Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Black Sabbath
Label: Vertigo Records
Release: 1975
Running time: 43:44
Rating: 5/5
In the mid-seventies, Black Sabbath were at their creative and commercial peak, with everything still climbing steadily upward artistically, and they turned out most of the best work of their career. »Sabotage« was their sixth studio album, recorded again on home English soil after a failed attempt to make it in America, where the old-school ambience of Morgan Studios played a big part in its character and structure. This time the band had a crystal-clear vision of where they wanted to go sonically: with »Sabotage« they wanted to pull away from the prog-rock leanings of their excellent predecessor »Sabbath Bloody Sabbath« (1973) by pumping in a bigger dose of punch.
According to Iommi, they could have kept developing the technical side through extensive use of orchestration, but first and foremost they wanted to make a harder, more rocking album. True, they didn’t use a guest keyboardist on »Sabotage«, but despite the clearly rawer nature of the individual tracks, there’s no shortage of symphonic arrangements and experimental moments, since this time absolutely everyone in the band tried their hand at keys. The notorious singer Ozzy Osbourne messed around with a synthesizer, which is hard enough to picture, the great guitar innovator Tony Iommi took another stab at organ, synth and piano, bass wizard Geezer Butler found himself on that ‘typical’ prog rock instrument, the mellotron, and even drummer Bill Ward ‘played’ piano on the 31-second hidden track »Blow On a Jug«, which sits at the end of »The Writ«.
»Sabotage« sails smoothly the whole way between hard-hitting standards like »Hole In the Sky« and »Symptom of The Universe« and softer, more experimental achievements led by »Supertzar« and »Am I Going Insane (Radio)«, which is a kind of logical stylistic continuation of the previous album. That direction paid off richly for Black Sabbath in every respect, as »Sabotage« ranks among the best achievements of their long career.
The weird, comical cover is the fruit of a bizarre fashion disaster that went down during the photo shoot, and it clearly shows why plenty of so-called music critics, who cared more about outward image than musical substance, didn’t take them seriously even back then. Bill Ward stands out most of all in his wife’s red leggings and Ozzy’s underpants, worn to better hide his manly ‘bulge’, while almost equally hilarious are Ozzy in a kimono, looking like a Western European gay man in the middle of Tokyo, and Geezer with a walking stick and trousers down to his heels. Iommi in a white shirt and jeans came off as by far the most ‘normal’. Of course, all four were draped in big crosses, which only boosted the occult aura that had followed Black Sabbath since their beginnings. And yes, the occult mood is not missing from some of the songs this time either, while Geezer’s lyrics once again touch on mystical visions, schizophrenia and social injustices, in other words the almost characteristic heavy metal themes.
The album is stuffed with plenty of moments where the band outdo themselves in experimentation and innovation. The opening classic »Hole in the Sky« is a revolutionary, top-league heavy metal crusher, where Iommi’s guitar riff slices through the air like a red-hot knife, while Ozzy screams as if hundreds of bats were chewing on his backside. For all the punch, which Ward’s densely scattered drum fills contribute to massively, there’s still just the right amount of rhythmic subtlety thanks to Geezer’s melodic bass lines. Plenty of younger generations first got to know this classic only through Metallica’s cover, which is certainly better than never. After the opening cataclysm comes a sudden switch into the under-a-minute »Don’t Start (Too Late)«, a slightly pastoral piece with interesting acoustic guitar finesse. The heavy rock classic »Symptom of the Universe« is surely the hardest-hitting track of the whole Ozzy era, and with its openly brutal guitar riff and staccato rhythm it was a key influence on the development of so-called thrash metal. Ozzy, always up for all sorts of shenanigans, is once again bursting with pent-up rage. Geezer’s lyrics are about his dreams of the creator and the birth of the universe, and they also include some mythological references. The punchy opening section is followed by a calmer, acoustic-leaning second part that eventually brings things into much subtler waters.
The almost ten-minute »Megalomania« is one of the most experimental and also most complex achievements of their career, with Ozzy in the vocal role of a total schizophrenic, which fits the title and lyrics of this composition perfectly, and which, despite skillfully woven-in acoustic finesse and symphonic arrangements, repeatedly turns into brutal chaos with a full-fat guitar riff and a rumbling rhythm. That goes especially for its mellotron-spiced finale. »Thrill Of It All« is blessed with a punchy, innovative guitar riff and the classic Sabbath ‘doom & gloom’ rolling, slow rhythm, which makes it a thoroughly representative piece that nails the band’s dark aura. The transition into the instrumental section, with lively bursts of synth textures, is brilliantly done. The lyrics, as is so often the case with the ‘blasphemer’ Geezer, contain plenty of references that are unpleasant for the religious-minded.
The mystical-pompous »Supertzar«, which sounds like a soundtrack for a film take on Dante’s Inferno and Purgatory, is likewise one of the strangest experiments of their career, with epic choral vocal harmonies and orchestral arrangements by producer and arranger Will Malone, through which Iommi’s irritated guitar phrases wander. This esoteric-tinged piece with its exceptional atmosphere proves once more that the band liked to reach beyond the expected heavy rock framework.
No less interesting is »Am I Going Insane (Radio)«, which was a sort of overture to Ozzy’s solo career and catches the unpredictable singer in his most schizoid phase, with his paranoid vocal fitting the lyrics about madness perfectly, over an escalating rhythm and red-hot guitar passages. Hearing the crazed laughter at the end, it’s really not hard to picture Ozzy in a straitjacket in the middle of a padded room. The closing experimental treat »The Writ« opens with a rattling bass line that gets pierced by a sudden explosion of heavy guitar riff and Ozzy’s vengeful-sounding singing. The atmosphere is again exceptionally intense, while the lyrics float between occultism and social critique. Here they allow themselves a number of restrained but interesting instrumental inserts, with pleasant acoustic guitar finesse and gentle layering of synth textures. The short hidden bonus track »Blow On a Jug« is pure tomfoolery by Ozzy and Bill, most likely added in the studio after some serious boozing.
»Sabotage« is a heavy rock masterpiece with a strong experimental streak, and one more gorgeous document of the golden age of musical innovation, when Black Sabbath were standing at the peak of their creative powers. Sadly, in the following years Ozzy’s problems with intoxicating substances slowly began to take their toll on their creative process and live shows, and the end of classic Black Sabbath was not far off.
Lineup
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals, synthesizer
Tony Iommi – guitar, piano, synthesizer, organ
Terry “Geezer” Butler – bass, mellotron
Bill Ward – drums, piano on “Blow On A Jug”
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Will Malone – arrangements for English chamber choir
Production
Black Sabbath and Mike Butcher
Track list
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
