Black Sabbath - Sabotage

1996 reissue on Castle of their top 30 1975 album for WarnerBrothers. Digitally remastered from the original master tapes & with faithfully restored artwork, it contains all eight original tracks, including 'Symptom Of The Universe', 'Hole In The Sky' and 'Supertzar'. Album Description

Sab gets progressive!

By far the most ambitious, intelligent, and evil-sounding album Sabbath ever made. It's also probably the most underrated of Sabbath's "classic six," since it never really produced a classic hit. However, it's still a great record.
A couple songs here are justly among Sab's most acclaimed these days. First off, "Symptom of the Universe" just might be the group's greatest song ever. Much has been made about the proto-thrash guitar riff. And I love the proto-thrash guitar riff. But I love the acoustic outro, which reminds me of Led Zep circa Houses of the Holy, even more. In my opinion, if something sounds like Houses of the Holy, it's bound to be good. The record's other classic is "Hole in the Sky," a kick-butt opener with some pounding, powerful, murderous riffs. That is some fine riffing there! I love Tony Iommi. He's the man.
Ah, but the real cool thing about this album is the progressiveness. Sure, there had been extended Sab tracks before - take "War Pigs" or about half the first album - but none of them give off the same multipart feeling that the near ten-minute "Megalomania" does. I love that song! Maybe it's not as good as "Symptom of the Universe," but it's definitely the most frightening Black Sabbath track. The riffing is brilliant, and the Ozz turns in his best vocal ever, right from the famous fade-in. There would be no Metallica without that song, and that would not be a good thing. "The Writ" is also extended, but I'm not a big fan of it. It's not terrible, and it's got a cool title, but it's kind of generic. Especially the first part, which is only noteworthy because Ozzy sounds a lot like Robert Plant. Still, the whispered "Rats... rats..." part rules. "Supertzar" is probably the most progressive track on the album - Tony Iommi soloing over a church choir - and it's a very interesting experiment for the group.
It's also by far the best song on the otherwise disappointing second side. It's got "The Writ," which is pretty much average, and the keyboard-laden, generic AOR track "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" sucks. "The Thrill of it All" has the best pure riff on the first side, and is awesome until the stupid keyboard embellishments show up and hurt the song.
So side two is a big disappointment. But I love side one. It's even got an acoustic interlude, "Don't Start (Too Late)," that manages to sound pretty good, although it's out-of-character. So, yeah. It's really hard to argue with the first side of this thing. September 29, 2008

overshadowed

This album is one of Sabbath's best but is often overshadowed by their other albums. I think Ozzy's voice is at his best on this one and it is chock full of great riffing by Iommi. All the tunes are great, but my favorite is "Symptom of the Universe", a powerful tritone based metal riff with a bizarre jazz/blues acoustic outro. The album really is full of surprises; tempo changes, key changes, acoustic guitars dropping in out of nowhere, a choir, synthesizers. Definitely underrated. September 23, 2008

Best Metal Album of all Time

This is Sabbath's best ever! Every song is perfection upon perfection! So may people who doubted Sabbath at the time must look back with wide eyed astonishment and be ashamed of themselve's for doubting the powe of this album. This is not only the best Sabbath album but contain's 2 of their best offering's ever. Megalomania and The Writ are metal song's without being over the top or extreme. These song's are dark and angry without even trying. They are like a tank sludging through a swamp filled with mine's. If you consider yourself even a half way fan of Sabbath or metal at all you will have to pick it up ! August 4, 2008

Sabotage

Black Sabbath's sixth studio album peaked at #28 which was the worst showing by the group. The album is better than that, in fact, Sabotage compares very well to their first five albums. It would be their next two albums, Technical Ecstasy & Never Say Die!, where the overall quality of the albums would take a nosedive.

"Am I Going Insane (Radio)" was the one that got the most airplay, it was certainly created to be radio-friendly, but, along with "The Writ", they are the weakest songs on the album. I didn't say they were bad songs, they're just not the same quality as the other songs on the album. "Hole in the Sky" was one of the best songs that Sabbath recorded. The short outro "Don't Start (Too Late)" follows, it's short at 49 seconds & it's good for what it is but I'm not sure what the point of it is. "Symptom of the Universe" is another very good song. "Megalomania" is the centerpiece of the album, it takes about three minutes to get to its dynamic sections but it's worth the wait. "Thrill of It All" is another good song that's followed by the instrumental "Supertzar". Some think this is the weakest song on Sabotage but the faux voice effects is one of its most unique aspects, particularly for Sabbath.

Eight songs on the album & not a one of them are bad. Tony Iommi once again comes equipped with an album full of guitar riffs. But Sabotage marked the end of the beginning of the Ozzy era of Black Sabbath. Their next two albums would be subpar efforts with an unhappy Ozzy making unhappy noises. Though Sabbath has never died (kind of like rock 'n' roll) they've never completely recovered from the departure of Ozzy. And to be honest about it, when Ozzy quit he took the heart of Sabbath with him. May 26, 2008

One of Sabbath's Best!

One of Black Sabbath's best, though you wouldn't know it by listening to radio, with its insistence that the only worthwhile Sabbath is from Paranoid. But what the Hell do they know?

I enjoy a good many of the tracks on this album enough to count them among my favorite Sabbath tracks ("Hole in the Sky" and "The Writ" in particular, but the others are also great). It's a different Sabbath album, and I've always thought this was their album most akin to hard rock, rather than the metal genre that they were so instrumental in founding.

Their best? No.

Still amazing? Yup. February 2, 2008

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