BLACK SABBATH

For all the rich comic material Black Sabbath have provided over the years (a lot of which was gleefully recycled for 'This Is Spinal Tap') it is an irreducible fact that they will always stand out as one of the most important bands in rock history. They may have had a shadow of the intelligence of most great bands, and had their half-decade of artistic superiority blighted by years of laughable underachievement, but they remain one of the very few artists who can reasonably lay claim to have started an entire branch of rock music - that which is commonly known as heavy metal (to give it its latin name, erm, 'heavius metalus'). If influence is assessed by the quantity of bands inspired, rather than quality, then their influence has spread far further than many superior artists and is arguably greater (by weight of numbers) to, say, the Stooges or Velvet Underground. See that pale-faced stroppy young urchin in a black t-shirt by the bus station? Blame it all on Black Sabbath...

Of course, I have to be careful about the degree to which we laud Sabbath's influence as heavy metal has proved to be a notoriously flimsy genre. It has certainly produced one more great band in the form of Metallica but, like punk, it is one that places much more emphasis on style than it does music. Indeed, the fact that Black Sabbath spent the majority of their career wallowing in moronic dirges only reinforces their status as heavy metal's pioneers given that the entire ethos of the genre centres around how heavy the music is, not its actual quality. Of course, for this reason heavy metal often divides the fans from the critics and, in this case, I usually side with the latter. Heavy metal is simply not a genre I enjoy much. Sabbath are just a little bit TOO stupid for me to listen to their music at anything other than a conscious distance. Mind you, it is for this reason that I fail to get irritated by Ozzy Osbourne's current antics. He was never a man with a great deal of artistic integrity and now he is just an idiot that makes noise on the TV, backed by his obnoxious family members, rather than an idiot making noise on the stereo, backed by his obnoxious bandmates.

Many people will, of course, interject at some point to tell me that Sabbath were never the first heavy metal band and, instead, it was (usually) Cream or Led Zeppelin. I would be a fool to deny both had a strong input into the sound of heavy metal but listening to them now they very definitely sound like hard rock. Zeppelin had undeniably heavy riffs but Tony Iommi was the first to take it to the next level by down-tuning his guitar (apparently to compensate for his disabled hand). Furthermore, the limited technical ability of the band (Iommi apart) meant they had to play it slow and steady and from this pace the trademark metallic grind was formed. Plus, they had all those really silly lyrics about loving Satan and drinking young virgins' blood and the like. Cream and Zeppelin had silly lyrics, of course, but rainbows with beards has not really become a staple of heavy metal. Finally, just compare the album covers. Look at the cover to Disraeli Gears and Led Zeppelin and then look at the cover to Sabbath's debut. Now THAT is a heavy metal album cover.

From: Lan Helli

1st of all Black Sabbath was not even close to being the 1st metal band...Iron Butterfly,Led Zepplin,Blue Cheer,Mc5,Alice Cooper,Cream,Steppen Wolf, The Stooges,Deep Purple to name a few...all of these bands had albums out before Sabbath did and were already playing live in 68-69 when Sabbath was still called Earth and doing covers.
2nd of all to call Guns & roses metal is like calling a turd chocolate, they were a glam rock band. Ac/dc is/was a hard rock band not metal.
3rd I love Sabbath and have been listening to them since the very start...so I kinda take exception to someone who wasn't even born [yeah I can tell] yet putting up some messed misinformation about them on the internet.
4th anyone who actually is into real metal cannot deny the greatness of the Sab albums w/Dio and Ian Gillan...Hell even the ones w/Tony Martin and Glen Hughes are better than G&R or Metallica's new crap. I could go on and on pointing out stuff,but you probably get my drift...find out the facts before posting the same old falsehoods, please.
Lastly Thanks for trying, but please do a little research, the internet has enough misinformation on it without messing with a metal institution Like Black Sabbath.

[Firstly, I'm only offering my opinions and not purporting to be an accurate source of encyclopedic facts. Secondly, the "facts" you accuse me of mistaking are of very dubious epistemological footing. Being the first metal band is not something you empirically establish. Finally, if Guns n'Roses and AC/DC are not metal then I hardly think the Stooges, MC5 or Cream are. Either metal is a very broad term (which you appear to deny) or Black Sabbath were the first ever proper heavy metal band. To quote Judas Priest (metal?) - "you don't have to be old to be wise" - JF]

From: Joe-Joe Joe_Joe-Shabadoo

In regards to your review of Black Sabbath, the term 'heavy metal' was actually first coined to describe Led Zeppelin. Love the site, btw. Your reviews are mostly spot on, though I think you underrated Evil Empire (I believe it is better then Rage's ST) and were far too harsh on The Manics This is My Truth.

