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1974 Vinyl  Classic Rock LP  
Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabath


This will be a great addition to your vintage vinyl collection.
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Black Sabbath:

An English hard rock institution whose influence on heavy metal cannot be overstated,  not only pioneered the genre, they helped launch the career of one of its most colorful and controversial characters in . The band distilled the smoke and strife of its industrial hometown into a punitive blast of doom-laden heavy blues-rock via bass player 's dystopian lyrics, which leaned heavily on the occult, and guitarist 's seismic riffing. When paired with 's economical yet formidable work behind the kit and 's primal tenor, the effect was both powerful and accessible -- a blueprint for aspiring decibel pushers of every skill level.

The band formed in 1968 under the ill-fitting name  --  and , who had just left the pub blues outfit Mythology, were looking to take the genre in a more robust direction. They enlisted the services of  and , both of whom had played together in a group called Rare Breed, and by the end of the year were operating under the moniker .

The transition from  to  took place the following year, after  and  penned a song that was inspired by the 1963  horror film of the same name. The resulting "Black Sabbath," a funereal slab of blast furnace-forged dread built around the augmented fourth/tritonic interval, better known as the devil's interval, would serve as the opening volley on their explosive eponymous 1970 debut. Released via Vertigo Records, the more progressive subsidiary of Philips/Phonogram, the bulk of the -produced LP was recorded in a single day. Only a handful of guitar overdubs -- 's signature sound was lent considerable gravitas by the fact that he tuned his guitar a half-step down to provide some slack for a pair of fingers that saw their tips removed in a factory accident -- along with the rain, thunder, and tolling bells that so effectively introduced the group to the world, would be added later. The record was released on Friday the 13th, which helped kick-start the band's reputation for populating the fertile crime scene that is history with plenty of blood spatter. Flush with eventual genre classics like "The Wizard," "N.I.B.," and the aforementioned title cut,  was initially dismissed by critics -- retrospective reviews were far more reverent -- but it managed to reach the U.K. Top Ten and hold court for over a year on the U.S. Top 40, eventually going certified platinum.

With the surprise success of , the band wasted little time in getting back into the studio. Released just seven months after their debut, , the very antithesis of the sophomore slump, would spawn two of their biggest singles in "Iron Man" and the nervy, hard-hitting title track, the latter of which would be the band's only Top Ten hit -- the LP went straight to the top of the U.K. charts, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. Deeper yet no less immediate cuts like the air-raid siren-led, politically charged "War Pigs" and the trippy, mellow doom anthem "Planet Caravan" showed a group that had far more creative gas in the tank than its detractors would have cared to admit.  also afforded  their first measure of controversy after an inquest was made regarding an American nurse who committed suicide while listening to the LP -- for many, the name  would become synonymous with Satanism throughout the '70s and '80s.

 continued to blow the unholy horn of plenty with albums three and four. Released in 1971, the brutish  was certified double platinum on the strength of fan favorites like "Sweet Leaf," "Children of the Grave," and "Into the Void," the latter two of which saw  downtune three semitones in order to release even more string tension --  followed suit, and the deep earth pummeling that followed has been widely cited as the auger of sludge, doom, and stoner metal. The LP also featured the -composed/-penned "After Forever," which, much to the confusion of some of the band's more zealous critics, reflected the bass player's deep Catholic faith. , recorded in Los Angeles, arrived the following year, and was the first  outing to not see  handling production duties --  and then-manager  would co-produce the album. Certainly the group's most ambitious outing to date,  also represented  at their most chemically dependent -- the album's working title was Snowblind -- shipping in speaker boxes filled with cocaine, and turning their rented Bel Air house into a boozy black cauldron of rock star excess. Nevertheless, they managed to pull it together long enough to piece together a dark, introspective gem of a record that didn't spawn any hits -- the caustic riff-gasm that is "Supernaut" must have charted in some other more forgiving dimension -- but still topped the album charts.  dutifully reflected 's debauched collective headspace at the time, but retained enough of the blue-collar might that fueled their early works to connect.

