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View Full Version : Black Sabbath - Sabotage


Lumiere
10-17-2004, 11:36 AM
Sabotage (1975)

Best Song: Symptom Of The Universe
Worst Song: Am I Going Insane (Radio)?
Rating: 10/10
Tracklist: 1) Hole In The Sky 2) Don’t Start (Too Late) 3) Symptom Of The Universe 4) Megalomania 5) Thrill Of It All 6) Supertzar 7) Am I Going Insane (Radio)? 8) The Writ

Holy ****! The best Sabbath project ever, and by the great God Puffin is it weird. Is it a blues album? A heavy metal album? A prog-rock album? A thrash metal album? A pop-album? A bizarre experiment with a choir? In truth, it’s a peculiar but exceedingly palatable amalgamation of all those qualities, and a bit more. Sabbath sound their best yet; Iommi adds layers of fuzz and crunch that were unfathomable for 1975, Ward makes the drumkit his proverbial bee-hatch, Geezer zips along as per usual and Ozzy’s affected vocals are perfect (he’d just past his droning vocal period, and was about to enter his annoying vocal oozing period). Like a lot of Sab albums, the first half is undeniably superior to the second – Hole In The Sky rocks along like some mad (but doped up) horse, Symptom Of The Universe kicks all manner of glutemus maximi (virtually inventing thrash metal, if you don’t count that lovely acoustic jazz bit at the end), and Megalomania is an intricate, multilayered prog masterpiece. You see, this is what prog should like – a bunch of drugged up boneheads playing their hardest, not a bunch of wanky toffs harping on about their technical proficiency, ala YES (although I am a bit partial to some YES now and again). Oh, and Don’t Start (Too Late) is one of those silly acoustic instrumentals, although it manages to be 99% more interesting than its peers because it only lasts 45 seconds. On side two, there are only two tracks that really stick out as excellent (the crunchy Thrill Of It All and the lengthy, jam encrusted The Writ), and the other tracks suck a rather large phallus – Am I Going Insane (Radio)? sounds like another attempt to write a potential pop hit ala Paranoid and Supertzar is a spooky track that features a choir, but it gets horrendously boring after a few listenings. But anyway, buy the sucker; not only is it heinously underrated but it’s Sabbath’s best album.

Lumiere
10-17-2004, 11:37 AM
Just to explain the rating system:

Any song in the tracklist labelled red is a great, notable song.
Any song in the tracklist labelled blue is exceedingly poor.

Iai
10-17-2004, 11:45 AM
At first glance I was getting ready to tell you what a lame review it was, but it's actually pretty good. More descriptive than a lot of reviews on here twice its length. Very much on the short side though. Add individual reviews of the best 2 or 3 tracks and there'd be nothing to complain about.

I take it this was your first review?

Lumiere
10-17-2004, 11:50 AM
Yeah. I'm trying to get a review site up, but I don't have the cash to get a legit domain name that won't slip under the radar, like geocities or expage sites.

This site is a pretty **** good medium for reviews, though.

Iai
10-17-2004, 11:54 AM
I know. I'm in much the same situation - I want my own review site, but I'm poor, and I refuse to write for most review sites because they're horribly pretentious and I don't want to be associated with that.

By the way, I just got out my copy of The Best of Black Sabbath. It has Symptom Of The Universe, Hole In The Sky, and Am I Going Insane. I agree totally with your assessment of all of them.

PoliticallyIncorrectMetalhead
10-17-2004, 03:34 PM
I have the Symptoms of the Universe box set. Probably the sames as Iai's. Good review for the songs I know. Symptom Of The Universe has quite the drumming.

Shadows
10-17-2004, 03:38 PM
Considering that it's your first review I'de say you did fairly well. The setup and structure was pretty sloppy but the content was good even for an experienced reviewer. Nice work.

Lumiere
10-18-2004, 03:46 PM
Could someone add this to the 'reviewed list', please?

Shadows
10-18-2004, 07:28 PM
Could someone add this to the 'reviewed list', please?
Just be patient.

You may want to format the title to include the genre as well.

JmE
10-18-2004, 10:34 PM
Could someone add this to the 'reviewed list', please?

It's been there for the past day. Look more closely, I know things aren't too easy on the eyes in the list but that's something that's being worked on right now.

Lumiere
10-19-2004, 01:26 PM
Sorry for my foolishness.

beyondthecircle
10-19-2004, 04:11 PM
this cd rocks, i just got the box set with the original lineup, and i would say this is probably my fav cd next to master of reality