From: Anders Hedman

Your reviews of Sabbath are pretty funny. I've got some comments though. First, it's not Ozzy who wrote Sabbath's lyrics but Geezer Butler! Second. The two songs that Ozzy is said to have written (acording to the books) are "Who Are You?" (music and lyrics) and "Am I Going Insane" (the lyrics at least). The two songs you seem to loathe the most!

From: Dominick Lawton

While heavy metal as a whole undoubtedly takes itself far too seriously, I must protest your labelling Black Sabbath and the genre of heavy metal as a whole as 'stupid'. The majority of diehard Sab fans certainly share your contempt for "Changes" and even more so for the atrocious Kelly Osbourne re-release.
Also, you seem to contradict yourself. In the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath review, you say 'the key to a great heavy metal band is sticking rigidly to the one dimension and it was Sabbath's ambition that ultimately caused them to fall from their own pantheon'. But then you say that this 'fall' took the form of them becoming a generic sludgy metal band. So their ambition to branch out from non-metal styles led them to become generic 80s metal? What? And how can you continually call them stupid, unsophisticated, and one-dimensional, then thoroughly blast their attempts to branch out stylistically?
Pardon the slightly accusative tone. I really like your site and have been reading it for two or so years. And I do agree with you that everything more or less turned to shit after Ozzy left - hell, after Sabotage. But I do get slightly irked at accusations of stupidity. Sabbath is probably my favourite band (well, them or Pink Floyd), and I flatter myself that I am neither unintelligent nor a slack-jawed yokel.
Anyway, sorry if any of the above text lapsed into simpleminded bashing; again, I think your site is great.

[I take your point but I think nearly every band has a limited shelf life and Sabbath's was only marginally extended by their attempts to diversify, most of which were pretty poor. Ironically, Ozzy recognised this and was able to extend his career beyond that of his former band through changing tact with his solo career in the eighties - JF]

Starting a musical genre, or at least sub-genre, does not depend on the music alone. Sure, there are moments during, say, "Dazed and Confused" when Led Zeppelin come pretty close to what could be classed as heavy metal. The first two minutes of this album, though, leaves nothing to doubt. A rumbling thunder storm and a faintly tolling bell ushers in the new genre before it truly erupts with Iommi's thunderous doom-laden riff. And the lyrics? 'What is this that stands before me?/Figure in black that points at me'. Now THAT is the dawn of heavy metal. It even establishes one of the favoured introductions of a metal band - by including on their eponymous debut a song named after themselves (Iron Maiden, for instance). The band are ludicrously rough around the edges and the album, as a result, comes out as one of the rawest debuts one can think of. Ozzy Osbourne has obvious difficulties singing beyond his limited quasi-hysterical range and spends almost the entire time singing in tandem with the riff, which has been gleefully mocked ever since. He did eventually manage to sing his own melody about the time of their fourth album. I would not suggest that Bill Ward and Geezer Butler are bad musicians but it is rather generous to hold them up to the likes of Zeppelin's or the Who's rhythm section and on here in particular they simply plod through the material. Again, though, it is the fact that their inadequacy slowed down the material that led to them unintentionally creating the heavy metal sound in the first place. The slow, dirgey march is the very foundation of metal and not until thrash in the early eighties did anyone think of trying anything else. Tony Iommi, though, is the one fully fledged talent in the band and it is perhaps little surprise as a result that a full quarter of the album is taken up with a showcase of his soloing talents. Indeed, other than the blues cover "Evil Woman" (surely chosen mostly on the basis of its title) the second half of this album is dominated by "The Warning" and, more specifically, Iommi. Ozzy pops up at the beginning and end to sing a brief blues song but the vast ten minute bulk of the track is merely a solo spot for Iommi to show off his licks. It is, of course, testament to his quality that it is a mostly fascinating showcase even if it is also evidence that they clearly did not have enough material written for a full length album. The songs on the first half are all complete enough, though, and all obvious examples of the formative heavy metal sound. The opening title track is the best, with it gearing up into a demonic onslaught, but the stacatto riffing of "N.I.B." has also reached classic status. "The Wizard" is the slightest of the four, with a rather too minimalist melody, but "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is an uncompromising combination of Ozzy's wail and the rest of the band's metallic crunch. It is certainly on the first side of vinyl that heavy metal was born and I would wager the genre never sounded as raw as it does on here. Although the band were obviously intentionally tuning their image to play on the Satan-worship angle the musical innovation surely came mainly by accident. Their complete lack of sophistication and, dare I say it, musical talent meant they were forced into a style of rock music that Led Zeppelin would simply think beneath their awesome talent. It is surely credit then to Sabbath that from their inferior status they managed to reach a level of prominence and influence that Led Zeppelin themselves felt in keen competition with.

