Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)

Black Sabbath's debut album is widely considered to be the first heavy metal album ever made. Of course there are some other albums out there that could claim this honour, such as the first Led Zeppelin album or one of the early Deep Purple albums. However, Black Sabbath goes beyond hard rock. The songs are heavier in their tone. Also, Black Sabbath had a clear goal, to make scary music. This has stayed as the aesthetic of heavy metal music to this day. The Birmingham-based band was inspired by horror movies of the day. They wanted to make music that would have a similar kind of effect on people as the movies. The album cover alone is enough to enhance this image. I'm also certain that these kinds of sounds back in 1970 were enough to make Christian circles worried. When you also listen to the lyrics, you can be sure that this album was prepared to cause an uproar.



As a pre-teen, I used to listen to 80's and 90's trash metal, such as Metallica and Megadeath. Then I found my father's old vinyl records by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. This led me to investigate more about 1970's heavy bands, which of course, led me to Black Sabbath. Back in the day, Black Sabbath didn't make as big of an impression on me as the other two bands, but later on, I've really grown fond of Black Sabbath's music. Their sounds are really authentic and recognisable. Also, in addition to horror lyrics, there are actually some great political lyrics among their songs. Although, less so on this first album.

Later on, when I was about 18 years old, me and three of my friends played a black Sabbath gig at their high school's pre-Christmas party at Gloria, a Helsinki-based rock venue. We even have some video material of this gig. Our audience wasn't that big, but we played quite well and the audience that was there seemed to be enthusiastic about our performance. We mostly just played songs from the first two albums.

The album starts beautifully with rain, thunder and church bells. Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath from the album Black Sabbath. The stormy sounds are then interrupted by the most amazing growling guitars that are playing the devil's chord, a chord progression that was banned during the middle ages. The faster riff towards the end of the song is pretty amazing and I've really enjoyed playing that riff live with a bass. The Wizard sounds more like some other contemporary bands, such as Led Zeppelin. The harmonica gives it a blues rock sound that was fashionable at the time. Behind the Wall of Sleep sounds like an early version of later songs such as Warpigs on Paranoid. N.I.B. is one of the most legendary songs by Black Sabbath. The basslines are quite fantastic. The song also has the immortal lyrics "my name is Lucifer, please take my hand". Sleeping Village starts off as a ballad. It has a mouth harp and it kind of paves the way for later full ballads that the band would come up with. Warning is over 10 minute long song with lots of guitar solos. Here, you can hear that the band isn't technically that skilful, but their sounds are still great.

Apparently the first album was recorded in only one day, which the band thought back in the day was too much time. That really puts this band into perspective. If you can make an album like this in only one day, there has to be something truly spectacular about your band. Black Sabbath's debut album is a fantastic piece of work, but their second album Paranoid was even better. Too bad that stayed as the hight of the band's career. Nevertheless, Black Sabbath is a fantastic band that has had an enormous impact on my life.

Listen to the album on Spotify.