December 1, 1973 - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

About two weeks since my last release, and a little over a year since "Vol. 4", Black Sabbath released their fifth album "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" on December 1, 1973. Following the tour for the last album, Black Sabbath were exhausted and took their first extended break since the band began. After a couple months vacation, the band reunited in L.A. to start work on their fifth album, but they had trouble coming up with ideas and decided to record back home in England. Yes were recording their sixth album at the same studio and keyboardist Rick Wakeman features on one song on this album. He refused to accept money for his guest appearance, so he was paid with beer instead! This album continues to expand Sabbath's experimental side and features a lot more keyboards than their previous works. Let's give it a listen!

Side one begins with "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and Tony Iommi kicks it off with the "the riff that saved Sabbath". Iommi was going through writer's block until he came up with the main riff to this song. Ozzy sings very high along with the guitar during the verse and the chorus is much lighter with cool guitar and bass. Iommi plays a decent guitar solo, then the rest of the song follows a new very low, heavy riff. It sounds pretty awesome, I love how low and dirty it sounds. The next song is titled "A National Acrobat" and it's a slow, pretty catchy guitar riff that carries the song. Ozzy sings his typical high voice and the lyrics are about all the sperm fighting to get to the egg, a concept lyricist Geezer Butler was fascinated by. A new, cool guitar riff takes it a different route and we hear a slow guitar solo by Iommi that's pretty good. A faster bit takes us to the end of the song with some more nice guitar. Track 3 is called "Fluff" and there are several guitar tracks together that sounds really nice. Iommi plays piano on this one as well and creates a slow, cool atmosphere for this instrumental. Not a very typical Black Sabbath song, but I think it sounds pretty cool. The final song on this side is "Sabbra Cadabra" which begins with a catchy guitar riff, and there's great guitar and bass throughout the whole song. Ward's drumming is solid as well as they settle into a heavy main riff. Ozzy's singing is great and he does a few great yells! We hear some epic synths by Wakeman that segue into the next section where we hear a new verse that has Wakeman on piano. Seems a pretty good addition to a Sabbath song I think! Wakeman plays both piano and synths and he definitely makes this song better. He was going through some stuff that we'll touch on later, and he really jams out on this cool song.

Side two begins with "Killing Yourself To Live" as a decent guitar riff kicks it off. Ozzy sings quickly and the lyrics are about partying so hard and doing so much drugs that you nearly kill yourself trying to live. It's something the whole band could relate to and Butler wrote it after being in the hospital. The first solo has two different guitar tracks soloing together, sounds pretty good! Ozzy whispers "Smoke it, get high" as a new riff starts. Iommi carries the rest of the song with some more awesome guitar right to the end. The next track is called "Who Are You?" and it's led by a synthesizer riff made up by Ozzy! He bought a synthesizer (must be nice) despite not knowing how to play it, but still made up this riff. It's slow and pretty heavy for a synth. Iommi plays piano and takes it away with some pretty cool stuff in this interesting song. Track 7 is "Looking For Today" which starts with another catchy guitar riff. Once he got over that writer's block, Iommi did still come up with lots of cool riffs. The chorus switches from heavy electric, to acoustic guitar and flutes by Iommi! He changes from flute to organ for the second chorus and plays a guitar solo at the end that fades out the song. The final track is "Spiral Architect" which opens with a cool acoustic riff by Iommi. Bass and drums join in and the guitar turns electric as they play a catchy verse riff and Ozzy sings lyrics about DNA, another subject Butler was fascinated with. The chorus has a strings section, another interesting addition for Sabbath, but it sounds great. This is another solid song that shows Black Sabbath stepping outside of their usual heavy metal style, and doing so quite well.

That is the end of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and I thought it was another solid Black Sabbath album. They are definitely experimenting even more on this album, but they still retain the energy and amazing guitar playing of Iommi that makes Sabbath so great. But how does it compare to their previous albums? Their first three albums are in a league of their own that I don't think this new album or "Vol. 4" belong in. "Vol. 4" was still a great album though, and I think that I like "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" even more than last year's effort. It's not long until my next release, just "four days" away!