Sabotage (Black Sabbath, 1975)

Reviewing some of the past Black Sabbath posts here, it looks like I've already tipped by hand regarding my thoughts on Sabotage, so I'll try not to be too repetitive. Although it is typically regarded by Ozzy purists as the last "great" album by the band, it's probably better to describe the album as a gateway of what was to come from the band.

Sabotage retains a number of musical elements that were expressed to their fullest on 1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, particularly in emphasizing riffs over solos. On the other hand, the band was now on the other side of a rather introverted period for the band with very little activity beyond their appearance at the 1974 California Jam (oddly notable for showing Iommi minus the mustache). They were beat down pretty hard during this time, mostly in the legal department. At the same time, they were continuing to seek a somewhat new musical identity and it pops up in places here.

The red meat for the purists here are "Hole in the Sky", "Megalomania", and the first chunk of "Symptom of the Universe". In fact I remember walking back into the stockroom during my bookstore days and hearing "Symptom" going full-bore and the employee just standing there having his mind blown. No doubt it's a really hard charging song, but overall not the direction the band was heading. The evidence is in the second part, introduced in the studio, softer and acoustic and everything the first part wasn't. Lest anyone doubt this part appeared later, witness the live version (originally from Live at Last, then made official on Past Lives) that abruptly ends after the first part.

Moments like this, along with instrumental bits like the acoustic "Don't Start (Too Late)" and the choral workout "Supertzar" show this is a band not intent on revisiting the old days of Paranoid. The synthesizers are ramped up as well, particularly on the album's second side in songs like "The Thrill of It All" and the overtly commercial "Am I Going Insane (Radio)". To be clear, the latter is not a "radio edit", but instead the greatest case of a British band messing with their American fans since Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er", as "Radio" is rhyming slang for crazy (crazy=mental=radio rental). Finally, "The Writ", a rare song that features lyrics by Ozzy (Geezer was the usual lyricist for the band and I can only guess putting Ozzy in the credits was an act of generosity), brings everything together, a heavy, solo-less mini-epic polemic on the band's legal woes. Depending on your version of the album, the fadeout of the monster riff brings things to a close, or a little ditty by Ozzy and Bill Ward called "Blow on a Jug" appears after the fade, a rare moment of sheer whimsy on a Sabbath album.

For the continuing saga of Sabbath, you can continue on to Technical Ecstasy. If you like to read about bands going off the rails, it makes for some gripping reading!