Black Sabbath really have a lot going for them. It's a bit of a cliché, but they're one of the "big three" bands that were supposed to have started the whole "heavy metal" thing, namely "Led Zeppelin", "Deep Purple" and "Black Sabbath".
I used to listen to all of these bands when I was a teenager. I'd taped
their albums onto now defunct audio tapes. A couple of years I happened
to be at a party at someone's house and I took a look at their record collection,
which may seem a bit of a rude thing to do, but it's something I have a
tendency to do if I don't keep my instincts checked. On this particular
night I was rewarded. I fished out two of my teenage favourites from this
guy's vinyl's: Deep Purple's famous "In rock" and Black Sabbath's "Volume
4".
I won't go into the purple album now. Suffice it to say that I couldn't
recapture the energy I saw in it when I was 14. It could have been me,
it could have been the album. I'm not gonna enter the argument. It was
a trip down "memory lane", but that was about all it was. "Volume 4", on
the other hand, gave me great pleasure. Like meeting a long estranged friend
again. And that's how people try to make you feel with "metal" albums.
They're considered as infrequentable, as something it was ok to listen
to when you were a kid but decidedly unhip today. As if you needed the
excuse of all those budding teenage hormones to excuse those simple, heavy
riffs…
Rock aesthetics modelled around fads and fashions. After a period of
actually listening to these critics who like to consider themselves the
rock intelligentsia I'm going back over all these so-called "metal" albums
I used to love cos' it's rehabilitation time.
What a better band to start this rehabilitation programme with than Black Sabbath ? What a better Sabbath album to choose than "Volume 4" ?
Before we start there are a few things that need to be said about the band.
Of the aforementioned "Big three" they are the best. Whereas the other bands gradually fell into the flowery "supergroup" guitar hero scene of the seventies the sabs continued rockin' out seminal rock'n'roll. Ok, so perhaps they didn't invent "heavy metal". Who cares ? They certainly invented a new brand of rock. And it was always close to the aggressiveness and rebelliousness of true rock'n'roll.
What they did invent was "Black metal". What greater claim to fame do
they need ? Without the Sabs, bands like Venom would have never ever been
possible.
Maybe that wouldn't have been such a bad thing.
Seriously, rock critics were bloody glad when groups like Black Sabbath
came along in the early seventies. In terms of good stuff, the fare of
the day was pretty poor.
If there is one rock aesthetic considered naffer than the metal scene
by rock critics, it's the transformation of rock in the seventies, predating
the punk explosion.
Glam-rock, guitar-heroes, long-winded concepts that filled sides and
sides of vinyl with self-indulgent technical prowess. Initially, all this
"concept" stuff was seen as a creative liberation from the limited commercial
radio two-minute format. After a couple of years people were wondering
what had happened to rock'n'roll, and were searching for something with
the immediacy, aggressivity and savagery that they had grown to expect
of the sixties.
And they were in luck, cos' Black Sabbath came along.
Of course, a little later, punk rock came along and those rock critics were bloody relieved that rock seemed reborn out of it's ashes again. But that's another story.
In the meantime they had Black Sabbath, so they should be eternally grateful.
Heavy Metal is often taxed of coming out with stale, predictable formats.
That is not the case here. In fact, quite to the contrary. Some of
the songs are completely unpredictable. Wheels of Confusion, the
opening track that runs for nearly eight minutes, moves in every direction
imaginable. Five and a half minutes in, the song almost turns into another
song entirely. These unpredictable and unorthodox changes present on Wheels
of Confusion as well as many other tracks don't damage the cohesion
of the songs one iota, they add to the power of tracks. They're part of
what makes this album genuine rock'n'roll instead of just a format.
A trademark of the record (possibly of other Sabs albums of the period,
I don't have them all) is a grungy, gutsy, extremely thick repetition of
what must be "power" chords. This seems to be the basis of most songs.
Although the songs are sometimes very complex and multi-layered, showing
that a lot of thought has obviously gone into the studio work, the basis,
or at least some part of most songs, is an almost binary grunge.
The sabs obviously chose to experiment around these very simple, almost
tribal building blocks of noise that confer a raw rock'n'roll power on
the songs. Although it's simple, finding that particular sound in 1972,
that particular overdriven grunge, that particular sonic signature must
have been an achievement in itself.
