Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Vinyl)

Black Sabbath's 5th release 1973's: SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH
While still a very worthy Sabbath album you can hear the downhill slide
begin. This wasn't evident at the time but in retrospect you can definitly
see that creatively they were losing what made them great in the first place.
SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH is the album that Tony Iommi started being more involved with the production (and cocaine use) and it shows.
This record is fairly over produced, with it's use of orchestra,synthisizers
and too many overdubs... after all these guys are Sabbath not Pink Floyd
so there is a certain aural aesthetic that the fans expect.
That expectation is stripped down, slighty muddy production, with
bludgeoning rhythms and down-tuned heavy guitar riffs that pour like
concrete not yet set.
That being said there are still several highlights to this record. The classic
title track "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", "Killing Yourself to Live" (yet another
anti-drug song), the great "A National Acrobat" and "Spiral Architect".
Then there are filler tracks: Iommi's appropriately titled "Fluff" which seems
as if we've heard it before. The "just ok" song "Sabbra Cadabra" with
Rick Wakeman on piano, and the dreadful track "Who Are You?" again
with Rick Wakeman playing an overbearing synthisizer part.
Closing the disc is the forgetable "Looking for Today".
Overall still a very good offering, and one all Sabbath fans should own,
but just a cut below their classic first 4 albums. With 4 great songs,2 OK songs, and 2 very bad songs it's still a solid purchase and addition to any hard rock collection.
-Kevin Baird