Black Sabbath appreciation week

[metalchurch]

Well it's that time again, (actually, I'm making it up now) to pay homage to unarguably the absolute greatest band ever. Without these guys music would not have turned out as we know it. Not only Metal bands cite them as a major influence, but other genres as well.

I've been listening to them since I could remember. And when I was a kid they actually scared the shit out of me.
The beginning of Iron Man was one example, that I remember vividly, when my old man would put it on I would start crying. The Master of Reality album was another one that frightened me. Not sure if was the music or the sheer volume in which my Dad 'had' to play it at.

As a teeneager I literally wore out many cassettes of them, and burnt many-a-doobie to get the full experience. Maybe that's what's wrong with me now? Too much Sweet Leaf? LOL!
anyway.....
Praise them! The lords of the Dark side!














Which one is your fav?
Mine is either Master of Reality, or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but they are all good.

[Jim Price]

I remember hearing "Iron Man" on the radio when I was a kid, and my mom telling me to stay away from it, because with a name like Black Sabbath, they certainly had to be evil. My older brother went ahead and bought the Paranoid album anyway. I was soon hooked.

I like the whole Sabbath catalog, but my favorite album is Sabotage. "Symptom of the Universe," "The Thrill of it All," "Hole in the Sky," and one of my favorite double-shots of all time, "Am I Going Insane" going into "The Writ" (I always dug the transition between the two songs, with some of the most maniacal laughter and screaming I've ever heard in a recording!). And although some consider it Sabbath's weakest album before Ozzy left, I always liked Never Say Die as well, particularly the title song, "Johnny Blade" and another double-shot, "Break Out" into "Swinging the Chain" (the former featuring a horn section). Good stuff!

I also like the post-Ozzy Sabbath stuff as well, especially Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules with Ronnie James Dio, and Born Again with Ian Gillan.

[bassist_25]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is definitely my favorite album by them. I always thought that the songwriting really improved on that album, and Iommi's guitar sound actually is good, unlike the previous recordings where it sounded like he was playing his SG through a really nice stereo system. Also, Ozzy sounds great without all of the reverb and delay that producers seem to soak his voice in nowadays.

I decided to give it a spin right now after reading this thread. The CD seems to retain the original vinyl warmth to it pretty well. Thank you Value City bargain bin (where I also got two other Sabbath albums, a Queensryche album, and a four-volume CD set of hard rock stuff over the course of a few weeks).

[metalchurch]

Jim, I agree with you on the post Ozzy era. Their stuff with Dio and Gillan was great as well, and I probably should have included those records as well.
Sabotage was a great album by all means. I too also liked Never Say Die, and Technical Ecstacy, though they were written off as being has beens at that point by alot of people.
I think I'm going to revise my first post, and include the Dio/Gillan albums.
That's a good idea.

[rockaway]

ozzy is a carrot. he's 58 yrs old. he gets the senior discount at any restaruant

ps he was never really "bad", all that dark or evil

[metalchurch]

You're back! yay.
You strike me as a Black Sabbath 'Seventh Star' album kind of guy.
I thought you were gonna say Tony Martin rules for a second.

[Baceman Spiff]

Now HERE is a quality thread I can buy into! Since we're naming fav albums I'll go with MASTER OF REALITY. Into the Void, After Forever and Lord of this World.

Being five feet from the original line up in '99 was a spiritual experience. Its was as if a part of me was now complete.

J.P. I never realized you were such a Sab afficiando. Awesome! Did you ever get to the see the boys live in the seventies?

And by the way... Tony Martin RULES!! (the island of misfit hair bands)

[witchhunt]

http://www.heavenandhelllive.com/index.php?page=News
Some interesting numbers.

[Plastered Bastards]

Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die were both underrated and brilliant.
But I go with the Professor and say Sabotage was their shining moment.
And I pay tribute to them every single day,just by picking up my guitar.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!