Arriving in 1973,  was another success, doubling down on the more progressive elements of , even going so far as to tap  from  to contribute keyboards to the track "Sabbra Cadabra." Bolstered by the now iconic title cut as well as the punishing "Killing Yourself to Live," the LP not only resonated with fans, but elicited positive comments from mainstream critics as well, becoming 's fifth platinum album in the U.S. and earning their first silver certification in the U.K. , released in 1975, saw  returning to the bottom-heavy, molten metal attack of their debut, for the most part dialing back on the orchestral flourishes and studio trickery of their last two outings. It also arrived in the midst of contentious litigation between the band and its now former manager . Between the bruising "Hole in the Sky," the angst-fueled "Symptom of the Universe," and the nearly nine-minute epic "The Writ," the band sounded both reinvigorated and wrecked -- a bloodied beast, filled with bullets, standing on the corpse of its captor. Fans and critics were kind, but the musical climate was changing both at home and abroad, and  were beginning to feel the chill.

By 1976 the band was undergoing an internal struggle as well, having to contend with an increasingly frustrated and chemically dependant frontman, who was looking to strike out on his own.  (1976) and  (1978), despite going gold, suffered beneath the weight of both the band's substance abuse issues and its increasingly diminished position in popular music. Bands like  and  were on the rise, and 's brand of stalwart heavy blues-rock was losing favor. During the recording of ,  quit, eventually making his way back into the fold during the final sessions, but in 1979, after touring in support of the album, he was fired from the group for good.

's departure and successful solo career may have signaled the end of an era for the group, but  weren't about to go gently into that good night. At the suggestion of the band's new manager's daughter  (later to become ), , , and  brought in ex- frontman  to take over vocal duties. 's powerful voice, as idiosyncratic and iconic as 's but with far more wholesale appeal, proved the perfect fit for  2.0. Released in 1980,  was a critical and commercial success, becoming their third-highest-selling LP behind  and . That same year, while on tour,  had reached the apex of his alcoholism and announced that he too was leaving the group. , the younger brother of legendary  drummer , was brought in to replace him, and would appear on the group's tenth studio outing, 1981's . The album received mixed reviews, but still managed to go gold in the U.S. and crack the U.K. Top 40 on the strength of the fiery title track, which also appeared -- in a different version -- in the cult animated, adult-fantasy film Heavy Metal. The band's first ever concert album, , was released in 1983. Recorded during the group's 1982 tour in support of , it presented an audio snapshot of the band at the peak of its technical powers, but failed to capture the internal tensions that were bubbling beneath all of the pick slides and pyrotechnics. Citing an irreconcilable falling out with  and ,  and  left the group in the middle of mixing the album, and formed their own band. With the newly minted  issuing  and  dropping his third chart-topping solo LP, ,  were at a definite crossroads.

Undeterred,  and  immediately began looking for new members with whom to start up the old machinery, eventually settling on 's  on vocals and a freshly sober  behind the kit. While it sold well initially, the resulting  was a critical failure, a tone-deaf collection of subpar  tropes that would ultimately leave  the last man standing. Even the tour in support of the album was a disaster, with , who relapsed during recording, being replaced by / drummer , and a cringe-inducing prop malfunction providing the inspiration for the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap's now classic Stonehenge sequence. After the tour  left,  rejoined , and  went solo, leaving  no choice but to put the band on hiatus.