Of course, heavy metal may still not have come about so quickly if Sabbath had not secured commercial superstardom so soon with only their second release, a veritable hard rock classic and heavy metal sacred cow. Indeed, such was the band's obvious obsession with following Led Zeppelin that much of this may even be written off as mere hard rock by hardcore metal-heads with Sabbath only reaching true metal status with the savage grinding riffs of Master of Reality, in all their down-tuned glory. Metal or not, though, Paranoid is Black Sabbath's finest hour and the album that saw them emerge as rock heavyweights in the tumultous turnover from the whimsical idealism of the sixties to the cynical, profiteering mainstream rock of the seventies. The three minute title track became a massive hit (and remains probably their Greatest Hit) and everything snowballed for the band from there. As anyone with a passing familiarity with this album will already know, "Paranoid" was initially tossed out as a piece of filler without the band originally realising its stripped-down simplicity made it a sure-fire hit single. The record company soon saw sense, though, and marketed the album around that song and not the opening epic "War Pigs" which was to be the album's original title. There are murmurings that the anti-Vietnam angle might have given the record company cold feet and it is why the album cover bears no relation to the title. Of course, even if had been called War Pigs one would still rather struggle to associate it with a picture of a man in luminous Y-fronts emerging from behind a tree, waving a toy sword. If this is the quintessential Sabbath album the sheer idiocy of the cover art only goes to reinforce such a notion. Given the fact that Sabbath were effectively charting unexplored territory and had not begun life as the most professional of musicians the gulf in style and content from their debut to this is momentous. No real improvement in the rhythm section but Iommi had clearly improved as an arranger, with most songs featuring a progression of sections, and Ozzy's vocals, whilst still limited in range, are far more confident and he really belts out the material. Furthermore, the production is A LOT more polished than the none-more-raw debut and ensures the entire effort sounds like one of the first slick hard rock products that so dominated the seventies music scene. "War Pigs" is the immediate showcase of the progression with it opening the album with Iommi imitating the wailing of a siren before lashing out with a progressive quasi-a capella verse which escalates into a wonderful, arching chorus which a band as subtle and intelligent as Joy Division were unashamed in ripping-off for their "New Dawn Fades". An eight-minute opener is always a notifier of ambition and after the edgy roughness of their debut it proves to be a swaggering success. "Paranoid" follows and the increased sophistication is reinforced with the eerie atmospherics of "Planet Caravan", which ditches the metal altogether in favour of Ozzy's treated vocals and Iommi's jazz-flavoured clean guitar runs. It is perhaps proof that subtlety was never the band's strong point but it is a successful change of pace and helps to compensate somewhat for the opening to "Iron Man" - by far their most successfully moronic song ever. These days, a song like that could only be done with an overload of irony but back then no-one batted an eyelid at the suggestion Ozzy should intone 'I AM IRON MAN' through a vocal decoder before following Iommi's mechanic, lumbering riff with his vocals like a retard on a conveyor belt. Mind you, it might be silly, it may even be stupid, but it is a bloody enjoyable song and a true landmark of the genre. The second half is generally more experimental with "Electric Funeral"'s fuzzed-up combination of stoner and Satanism and the anti-heroin rant "Hand of Doom" progressing from slow blues to an absolutely rip-roaring climax. The only real misstep on the whole album is when the band went too far down the Zeppelin rip-off route with the drum solo "Rat Salad". Bill Ward is hardly a technically strong drummer and the whole track degenerates into a repetitive thump that sounds like a drum kit falling down a flight of stairs. But worry not as the album closes as strongly as it began with the magnificent rocker "Fairies Wear Boots" which is an excellent duologue between Ozzy's ear-shattering wail and Iommi's multi-part, swaggering arrangement which proves the band were capable of grooving, and no longer mere plodding. It helps to capture the band in a state when their increased confidence saw them bounding over the acres of unbroken ground ahead of them. From their most sophisticated ("War Pigs") to their most moronic ("Iron Man") everything clicks into place and the hard rock pedigree of the album saw it lapped up on both sides of the Atlantic, making the band one of the biggest on the planet. It is surely also one of the most influential albums of its time and certainly the best that opens with a line that famously rhymes 'masses' with 'masses'.

