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General impressions and highlights
It almost feels criminal to not have any significant mention of Black Sabbath on the site. Not only was this one of the most influential bands in the history of metal, but the sounds of those old records were filling my ears right from birth. I’ve never been a die-hard fan, so it didn’t feel right to review the albums when I only like certain songs. As with Motörhead, I thought it made more sense to just share some general impressions and focus on what stood out to me.
Recorded in November 1969 and released a few months later, the band's self-titled debut features what I consider to be the best song they ever made: “Black Sabbath”. This song isn’t just their defining moment; it’s the birth of heavy metal and the darkness that would pervade most forms of metal for decades to come. You can hear the beginning of doom metal in there, obviously, but the real impact is in the atmosphere. That eerie, creeping dread bled into thrash, death, and black metal alike. It doesn’t matter how much heavier or faster things got afterward; this one track still casts a long shadow over everything that came after. The rest of the album never did much for me, but this song alone is one of the most iconic and powerful in the entire genre.
Later that same year came Paranoid, which was drilled into my head throughout my youth. I could go the rest of my life without hearing “Iron Man” again and be fine. I’ve probably heard the title track just as many times, but it’s managed not to wear out its welcome as much. My favourite song may be “Electric Funeral”, while “War Pigs” and “Planet Caravan” are also decent. The rest mostly feels like a mix of solid riffs and elements I don’t care for, so I tend not to revisit them.
Master of Reality is another fan favourite, though I don’t get much out of it beyond “Children of the Grave” and “Into the Void”. There are solid riffs on “Sweet Leaf” and “Lord of This World,” and it’s easy to see why Iommi was such an important guitarist.
There’s only one song on Vol. 4 that I really like, which is “Snowblind”. I don’t think I ever owned this one, so my exposure came much later, and nothing else stuck.
1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath has three tracks I like well enough: the title track, “A National Acrobat”, and “Sabbra Cadabra”. The last one really falls apart halfway through, but I still find myself listening to it when I’m in the mood for Sabbath.
Sabotage was another one I never owned, so the only songs I really know are ones I grew up with, like “Hole in the Sky” and “Symptom of the Universe”. The latter loses steam before the end. I tried giving the whole album a chance years later, but nothing really connected.
Neither Technical Ecstasy nor Never Say Die! did much for me, though I do like “Junior’s Eyes” for some reason. By this point, it was clear the band was running out of momentum, and it’s no surprise that Ozzy left after this.
Along with the first few albums, 1980’s Heaven and Hell was something I was blasted with before I could even walk or talk. “Neon Knights” and the title track are the ones I still like from this one. Dio’s voice and songwriting breathed new life into the band for a while. One of my favourite Sabbath songs ever is from the Dio era: “Over and Over”, from Mob Rules.
The next album I really spent time with was Headless Cross from 1989. I like the title track and even “When Death Calls”. It doesn’t sound much like classic Sabbath, but Tony Martin was good at this style of metal.
The last one I used to listen to was 1992's Dehumanizer, which at least sounded like Black Sabbath again, even if it leaned more toward the early '80s than the '70s. “Computer God” and “Letters from Earth” are both solid tracks I still return to.
As I said earlier, I’ve never been a massive Sabbath fan in the way I am with other bands. But I still grew up with them just always being there and had several of their records at my disposal and later on owned some of them on cassette. I even saw them live when they reunited in the late '90s, and the fact that it was outside and raining during “Black Sabbath” just seemed perfect.
Recorded in November 1969 and released a few months later, the band's self-titled debut features what I consider to be the best song they ever made: “Black Sabbath”. This song isn’t just their defining moment; it’s the birth of heavy metal and the darkness that would pervade most forms of metal for decades to come. You can hear the beginning of doom metal in there, obviously, but the real impact is in the atmosphere. That eerie, creeping dread bled into thrash, death, and black metal alike. It doesn’t matter how much heavier or faster things got afterward; this one track still casts a long shadow over everything that came after. The rest of the album never did much for me, but this song alone is one of the most iconic and powerful in the entire genre.
Later that same year came Paranoid, which was drilled into my head throughout my youth. I could go the rest of my life without hearing “Iron Man” again and be fine. I’ve probably heard the title track just as many times, but it’s managed not to wear out its welcome as much. My favourite song may be “Electric Funeral”, while “War Pigs” and “Planet Caravan” are also decent. The rest mostly feels like a mix of solid riffs and elements I don’t care for, so I tend not to revisit them.
Master of Reality is another fan favourite, though I don’t get much out of it beyond “Children of the Grave” and “Into the Void”. There are solid riffs on “Sweet Leaf” and “Lord of This World,” and it’s easy to see why Iommi was such an important guitarist.
There’s only one song on Vol. 4 that I really like, which is “Snowblind”. I don’t think I ever owned this one, so my exposure came much later, and nothing else stuck.
1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath has three tracks I like well enough: the title track, “A National Acrobat”, and “Sabbra Cadabra”. The last one really falls apart halfway through, but I still find myself listening to it when I’m in the mood for Sabbath.
Sabotage was another one I never owned, so the only songs I really know are ones I grew up with, like “Hole in the Sky” and “Symptom of the Universe”. The latter loses steam before the end. I tried giving the whole album a chance years later, but nothing really connected.
Neither Technical Ecstasy nor Never Say Die! did much for me, though I do like “Junior’s Eyes” for some reason. By this point, it was clear the band was running out of momentum, and it’s no surprise that Ozzy left after this.
Along with the first few albums, 1980’s Heaven and Hell was something I was blasted with before I could even walk or talk. “Neon Knights” and the title track are the ones I still like from this one. Dio’s voice and songwriting breathed new life into the band for a while. One of my favourite Sabbath songs ever is from the Dio era: “Over and Over”, from Mob Rules.
The next album I really spent time with was Headless Cross from 1989. I like the title track and even “When Death Calls”. It doesn’t sound much like classic Sabbath, but Tony Martin was good at this style of metal.
The last one I used to listen to was 1992's Dehumanizer, which at least sounded like Black Sabbath again, even if it leaned more toward the early '80s than the '70s. “Computer God” and “Letters from Earth” are both solid tracks I still return to.
As I said earlier, I’ve never been a massive Sabbath fan in the way I am with other bands. But I still grew up with them just always being there and had several of their records at my disposal and later on owned some of them on cassette. I even saw them live when they reunited in the late '90s, and the fact that it was outside and raining during “Black Sabbath” just seemed perfect.
(17 May 2025)
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