Album Review: Black Sabbath – Sabotage (1975)

Overview: 

                Regardless of the critical acclaim that came with the experimentation involved in Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Black Sabbath decided to go back to their roots and make a rock record.  That is exactly what they got, filling the record with some of the heaviest tracks of their career.  This was the first Sabbath album I owned on my own (primarily because no one else I knew had it so I couldn’t listen to it any other way).  Between this and my mother’s copy of Paranoid, I was completely hooked.

Tracks you may know: 

“Symptom of the Universe”:  This song has crunchy, grunge-like guitars before anyone knew what grunge was.  Again, Bill Ward excels on the drums.  The way the song gallops along, you can almost hear where Iron Maiden (who formed the year Sabotage was released) would get their sound from.

“Hole in the Sky”:  The opening track on the album hits you hard right away.  This is not going to be another Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.  One of the most straightforward rockers in Sabbath’s catalog.

Tracks you should know:

“Thrill of it All”:  The opening guitar lick is worth the price of admission, but the entire song is a hidden gem.  It does sound like the guitar was cranked way up on the track though, as the drum and bass guitar parts are not as easy to hear as in other Sabbath songs.  

“The Writ”:  Ozzy stretches a bit on the vocals, but the way he uses the guitar as a backdrop and sings over it is a departure for Ozzy as a musician, and makes for a more interesting song as a whole.

My personal favorite:

“Hole in the Sky”:  There’s something to be said for hitting the audience with your best stuff from the get-go and Sabbath does just that with this track.  It’s heavy, it’s loud, and it does the job of washing the taste of synthesizers out of your mouth.

Album rating: 

                Going back to basics was not a hindrance at all as Sabbath again received critical acclaim for Sabotage.  The instrumental tracks on this album are not nearly as good as the ones in the past, but the high points are just as high, if not higher than their past releases.  This is not to the overall caliber of the first three albums, but it is definitely more consistent than Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 

7/10