[Killjingle]

I cant hardly pick a fav from the first 6... I love them all for their individual accomplishments in songwriting

I cant listen to Iron Man or Paranoid anymore; local radio has taken that from me

Fairies Wear Boots, Killing yourself to Live, are kinda the unspoken gems to me

I guess Im a purist; I dont like post Ozzy era sabbath

after a lot of thought I realize why I dont like post Ozzy or Maiden, etc... I really dont care for singing when it comes to a certain style of metal. I prefer Araya, old Ozzy, Blitz, Anselmo style of almost no vibrato on their voices (screaming?-loud talking?). I love singing for hard rock and 70's era music and all contemporary music; but I dont particularly care for it in straight up metal.

[DirtySanchez]

I can't take those Dio/Halford/Dickinson style vocals either.

[Killjingle]

u know by having that bias I am really not allowing myself to open my "eyes" to new and interesting things...

I can listen to something start out that is just kickin ass and taking names later, over the top, as low tuned as hell will allow, and then I will hear an operatic scream or a ye-aaaaaa-aaaaah and I will get up turn off the CD and throw it in the trash. I have no idea how Scar Symmetry has made it this long in my CD collection.

[RLeahey14]

id take dio/dickinson/halford/ozzy any day over all the death metal growls that are prevalent in metal today, honestly i think the growling vocals are what takes metal down a notch nowadays, alot of singers in metal suck live anyways, and the four guys i mentioned above sound on their albums excactly how they do live and for that i have a lot of respect - those singers are the reason why they are still around 20-30 years later still making kick ass albums when most metal bands now last 5 years tops and never crack top ten on the charts

[metalchurch]

I hear what you are saying Richie.
To me the vocals are part of the bands also.
While I love the higher range singers, because it's the original formula of Metal.
I also like the grittier vocals like Anselmo.
And the hard core shit like The man himself Chris Barnes from Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under. And of course one of the originators of that style;
Glen Benton. Max Cavalera and the original Sepultura lineup was awesome.
Those vocal styles just fit the pure brutality of the music.
Alot of bands try to emulate that and just plain cannot pull it off, I feel bad for them, I really do. LOL

Metal is not about topping the charts at all. It's great that some of the Classic Vocalists and bands still are held in high regard and do well.
They deserve it for all of their contributions to music over the years. I'm not just talking about Metal either, there's alot of great rock bands out there also that still hold their own on the stage and in the studio.

[DirtySanchez]

I'm not knockin those dudes. They def. have talent and staying power.
I just prefer my metal angry, not pretty.
The live show in metal is where it's at IMO.
Seeing the pure aggression/emotion just bleeding out rules.

If I want "pretty" vocals, I'll listen to something a little more melodic
like Bad religion/Strung out. Those 3 part harmonies are amazing.

As far as top ten stuff goes, the only thing that makes top ten any more is forgettable corporate rock ala Nickleback/hinder.

[metalchurch]

I hear ya Brian for sure.
I am a straight up metal head and I like all classes of Metal and I dig what each of them offer and their strong points. Basically as long as the guitars are in your face and the music is good then I'm alright.

One thing that always gets me is that alot of people say that Halford's voice was clean and it was actually a little on the gritty side if you listen to it closely.
And Dio was never really a high falsetto singer all that much. He did have an amazingly powerful voice though. Maybe it was Dragon's blood or pixie dust from under the Rainbow that made his voice like that of a god, but for someone as small as him it is very surprising. And he still got it, that's real cool man.

Brian I have to agree with you on the Live shows, they should be an all out attack with no holding back, that's a prerequisite for hard music.

P.S. Pretty vocals are the shit.

