It’s incredible how the most groundbreaking movements can be started from the smallest sparks. Take, for instance, a young guitar player who lost his fingertips in an accident at a sheet metal factory. Despite being told he would never play again, he found a way, melting down plastic bottles to create homemade thimbles, and tuning down his guitar to make the strings easier to hold down. I’m sure you can guess where this is going: that guitarist was none other than Tony Iommi, and that one accident would inevitably lead to the birth of a whole new genre of rock music: heavy metal.

Welcome to The Look Back (title still somewhat in progress), a look at the classic albums of old through modern ears. This is a little project I’m embarking on to see how albums that are held up as classics in their genres fare in the modern day, when so much has built on their foundations, all through the ears of a Gen Z kid who listened to plenty of these newer albums before checking out the classics. And for the inaugural installment, I felt it was only right to look at the album that indirectly inspired so many of Sputnik’s favorite albums, the progenitor of heavy metal, Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album.

WHY IS THIS A CLASSIC?

I mean… do I really even have to ask this? While other bands such as Led Zeppelin are sometimes credited for being the inventors of heavy metal, it’s basically entirely accepted amongst the music world that it began with the Birmingham band’s 1970 debut, which was recorded and mastered in two entire days. Two days was all it took to craft the first album of a seminal genre. Hell, it did more than that, it retroactively became the creator of doom metal! Really, you can’t describe this album in any other way besides “classic”, it’s as classic as classic metal can be. But, to basically sum it up, the down-tuned riffs of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler’s basslines that followed the guitar riffs rather than going off on melodic runs, and, of course, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting, wailing vocals, combined to create a (at the time) borderline evil-sounding record.

Initially, it was despised by critics (a personal favorite quote of mine is a reviewer for The Village Voice describing it as “bullshit necromancy”), but, as is often the case in music, the opinions of the fans won out, and Black Sabbath stuck around. Nowadays, this debut album is often thought of fondly, though it’s equally superseded by its successors, such as Paranoid or Master of Reality. So, how does the first heavy metal album sound to this dumbass Gen Z listener?

THE PROS

It’s utterly fucking baffling how timeless this album’s sound truly is, how fresh the guitars and bass still ring in the ears all these decades later, how easy it is to let yourself be absorbed by the winding solos. It’s equally shocking how hard the band averted the usual trend for, as TV Tropes so lovingly defines it, “early installment weirdness”; the sound you hear on Black Sabbath is, by and large, the sound you would hear on Paranoid and all albums in the initial Ozzy era, minus a few tweaks. In this case, the debut still manages to sound pretty damn evil at points, especially that god-tier title track. “Black Sabbath” (yes, their first song is named after them) opens with haunting bells and droning, bending guitar riffs that stick in the mind instantly. It’s easy to see how this spawned both heavy metal, and would eventually be considered the prototype for doom metal years later.

Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler have been mentioned, but not enough love is given to the rock-solid drumming of Bill Ward, who underpins every track with perfect drum fills that help keep the oppressive, dark rhythms in check. Really, the entire album is the band moving in lockstep, like a well-oiled machine of darkness and dread. I’d go as far as to say that the album’s first stretch (from the title track all the way to “N.I.B.”) is one of the most flawless runs of music in history.

THE CONS

Unfortunately, side two lacks much of the momentum of side one. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not bad tracks, but “Wicked World” and the “Sleeping Village/Warning” suite are nowhere near as memorable, and stick far less in my brain than the harmonica-driven “Wizard” or that sublime riff for “N.I.B.”. “Warning” in particular is a little too meandering for my tastes, even as someone who enjoys prog. I can’t put my finger on what it is, there’s too little consistency between each section to properly hook me.

Other than that, the only weak con I can manage to dig up is that what’s here is truly only the beginning. Every sound you hear here is present on future Sabbath releases, in an infinitely more polished form. Again, not to discount what’s on offer here, because it clearly is utterly incredible. It’s moreso saying that, while this is an incredible record, it’s easy for it to be overshadowed by the damn-near world-altering releases that Black Sabbath would drop over the next 5 years.

SO, DOES IT HOLD UP?

Oh my dear sweet god, does it ever! Black Sabbath is an album of legend, and it shows. Even at its most meandering and aimless (“Warning” cough cough), this 1970 debut album still stuns in every conceivable fashion. From the riffs and solos, to Osbourne’s voice, to the dark lyrics and atmosphere, nearly every aspect of this album hits just as hard today as I can imagine it did upon its release. It says so much that, even with decades of heavy metal to pick from, I would still gladly go back and relisten to this any day of the week.

Sputnik’s Average Rating: 4.4

My personal rating: 4.8

Good lord, it’s hard to imagine how Black Sabbath could’ve topped themselves. Oh, wait, I don’t have to imagine, because they did it, multiple times! I, shamefully, have yet to listen to most of their legendary six-album run, but you better believe I’ll be checking them out, and spotlighting them for future installments. For now, we’ll leave the first installment of this series with this: Black Sabbath is every bit the masterpiece today as it was back then.