Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

As if their dark lyrics and wall-of-sludge sound didn't already have an epic sweep, Black Sabbath braved an even more ambitious approach on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, adding synthesizers and even strings to tracks such as "Who Are You?" and "Spiral Architect." But even without them, the Sabbath classics "Killing Yourself to Live," "National Acrobat," "Looking for Today," and the title track pack a thunderous sonic wallop. "Fluff," a bit of ponderous musing on acoustic guitar and keyboards, adds variety to the disc but brings the headbanging pleasure of the rest of the album to a screeching halt. Beyond that misstep, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is as slow and deliberate as a lava flow, and just as powerful. --Daniel Durchholz Amazon.com

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ****1/2

When I was asked to describe Black Sabbaths sound in my music journalism class all I could say was "Pompei, Black Sabbath is like the slow crawl of the volcano erupting and covering the village in certain death,' that explanation is about a cheesy and dead on as you can get. Ozzy's shrieks of heaven, hell, and strange dimensions in between combined with Iommi's under appreciated guitar work, and Geezer Butler and Bill Wards wall of rhythm, which by the way is the best in rock in roll, make this one of the heaviest albums of all time. I don't mean heavy as in loud and fast, I mean heavy as in slow, chugging, dark, scar the pants of your mother heavy.

The only misstep on the album is, and now this is a big one, 'Fluff.' The song is useless. It is a beautiful acoustic melody from Iommi, but it does not work here, yes it does give variety to the album, but it takes away from it as a whole. It worked on other albums but not here boys. The legendary title track, 'A National Acrobat' my personal favorite 'Sabbra Cadabra' with it's stellar guitar riff, and 'Killing Yourself To Live' all went on to become Black Sabbath classics. 'Who Are You' can be trying at times, but more often than not is enjoyable, and 'Looking For Today' is an underrated gem. 'Spiral Architect' closes out the album, and just might be the craziest thing the original line up of Sabbath ever recorded.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is easily one of the greatest albums in the bands canon. It might not be the bands heaviest (see Vol. 4) or their most popular (see Paranoid) but it is a classic that any fan would be happy to own. May 20, 2008

More of the same, yet very different...

Despite what the blurb above says, Black Sabbath cast off some of their gritty bombast to produce a more measured and experimental effort with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The killer riffs are still there, but a little of the high-volume was replaced with some high-fidelity. I initially found this disappointing - it is nowhere near as viscerally exciting as the Paranoid album for example - but it was necessary to make space for the plethora of other instruments & ideas to take hold. As such the listening experience is more complex and more interesting, but with less raw energy.

Others have done the detailed track analyses & I don't intend to repeat them here, but I would take issue however with the claim that the track "Fluff" is a misstep: far from it. Apart from being a worthy musical contribution in its own right, it provides a wonderful counterpoint to the heavier material on the album. They did a similar thing with "Changes" on Volume 4, and these quieter interludes have become a feature of Black Sabbath's releases. Not only is Tony Iommi the ultimate riffmeister of his generation, but he is also aware of the overall listening experience, providing a kind of aural intermission. This album-oriented approach is typical of a lot of 70s records where singles success was spurned in favour of a more wholistic musical goal.

The 70s influence of prog-rock really comes to the fore here too, with some of Sabbath's most interesting and experimental material. As is the nature of prog-rock, some of it is a little challenging, but it's fascinating to hear them try. And who could be a better partner in this endeavour than Yes boardsman Rick Wakeman? How I would love to have been a fly on the wall during these sessions to see the creative process at work.

An album of its time, and one that stretched Sabbath to the outer reaches of their creativity, and arguably to places they have never revisited (except perhaps briefly on the follow-up Sabotage). One of my favourites. May 7, 2008

Expect the Unexpected

I recently bought this album, only expecting a little more then what Never Say Die had to offer, but listening to some of these tracks blew me away.

Basic reviews on songs I particularly enjoyed.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath-Great song. I liked the acoustic jams in between the main riff, as well as the heavy riff towards the end.
A National Acrobat-This song has a good guitar solo, and the main riff with the two separate guitar recordings Iommi made sounds really cool.
Fluff-This might sound strange coming out of a sabbath fans mouth (listen to the song and you'll know why) but this song is beautiful.
Sabbra Cadabra-This was a nice song which in some ways reminded me of old 50's rock tunes, mainly because of the chord progression and the lyrics.
Looking for today-A good fast paced song that makes you want to get up and dance.
Spiral Architect-This song is epic,almost like something out of a movie, really good song.

The other songs were OK but they did not stick out to me as GREAT.

Over all this is a great album, but don't expect another Paranoid album. I think that this album is sometimes underrated but it deserves respect as one of Sabbaths best albums. This album defiantly brought a lot of experimental elements into it (Rick Wakeman from Yes on keyboards was cool) but don't let that deter you from buying this. It is a must have album and all Sabbath fans cant live without it. February 19, 2008

Exceptional!

Continuing the experimental vein found in Vol 4, but with considerably more success, Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is really an exceptional album. February 2, 2008

Sabbath goes prog, kind of....

This album reminds me of Sabotage, in that it has a very heavy prog rock feel to it. Some Sabbath fans don't really dig this one, as they feel that it's too complex and not really Sabbath. This isn't true at all. A lot of early Sabbath album had long, complex tracks to them (Warning, on their first album, ran 10 1/2 minutes), and this album is just another example of our good friends John (aka Ozzy), Terrence, Tony, and Wiliam expanding their musical repetroire. The song A National Acrobat (a prog title if there was ever one) is a great song, with a great closing 2 minutes that may be the most complex music Sabbath ever played. The title track is fantastic, a true Sabbath classic. Fluff is anything but, another underrated gem from Sabbath. Sabbra Cadabra is another great one, one that Metallica (another band that gets flak from fans for changing) covered on their excellent Garage, Inc. album. One quip, though. The sound is muddy on this recording. I don't know if this was deliberate or just bad remastering, but it doesn't detract too much from the music. If you are a Sabbath fan, you can't do without with this one. January 4, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...