[RLeahey14]

yeah i agree with all that stuff, im just saying that without those guys there is no metal, hell one of my favorite singers is dave mustaine, there is no one like him, he's just total agression and everyone knocks his voice

im not saying metal should be top ten, but everywhere i look i see articles saying metal is on the way out or metal is dead, but the truth is ozzys new album went #3 and even the new megadeth went #7, so there is something about that stuff that works

to me it all depends on the style of the band

i really like chuck billy from testament, and he really brings it now, high screams, death grunts and plain agression, i cant wait to hear their new album coming out next year

[bassist_25]

I can listen to something start out that is just kickin ass and taking names later, over the top, as low tuned as hell will allow, and then I will hear an operatic scream or a ye-aaaaaa-aaaaah and I will get up turn off the CD and throw it in the trash. I have no idea how Scar Symmetry has made it this long in my CD collection.

I kind of have the opposite experience. With some of these "melodic" death metal bands (e.g., Dark Tranquility), it just sounds to me that Iron Maiden or Jag Panzer hired Chris Barnes to play with them or something. I don't have a preference over clean vocals or aggressive vocals, so as long as both are well done (though with all of the growlers in music nowadays, a throat surgeon will be able to retire quite comfortably after all of the nodules he or she will have to remove).

For the longest time, the only version of Cemetary Gates I've ever heard was the live one off of 101 Proof. A while back, I finally heard the studio version, and said, "Damn, Phil's actually a really accomplished singer!"

[Killjingle]

the really cool thing is this guys.... because we all dig something different; more than one kinda metal can thrive and thats pretty kick ass

just becuz I don't dig something doesn't mean I dont think it deserves it's own place in the world of rock; it just doesnt belong in my CD collection

nice thread...

[Killjingle]

I guess I should have mentioned that I really do enjoy Burton Bell and Chuck Billy's approach to melodic/growling.

[Jim Price]

Baceman Spiff wrote:

J.P. I never realized you were such a Sab afficiando. Awesome! Did you ever get to the see the boys live in the seventies?

No, I never got to see Sabbath live in the 70's. The first concert I ever attended, though, was Ozzy solo (with Randy Rhoads) with Motorhead at Johnstown's Cambria County War Memorial in 1980.

I agree with Killjingle that it is a triumph that metal has survived and that there are different variations of it out there that are thriving. The critics pretty much left it for dead when metal first surfaced in the early 70's, but it has continued to reinvent itself over the years.

My tastes have always leaned towards the classic metal side of the spectrum, so I've always been partial to the vocal stylings of Halford, Dickinson, Geoff Tate, Ronnie Dio, etc. It took me a long time to accept the harsher and more gutteral style of metal vocals. It was actually Sepultura that won me over. When I heard one of their early albums in the late 80's, I couldn't stand it. But several years later, after reading a few favorable reviews of it, I gave Chaos A.D. a listen, and began to appreciate the style. Max Cavalera sold me, his vocal style sold the outrage and horror of the stuff he was singing about, like atrocities in his Brazilian homeland - his intensity and passion really drove the messages of Sepultura's songs home for me. I also was big on Roots, also a great album.

[metalchurch]

Jim, I admire you more everyday! You rock!
Sepultura, no shit, I would have never have guessed that one.
Good deal man!

[Killjingle]

upon hearing Max Cavalera for the first time is what made me want to sing... Ive never looked back;

I always wanted to play guitar... but I never had any desire to actually be vox

[Charltor]

Jim, I admire you more everyday! You rock!
Sepultura, no shit, I would have never have guessed that one.
Good deal man!

and to come full circle back to the original thread their cover of "Symptom of the Universe" owns!!!

Sabbath are my biggest influence and all metal genre music needs to bow down to these musicians., I loved all the Ozzy/Dio albums!
We should make It Black Sabbath Appreciation Month!

[Killjingle]

Biohazard's After Forever is a cool jam as well

and the Bullring Brummies doing the Wizard is my favorite Sabbath cover...

I wish I aould have gotten to see Halford sing for Sabbath on that tour yrs ago; I dont even remember the circumstances but I remember it was short lived


I never truly appreciated Halford till Fight; his voice can be really kickass