"What is this that stands before me?"
Black Sabbath is the debut album by Black Sabbath, released on Friday, February 13, 1970. Widely considered the first true Heavy Metal album, it was recorded within only a 12-hour period between a few European gigs. The lyrics deal with far darker themes than their contemporaries, dealing with occultism, Satanism, and Lovecraftian horrors, and the trademark dark banjo-stringed guitar, alongside Ozzy Osbourne's vocals, made it even more radical and unique.
The album was a commercial success, having gone to number eight on the UK charts after its release. After its June 1970 release in the States, it peaked at number 23 on the Billboard charts and sold one million copies during the year that it was ranked there.
Tracklist (original European edition):
Side One- "Black Sabbath" (6:20)
- "The Wizard" (4:24)
- "Behind the Wall of Sleep" (3:37)
- "N.I.B." (6:08)
- "Evil Woman, Don't Play Your Games with Me"note (3:25)
- "Sleeping Village" (3:46)
- "Warning" (10:28)
Tracklist (original North American edition):
Side One- "Black Sabbath" (6:20)
- "The Wizard" (4:22)
- "Wasp"note /"Behind the Wall of Sleep"/"Bassically"note /"N.I.B." (9:44)
- "Wicked World" (4:47)
- "A Bit of Finger"note /"Sleeping Village"/"Warning" (14:15)
Personnel:
- Ozzy Osbourne - vocals
- Tony Iommi - guitar
- Geezer Butler - bass
- Bill Ward - drums
"Never troping, just keeps walking, spreading his magic":
- Alliterative Title: "Wicked World"
- Big "NO!": Ozzy's response to the figure in black telling him he's The Chosen One in the title track.
- Cover Version: "Evil Woman" was originally recorded by Crow, and "Warning" was by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. The original versions of both songs are now very obscure compared to their Sabbath renditions.
- Crapsack World: "Wicked World." It's right there in the title.
- Darker and Edgier: Than anything else in rock and roll at the time.
- Epic Rocking: "Warning" runs 10:32, doubling as Longest Song Goes Last.
- Fading into the Next Song: Happens twice: in the first example, the drums-only fade-out of "Behind the Wall of Sleep" leads straight into the bass solo that opens "N.I.B."; in the second, the held guitar note at the end of "Sleeping Village" can still be heard for a few seconds after "Warning" starts up. In both cases, these tracks were combined into one on North American pressings and padded out with extraneous subtitles.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: The title track starts this way.
- Fun with Acronyms: Subverted. "N.I.B." doesn't actually stand for anything; they came up with the title because of how drummer Bill Ward's beard looked like a pen nib. That hasn't stopped people from saying it stands for "Nativity in Black," though.
- Heavy Mithril: "The Wizard" is the Trope Maker, being a The Lord of the Rings-inspired song about a traveling wizard that helps people with his magical abilites.
- Instrumentals: "Wasp," "Bassically", most of "Sleeping Village".
- Love Redeems: "N.I.B." is about Satan finding love and turning away from his evil ways.
- Non-Appearing Title: The title track is not a Singer Namedrop. "N.I.B." doesn't appear in the song either.
- Performance Video: They made one
for the title track. - Record Producer: Roger Bain.
- Self-Titled Album: Well, duh
- Single Stanza Song: "Sleeping Village":"Red sun rising in the sky
Sleeping village, cock’rel’s cry
Soft breeze blowing in the trees
Peace of mind, feel at ease" - The "The" Title Confusion: The 1996 remastered CD release of the album erroneously calls the last track "The Warning".
- Title Track: "Black Sabbath"
- Trope Maker: Of Heavy Metal genre as a whole.
- Wandering Wizard: "The Wizard" is about a wizard who walks about the world, fighting off evil powers and demons with his spells. He never talks, only walks as he spreads his magic.
- Wham Episode: For rock music in general—this and Paranoid were where Heavy Metal truly started.