I remember purchasing my first electric guitar when I was a teenager.
I bought a very basic amp. Very low wattage, no effects whatsoever. I was
really into heavy metal at the time. I was surprised that I couldn't even
approximate any of the sounds I heard on my favourite albums. Actually,
I couldn't even tune the guitar which was an even bigger problem.
I'd imagined that playing the guitar was a bit of a scholarly thing.
As long as you learnt your chords and practised, practised, practised you'd
be bound to make great rock'n'roll.
I didn't even imagine the importance of using technical inventions
such as effects pedals and overdrive, choosing one type of amp rather than
another, one type of guitar rather than another in defining one's essential
"sound".
Heavy metal was in fact a very coded thing. I could appreciate the
music and was receptive to different types of drone, of grunge, of squeal
but I couldn't have analysed how it was made (I'd be hard put even today).
On "Volume 4" there are a lot of effects. A lot of different types of overdriven guitar each selected for producing the desired effect. The songs are built up around the "building blocks of noise" into complex multi-layered constructs rich in tone, mood and promise.
There is a heavy, thick atmosphere all through "Vol.4". This is not a happy album. When it gets fast, it never gets jolly. There's nothing light-hearted about it. It's not a deeply depressive album either, all the songs are not dirges but still, if you're looking for something to cheer you up, look elsewhere.
It sometimes gives the impression of a body sludgily trying to move
along under the influence of mid and body numbing powerful narcotics. Trying
to emerge from a drug-drenched hazed and function clearly again. A bit
like Hawkwind's famous "Brainstorm".
Ammunition for the "numbed on drugs" theory comes in the form of one
of the classic "Snowblind" apparently about the band's cocaine habits.
In case we didn't get the message from lyrics that don't define drug taking
directly, the band see fit to whisper "cocaine" at a moment in the song.
Although the singer defends his use of drugs, the song is a sad one. Their
is melancholy air about it, with saddish music and lyrics focusing on cold,
freezing, ice and by extension, isolation.
This "dark trip on mind-numbing drugs" theory give fuel to a comparison. Ok, so comparing the incomparable, maybe this album is the Black Sabbath equivalent of Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night". Then again maybe not. There's something about the two, however.
There's a psychedelic side to "Vol.4". On "Wheels of Confusion", and "Tomorrow's dream". There's a real dark psychedelic break on "Cornucopia" and dark psychedelic runs on "Under the Sun". Of course, it's not happy hippy stuff. If there are any revelations involved, they are obviously grim ones. It has that soul-searching, spaced-out side to psychedelia, but it's more the hidden realms of the dark subconscious that seem to be the destination. Indeed, the lyrics are often centred around insanity and losing one's mind.
What else has to be said about vol.4. The noise-drenched songs, the flailing drums ? surely something about Iommi's guitar work and Ozzy's great vocal talent.
Although Iommi is clearly a guitar virtuoso, he doesn't display this in a self-indulgent, seventies-style, guitar-hero-ish way. His solo's add to the songs' strength instead of just showcasing Iommi's prowess. The songs are often complex with many interrelated parts. Guitar parts are sometimes blended into each other, sometimes complimentary, sometimes voluntarily conflicting, taking the song further into confusion. The effect is one of unpredictability. There are no boring clichés here.
Ozzy has a great voice. A great rock'n'roll voice. A very expressive,
nasal drone. A voice that can express pain convincingly. Imploring and
always convincing, never pathetic. On a song like Changes where the voice
is showcased among piano and strings; although the vocal line is fairly
simple and repetitive Ozzy holds the show and his powerful voice pulls
it off. Again, with Snowblind the vocal line is fairly simple, almost a
chant. Another singer could have made it dull, Ozzy pulls it off and makes
each word poignant.
Sometimes, the production work makes Ozzy's voice sound enclosed or
isolated which adds to it's effect. This is the case on "Supernaut" and
"St Vitus Dance".
The lyrics are convincing too. Probably the best in heavy metal. Great
rock'n'roll lyrics, general enough for universal interpretation, personal
enough to be powerful.
Only one duff track here. That's "FX", a short piece with echo drenched
dripping and tapping noises. At the time it was probably a novelty. Fortunately
it's just 1mn37seconds long.