What followed was a long period of near-constant personnel changes, with  remaining the sole original member. Issued in 1986, the bluesy  was, for all intents and purposes, an  solo album -- record company pressure forced him to add the  moniker to the front cover -- and 1987's  was the first to feature new semi-permanent vocalist . Hard rock heavyweight drummer  joined  and  on 1989's  and 1990's Viking-themed concept album , but none of the initial post- LPs had much of an impact critically or commercially. Once again the musical paradigm was shifting away from the hard rock/heavy metal genre, and  were just trying to stay afloat. The generally well-received , a /-era reunion with , , and , provided the  name with a much needed shot in the arm in 1992, and managed to sneak them back into the Top 40 both at home and overseas, but it would prove to be a one-off affair. Arriving in 1994,  kept  on board and brought back  on vocals, but it failed to capitalize on any momentum left over from 's success, and the following year's disappointing , the band's 18th studio LP, would be the last outing for , as well as the last studio album from the band for nearly 18 years.

, , , and  would eventually make their way back under the stage lights in 1997, culminating in the release of the Best Metal Performance Grammy Award-winning double-live LP , but it would be 16 years -- and a whole lot of , who was eventually given his own reality television show -- before the band would bring the dark arts back to the recording studio. Released in 2013, the -produced , which also brought home a Grammy, this time for the single "God Is Dead?," would be 's final album, and in 2015, , , and  --  refused to participate -- announced that their upcoming world tour would be their last. The aptly named The End Tour, which concluded in their hometown of Birmingham, saw  closing the coffin lid on a nearly 50-year career and cementing their legacy as the unheralded harbingers of heavy, sludge, stoner, and doom metal. A concert LP/film of the performance was released in 2017.

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With 1973's , heavy metal godfathers  made a concerted effort to prove their remaining critics wrong by raising their creative stakes and dispensing unprecedented attention to the album's production standards, arrangements, and even the cover artwork. As a result, bold new efforts like the timeless title track, "A National Acrobat," and "Killing Yourself to Live" positively glistened with a newfound level of finesse and maturity, while remaining largely faithful, aesthetically speaking, to the band's signature compositional style. In fact, their sheer songwriting excellence may even have helped to ease the transition for suspicious older fans left yearning for the rough-hewn, brute strength that had made recent triumphs like  and  (really, all their previous albums) such undeniable forces of nature. But thanks to 's nearly flawless execution, even a more adventurous experiment like the string-laden "Spiral Architect," with its tasteful background orchestration, managed to sound surprisingly natural, and in the dreamy instrumental "Fluff,"  scored his first truly memorable solo piece. If anything, only the group's at times heavy-handed adoption of synthesizers met with inconsistent consequences, with erstwhile  keyboard wizard  bringing only good things to the memorable "Sabbra Cadabra" (who know he was such a great boogie-woogie pianist?), while the robotically dull "Who Are You" definitely suffered from synthesizer novelty overkill. All things considered, though,  was arguably 's fifth masterpiece in four years, and remains an essential item in any heavy metal collection.

-------------------------

With 1973's , heavy metal godfathers  made a concerted effort to prove their remaining critics wrong by raising their creative stakes and dispensing unprecedented attention to the album's production standards, arrangements, and even the cover artwork. As a result, bold new efforts like the timeless title track, "A National Acrobat," and "Killing Yourself to Live" positively glistened with a newfound level of finesse and maturity, while remaining largely faithful, aesthetically speaking, to the band's signature compositional style. In fact, their sheer songwriting excellence may even have helped to ease the transition for suspicious older fans left yearning for the rough-hewn, brute strength that had made recent triumphs like  and  (really, all their previous albums) such undeniable forces of nature. But thanks to 's nearly flawless execution, even a more adventurous experiment like the string-laden "Spiral Architect," with its tasteful background orchestration, managed to sound surprisingly natural, and in the dreamy instrumental "Fluff,"  scored his first truly memorable solo piece. If anything, only the group's at times heavy-handed adoption of synthesizers met with inconsistent consequences, with erstwhile  keyboard wizard  bringing only good things to the memorable "Sabbra Cadabra" (who know he was such a great boogie-woogie pianist?), while the robotically dull "Who Are You" definitely suffered from synthesizer novelty overkill. All things considered, though,  was arguably 's fifth masterpiece in four years, and remains an essential item in any heavy metal collection.