From: juccar@bol.com.br

This cd, Paranoid, has been the best one of the sabbath, just because it was in my point of view the ozzy real life...He is still one of the best vocal heavy metal man in the whole world...what pitty this band has been over...

I may be writing the band off as a pack of slack-jawed black country yokels but I am still compelled to give credit for Iommi's creative decision-making in the face of Paranoid's success. Although the band soon went on to laughably flaunt their apparent diversity with piano ballads like "Changes" and synth rockers like "Who Are You?" and "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" Iommi initially knew exactly how to capitalise on their sudden burst of popularity. The critics were still heard mocking in their ivory towers so Iommi made the lucrative decision to simply give the people what they want. Led Zeppelin's insistence on experimenting with British folk on their third album risked alienating the scores of long-haired teenagers who just wanted to head bang and so Iommi took the opposite course. Master of Reality is a concise 35 minute blast of uncompromised grinding heavy metal. It pulls no punches about the style of music and, indeed, it is almost as if Iommi challenged himself to ensure each new track he wrote was heavier than the last, culminating with the relentless Hellish grind of the closing "Into the Void". Furthermore, it was on this album that Iommi first hit upon the ingenius method of making music heavier than ever and, in that way, represents the first album of heavy metal as we know it, transcending the blues basis of their first two efforts. Legend has it, Iommi downtuned the strings on his guitar merely so the slackened tension would be more comfortable for his reconstructed hand (having lost the tips of his fingers in an industrial accident) but, in any event, it was a decision he never came to regret as the E flat (or lower) tuning became the norm for heavy metal and ensured that any band that tried to record with standard tuning thereafter could be mockingly dismissed as mere hard rock. We are, of course, more accustomed to down-tuning these days but when this album came out its sheer heaviness was a shock to the entire scene. Iommi managed to further accentuate this drop in tone by ditching the bluesy riffs of the previous two albums and concentrating primarily on demonic grinding riffs that result in a suite of material that is stripped of colour and variety, leaving only a darkened blackness. At any rate, it is another top album and almost certainly Sabbath's second best. It doesn't have the disguised poppiness of some of their other efforts (people looking for another "Paranoid" will have gone away unsatisfied) but it does almost single-handedly provide the cornerstone for heavy metal. Furthermore, the fuzzed up production and droning arrangements became the primary source for the stoner rock movement of the late eighties/early nineties with one proponent even taking their name from this album's title. Sabbath even unwittingly play up to this scene by opening with the swaying "Sweet Leaf", an ode by Ozzy to one of his many favourite drugs, which also exemplifies the switch in Iommi's arrangements with it relying only on a snappy, repetitive riff. None of the songs rely on the sort of progressive structure that so distinguished Paranoid but the grind of the riffs ensures the album equally succeeds on a more one-dimensional level. There are only six songs (with two brief acoustic instrumentals) and only "Solitude" relents the pace, with its stoned medieval ballad vibe. Although it is nowhere near as poor as their other attempts to diversify it is rather blown away by the five metal numbers with "Lord of this World" and "Children of the Grave" providing the heaviest kicks. "After Forever", despite its typically excellent heavy metal grind, deserves a special mention for its truly diabolical (and notorious) set of lyrics. For some reason the band obviously got wary of being labelled as Satanists (not that they ever played up such an angle, of course) and decided to offer up a pro-Christian theological treatise that, at a touch, is probably slightly less well thought out than, say, Martin Luther's or Thomas Aquinas's. The infamously execrable line 'would you like to see the Pope on the end of a Rope? Do you think he's a fool?' deserves special words of condemnation. Perhaps they were just a bunch of thick brummie dimwits after all. Still, they obviously knew how to make one hell of a punishing, demonic racket.

From: SZARK999@aol.com

hey, your review site is pretty cool. just want to let you know, the vocals on "Solitude" from Black Sabbath's Master of Reality album are in fact done by Ozzy. keep up the good work!

Slack-jawed working class yobs they may have been but by the time of their fourth album they were also bona fide stars. Master of Reality had capitalised on Paranoid's success, thanks doubtless to Iommi's populist approach, and Sabbath were firmly ensconced as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. As a result, their fourth album (much like Led Zeppelin, in fact) was recorded at the ideal point in their career trajectory, when their confidence and creativity was at its highest but before over-inflated egos started to obscure their own decision-making and quality control. As musicians and arrangers this set perhaps represents their peak as Iommi conjures up the perfect combination of Paranoid's slick production and progressive arrangements and Master of Reality's demonic grind and Ozzy - finally! - learns how to sing properly. "Tomorrow's Dream" contains perhaps his best stab at a conventional melody and, like "Paranoid", is one of the few times Sabbath succeeded as a mere pop band. Unfortunately, it was not the only time they attempted to be a pop band and this album is infamous in containing one of their most controversial numbers, the piano ballad "Changes". It has come to be regarded as one of the quintessential metal ballads and has enjoyed surprising commercial success, with Ozzy of course re-releasing it recently as a duet with his plump daughter. It is for this reason that I have come to be rather confused, though, given it is one of the worst songs I have ever heard and an almighty stain on the peak period of Sabbath's career. The piano melody is sub-grade 1 and is obviously the work of someone who has never touched the instrument before, whilst the lyrics are just, put simply, retarded. I know I said this in my previous review of this album but if a five year old kid presented said piece to their parents as a song they'd written themselves the parents would probably have to sugar-coat their response. It is just obviously the work of a complete idiot and the fact it has become so popular only proves that the band's fanbase are of the same level of intelligence. But then I am not saying Sabbath are a bad band, they just shouldn't have included such a song on here. The heavy metal stuff is all pretty fabulous, with the up-tempo hard rock on the first side giving way to an impressive metal grind on side 2. The charging riff of "Supernaut" sets up one of Sabbath's fastest and most irresistible tunes, whilst the opening "Wheels of Confusion" and "Snowblind" are typically engaging multi-part epics, displaying a confidence and bravado that quickly fell into self-indulgence on future releases. Lyrically, "Snowblind" is an obvious homage to cocaine (something they were only introduced to in America) and proof that they were a little too enamoured with it comes with Iommi's nonsensical instrumental "FX" which is at least mercifully brief. Along with "Changes" it does represent a lapse in quality control but the overall impact of the album is largely determined by the sheer whack of top quality hard rock and heavy metal on offer. All of which adds up to Sabbath's last great album before their egos overtook their brain power.

As the seventies rolled on and, particularly as progressive rock took control of the hearts and minds of all and sundry, dissension grew in the Sabbath ranks, particularly between Ozzy and Iommi. Ignoring the ego-clash and mutual dislike that had been present even in their days as a blues cover band in the sixties the question over where Sabbath were to head next ended up divorcing Ozzy completely from the band. Their remaining four releases in the seventies became increasingly experimental and therefore less and less similar to the brand of hard-edged, no-nonsense heavy metal that had made their name. After 1976's tortuous but rewarding Sabotage the last two records with Ozzy flopped (relatively speaking) and Sabbath disappeared into the bog of generic heavy metal they had helped to create never to return. On their fifth release, it is possible to see the sense in Ozzy's doubts over the change in direction but, nevertheless, the band remained in strong enough form to mostly succeed in incorporating new elements into their sound. The killer blow for hard-core metal-heads was the temporary recruitment of Yes keyboardist and omnipresent seventies session-man Rick Wakeman on 'keys'. Like Dizzy Reed's belated introduction into Guns n'Roses' line up in the early nineties it is not hard to pinpoint the introduction of a pianist into a band renowned for their guitar riffs as the point of no return. Sure, the keyboards and synths do flesh out the arrangements but that ain't exactly what one would want to hear on a Black Sabbath record. The production as a whole is about as slick as it ever got with the sheen of this album forming pretty much the definitive statement of mainstream heavy metal. After finally learning to sing Ozzy finds an extra pitch in his range and spends most of the time at the top end, with his ear-piercing wail a perfect pre-cursor for subsequent heavy metal bands (cough, Iron Maiden). The songwriting itself also seems more commercial with the closing numbers, "Looking for Today" and "Spiral Architect", veering suspiciously close to AOR. The former even features a flute piping away at one point but, nonetheless, is melodic enough overall to see it elevated above much of the other material on here. Wakeman's presence on "Sabbra Cadabra" is noticeably unnecessary with the song itself seeming somewhat out of place given its attempts to recreate old-fashioned rock'n'roll. I guess Sabbath's improving musical ability saw them looking to branch out into more styles but the key to a great heavy metal band is sticking rigidly to the one dimension and it was Sabbath's ambition that ultimately caused them to fall from their own pantheon. The title track, though, is a punishing assault of pure heavy metal and the following "A National Acrobat" retreats back to the stoner vibe of Master of Reality with its fuzzed-up riff forming a perfect metallic groove. "Killing Yourself to Live" is the final proper metal classic on the album before things degenerate into pop melodies and flute solos. Anyone with a passing familiarity with this site will know that I have not forgotten to mention the ingenius synth rocker "Who Are You?" which, like "Changes" on the last album and "Am I Going Insane (Radio)?" on the following one, is the pathetic extreme of Sabbath's 'creativity' and one of the very worst songs knocking about on my iPod/CD collection. It is not just that it is stupid, of course, but that it is obviously intended to be one of the band's most 'intelligent' songs. The dreary, droning synths offer up the dullest of accompaniments from which a vocal melody would be almost impossible to conjure up. As it is, Ozzy's elongated, whiny vocals match the synths perfectly to form a sophorific dirge of poor taste. It might as well have been subtitled 'stick to what you're good at' but future such offences suggest Sabbath never really got the hint. Furthermore, Iommi's instrumental "Fluff" goes nowhere and takes four minutes to do so. As such, this album was the most inconsistent of their career thus far as excellent heavy metal songs and decent melodic rock efforts took their place amongst unnecessary synths and half-baked efforts at diversifying. The moment Rick Wakeman walked through the door a small piece of Black Sabbath died.

