Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Black Sabbath
Label: Vertigo Records
Released: 1972
Runtime: 42:38
Rating: 4.5/5
Despite its unimaginative title, Black Sabbath’s fourth album is one of the best things they ever did. It’s a big step up in maturity, with the band branching out far more broadly within their uncompromising ‘doom & gloom’ heavy metal pioneering. Shyly at first, but in ever bigger doses, they started grafting orchestral elements onto it with the help of piano and mellotron. The album was originally supposed to be called »Snowblind«, a way of flagging how cocaine (ab)use was increasingly wrecking the health and state of mind of the band members, but Vertigo leaned on them and at the last minute they had to settle for a far more prosaic title.
»Snowblind« still lives on as the title of the most beloved track on »Volume 4«, a record that was never short of classics like »Wheels Of Confusion«, »Changes«, »Tomorrow’s Dream« and »Supernaut«. The cover, iconic by now anyway, with its monochrome stylized Ozzy, was a rather unfortunate pick, again at the label’s urging. Back then Ozzy was more mascot than centerpiece of these Birmingham heavy rock legends, in whose original lineup a relative democracy always ruled when it came to the creative process. It was drug abuse, led by the cocaine they first met in Los Angeles, that caused the first cracks between band members, and it was a close call that drummer Bill Ward wasn’t fired while recording »Cornucopia«. The band were so wasted and stoned before and during the studio sessions that it’s a flat-out miracle they ended up making such a splendid album, one that long ago earned, fair and square, its status as a heavy rock classic.
The complex opening suite »Wheels of Confusion«, rounded out by the closing instrumental section »The Straightener«, is, as its main title suggests, confusion incarnate, with Iommi’s choppy guitar phrases and Ozzy’s vocals, sounding utterly terrified from an overdose of intoxicating substances. It’s all sliced up by chaotic time changes on Ward’s drums and Geezer’s cranky bass lines, which only crank up its psychedelic-tinged ambient aura. The closing instrumental part, »The Straightener«, with its complex guitar harmonies and dynamic drum transitions, set new heavy metal standards and shows plainly why Black Sabbath were the most important pioneers of heavy metal.
The hard-hitting »Tomorrow’s Dream« is a much more direct number with a full-bodied guitar riff of the kind only Iommi could conjure up, while the grooving bass lines nicely back Ozzy’s boozy singing, in which you can make out a fair measure of mischievous glee. The biggest surprise of the whole album, though, is »Changes«, a totally atypical love ballad on which Ozzy, over gentle piano and the orchestral swell of the mellotron, shows for the first time in his career that his voice has some feel for lyrical sensitivity too, something he’d go on to show several more times in his solo career. The lyrics are about losing a loved one, which was just what had happened to drummer Ward, who was in the middle of an agonizing divorce. Thirty years later Ozzy re-released it as a vocal duet with his daughter Kelly, with slightly changed lyrics, and scored a huge hit with it. You could say it’s the first Black Sabbath piece of a gentler nature, one where the notorious singer dared to put in his usually hidden emotional side, and a sort of first herald of his later solo career. He also re-recorded it in 1993 as a solo track. Interestingly, Black Sabbath have only played »Changes« live twice so far, first on the 1973 tour and then not until 1995, with Tony Martin on vocals.
The unusual experiment »FX« is a short but still interesting avant-garde-tinged instrumental with dissonant improvising on guitar and percussion. »Supernaut« is yet another heavy rock classic, with a dynamic, bluesy main motif cut through by a mighty guitar phrase, one of the best in Iommi’s career, and broken up by merciless drum fills. Ozzy is in his classic paranoid vocal mode this time, which means he sounds like someone you really wouldn’t want to mess with. There’s also a witty Iommi solo, totally typical of this legendary guitar virtuoso. Even though Ward was battling numerous personal problems in this period, his work on drums and percussion throughout the album is simply fantastic. »Supernaut« got plenty of praise already back when it came out, including from music authorities like the legendary, sadly long-departed American composer, arranger, guitarist and singer Frank Zappa, and the equally late and legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
The previously mentioned »Snowblind« is the most beloved and recognizable Sabbath staple on »Volume 4« among heavy rock fans. It came about as a sort of answer, or counterweight, to the »Master of Reality« (1971) staple »Sweet Leaf«, on which they still celebrated soft drugs, led by marijuana. This time the band was slowly starting to grasp how deep they’d sunk into the world of deadly cocaine intoxication, after discovering the world of harder drugs in California. A mighty guitar riff tears through the air, accompanied by rolling drum transitions and a variable, melodic bass line. Iommi’s mouth-watering solo and the wild drum fills in the background are backed by the swell of the mellotron, which deepens the overall dramatic ambience even more. Ozzy’s vocals, at nervous-wreck level, mesh perfectly with the sobering lyrics about the blinding nature of white powder.
»Cornucopia«, another beloved Sabbath evergreen, with its slow, rolling rhythm and suffocatingly dark guitar phrase, is the pure prototype of doom metal. This was the track that nearly made Ward leave the band, since he simply couldn’t, or wouldn’t, play this Sabbath staple the way the other three members wanted. Given his health and emotional state at the time, that was hardly a surprise anyway, as the drumming here is quite complex and demanding, with a string of unexpected time changes. The instrumental »Laguna Sunrise« is a complete contrast: with its gentle acoustic guitar arrangements and the orchestral swell of the mellotron in the background, it’s one of the most optimistic pieces of their career, especially when it comes to its unusually uplifting ambience.
»St. Vitus Dance« is another interesting number with an almost trademark hard-hitting Sabbath motif, starring a thunderous guitar phrase, grooving bass lines and Ozzy’s animated singing, yet it keeps surprising you with twists into an almost danceable rhythm along the way. The closing, experimentally tinged suite »Under The Sun/Every Day Comes And Goes« is the full triumph of dark ‘doom & gloom’ Sabbath and in many ways yet another pioneering heavy metal staple. In the first part, the apocalyptic atmosphere is marked by Ozzy’s ominous vocal outbursts, a dark guitar phrase and broken, slow, rolling rhythms. Eventually the composition suddenly ‘speeds up’, with a witty guitar solo taking center stage. Iommi’s crafty variations especially impress, weaving through his unpredictable offering of inventive guitar phrases, which comes through loud and clear in the closing, almost epic instrumental section.
On their fourth studio outing, Black Sabbath hit a new level of maturity and cooked up yet another classic heavy rock gem that, on top of the usual ‘doom & gloom’ punch and ‘chasing the devil’s tail’ swagger, positively brims with unbridled experimentation. The infusion of orchestral elements and the first clear showing of subtler sonic touches were key to »Volume 4« enjoying its status as one of the most interesting and accomplished Sabbath albums. At this stage of their career, with drugs having nearly destroyed them as they fought their way to the top of the most respected rock bands of their time, Geezer Butler noticeably dialed down the usual dose of occultism in the lyrics and spent more time on sociological problems, which was yet another sign of the important changes then taking place in their increasingly complex musical approach.
Lineup
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar, piano, mellotron
Geezer Butler – bass guitar, mellotron
Bill Ward – drums, percussion
Production
Black Sabbath and Patrick Meehan
Track list
1. Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener
2. Tomorrow’s Dream
3. Changes
4. FX
5. Supernaut
6. Snowblind
7. Laguna Sunrise
8. Cornucopia
9. St. Vitus Dance
10. Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes
