You bastards!

Forged in the dungeons of a castle in the Forest Of Dean amidst Olympian levels of coke abuse, ghost spotting, relentless pranking and almost total writer’s block, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is nothing short of a negative miracle.

The people who have crippled you
You want to see them burn
The gates of life have closed on you
And there's just no return

The title track was the catalyst and is some days my favourite Black Sabbath track ever, which kinda makes it by definition one of the best 5:45 of heavy music ever made. There’s that riff, yet another one that sounds unearthed rather than composed, the Beatles-y harmonic passages, Ozzy’s muscular singing and just that bit; one of my very fave couple of seconds in the WHOLE of all music EVER, where he declaims ‘You bastards!’ before that relentless scouring heaviness cuts back in.

Even after that there’s the astonishing outro to the track, which just plays masterfully against the flatness of OO’s voice. I’ve just listened to it four times on repeat writing this, which isn’t unusual. If you don’t like this then I’m afraid you have to go and play with someone else.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath landed in 1973, crunching down onto the mountainside, claws gouging deep into the bare rock, surveying its surroundings with a certain tired, amused malevolence.

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War, nuclear annihilation, dope, heroin, skinheads, wizards, cocaine and rocket travel … it was clearly inevitable that Sabbath would write a song from the point of view of a sperm wondering if it would get through to an egg. That old song writing cliché. I love ‘A National Acrobat’, one of Geezer’s very best and such a funky track with interesting melodies and a great coda too. As always I love how simultaneously light and heavy Bill Ward’s drumming is, its the reason why nobody ever really covers Sabbath properly*.

The gorgeous instrumental ‘Fluff’ is up next, named after a fave rock DJ of mine and it really is Iomni’s ‘Albatross’ moment. When I start an ultra-hip company doing some-business-thing** it will be our hold music. It really is rather beautiful.

‘Sabbra Cadabra’ is not beautiful, but is a great bluesy groove rocker, with some bonus Rick Wakeman. I absolutely love the guitar line on this and Ozzy is bang on point again with his vocals, sounding so strong compared to what would come later. Like a few of the cuts here it has a really good outro, the band really jamming well with Mr W.

Second side opens up with the too-much-perspective of ‘Killing Yourself To Live’ which has a great in your face sound, clearer and more immediate than anything else on the LP. Its fine, but a lesser cut in this company. Then we go Mellotron mad on ‘Who Are You’ where Ozzy gets to break out his new toy whilst laying down a bit of a downer dirge. Its different but no highlight.

I like the spritely sideswipe at keeping up with trends ‘Looking For Today’ which has some real beef behind the melody. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath really does sign off in style with ‘Spiral Architect’, which remains my favourite ever song about DNA. Word up. There is a definite Who vibe about the build up and execution of this one, albeit with some absolutely excellent strings^ added which take the melody in a really startling direction. Given the sound FX at the end of the track and Mr OO does get to live his beloved Beatles fantasies a bit here.

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I would posit that Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the band’s most progressive LP by far. I was always fooled a bit by the title track, LP cover, typeface and name but this isn’t a very heavy album at overall. My son and I both really noticed how groovy and melodic the album was the other day, it is a deceptive, rewarding beast.

I love the story of how Led Zeppelin visited Sabbath during the making of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the two bands jammed, recorded the session but never released it – now there’s an Ark of the Covenant to chase down.

This LP, despite the scorched nostril, brink of madness fatigue drinking and insanity it was born from is a real highpoint in Sabbath’s career; the sound of a band maturing, progressing. It is only the utterly ridiculous quality of what had gone before it in the band’s back catalogue that keep Sabbath Bloody Sabbath from being lauded as much as it should actually be.

If you think you know the album give it another whirl, I suspect you may find something in it to surprise yourself with.

YOU BASTARDS!

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My copy of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is a slightly beaten up 1973 copy that was issued via the Audio Club of Britain – I do wonder what their members thought of it at the time. I know this because the labels carry the WWA logo, as opposed to the standard NEMS one.

I’ve always been intrigued by the translucent band, materialising in their pants gatefold photo here. I mean, why guys?

1244 Down.

*see also Frank Beard.

**details to be worked out separately, but it will make an ultra nanogrillionaire.

^by the Phantom Fiddlers no less!