Despite the contrasting material on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath it was Sabotage that offered the greatest contradiction in style. Not content with the unnecessary studio tinkering for the last album Iommi locked himself and the band away for close to a year to ensure Sabotage would be their most complex release yet. It is somewhat surprising, then, that after the fleshed-out melodicism of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Sabotage should be the heaviest and most uncompromised release of the Ozzy-era career. The album famously opens with the bruising duo of "Hole in the Sky" and "Sympton of the Universe" (separated by a short instrumental) which are, arguably, the two heaviest songs Ozzy ever did with the band. As with the last album, his helium wail is at its highest and Iommi's riffing reverts back to the unflinching grind of Master of Reality. After the doubtful pop tunes of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath the band once again offer up material to give your parents headaches. "Sympton of the Universe" does play out into an acoustic, almost funky, coda and, thankfully, is all the more impressive for doing so. Indeed, despite Iommi's insistence on detailed production and twisted arrangements a lot of the ideas put into effect here actually work reasonably well. "Supertzar"'s combination of heavy metal riffing with a full blown choir is far from laughable and the ten minute epic "Megalomania" is a reasonable stab at a heavy metal opera. The way the first word of each line gradually echoes into existence is admittedly quite an eerie effect. Indeed, the album as a whole is almost certainly an improvement over Sabbath Bloody Sabbath even if it overall fails to match the highpoints of the band's early career. The fact is it simply does not sound as fresh and exciting as it did in the early seventies and we all know now 1976 was going to be a very bad year for the old guard of rock music. Not that Sabbath aren't aware of the problem, though, and aim to beat the likes of Talking Heads at their own game with the own stab at new wave with the synth-driven 'pop' song "Am I Going Insane (Radio)?". I love the way the journalist in the sleeve-notes refers to it as the most commercial song on the album, as if the public are going to lap up a truly diabolical song ahead of a great metal one simply because it features keyboards. One would get tired pointing out all that is wrong with it but as I already said in the last review it is simply one of the worst songs I've had the misfortune to own. Although a terrible Sabbath song is not that unsurprising, a genuinely underrated one is a rarer find, and I believe "Thrill of it All" can be held up as such an artefact. I very rarely see it discussed or praised when, in fact, it seems to me it is one the band's finest efforts, starting out as a bluesy riff-driven hard rocker before escalating into a finely melodic climax. Indeed, it is representative of the fact that despite the intricate approach to production and the truly terrible cover art (featuring one of rock's most infamous pair of trousers) this album is actually remarkably consistent and contains some of Sabbath's strongest material. Indeed, it is generally recognised as being the last good Sabbath album with Ozzy (and often the last good Sabbath album period) and therefore the final piece of their artistic legacy before they quickly and inevitably fell into self-parody, even outstripping Spinal Tap's attempts to do it for them.

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