become a complete convert; Iommi’s guitars launching their penetrating arrows, ‘Geezer’ Butler’s bass pounding at the gates, Bill Ward smashing my walls with his huge drums and Ozzy shrieking wail sparing no quarter. I spend an entire weekend on YouTube trawling through studio albums, documentaries and live concerts. Buoyed by my heavy metal epiphany, I run back into the same store the following week with the intention of picking up deluxe editions ofVol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage, only to find out that they don’t exist, much to the chagrin of my record store friend. So I am resigned to the single disc versions for now, but that doesn’t stop me spending £900 on a thoroughly Iommi Gibson SG guitar to ease the blow!

Black Sabbath hit the UK arenas from 10th December while new album 13 hits stores on 10th June.

David Garrett

Essential Ozzy-Era listening:

Black Sabbath
Paranoid
Masters of Reality
Vol. 4
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabotage