(Originally published in Spring 2009)
-Lester Bangs
Take yourself back to the year 1970. Okay, maybe you weren’t alive in 1970, neither was I, but do your best to imagine the state of popular music in ’70. If the words “heavy metal” had any significance to you it would have been in the form of some vague concept of heavy blues-rock that centered around the likes of Cream and Led Zeppelin (who’s first album had come out only a year before). The heaviest thing on record to date would have been Blue Cheer’s Vincebus Eruptum. This is a classic album and a milestone in the evolution of heavy music but the guys were still covering blues and rockabilly standards, they were from San Francisco, and their band was named after a brand of LSD. That’s just not very metal.
So take yourself back to this time, a time before Cannibal Corpse covered their albums with gruesome images of… well cannibalistic corpses, when Jim Morrison was still one of the darkest and most threatening rock icons. You walk into a record store on Friday the 13th of February look on the shelf. You see something strange before you… a new record, the cover is an eerily hand colored photograph of a dilapidated English millhouse (let me remind you that this would have been a 12” vinyl record, not some puny cd). In the foreground, framed by a shattered tree trunk and dying foliage is a hauntingly incongruous figure. A man with long black hair stands waiting, erect and still, clothed entirely in black with a cloak that hangs to the ground, his skin has a sickening pallor that seems almost yellow in contrast to the deep reds of his autumnal surroundings. The cover reads simply “Black Sabbath”. Many questions spring to mind: who is this strange figure in black? Why is he hovering so ominously over this pastoral scene? What eldritch horrors await me should I choose to proceed? Spurred on by that same dark force lurking in the depths of human consciousness that tempts us to sin and perversity you decide to proceed. You buy the record. Let the Sabbath begin.
Rain on cobblestones. A church bell. Distant peals of thunder, coming ominously closer… Then at about 40 seconds into the first track, a riff… heavy, slow, ominous, forebodeing… a tritone perhaps… the devil in music. Then eventually, a voice. Not a pleasant or melodic voice, but harsh and menacing, slowly chanting something that sounds like a demonic invocation. This is the man called Ozzy.
What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quick, and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one
Oh nooo!
Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan's sitting there, he's smiling
Watches those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please God help me!
(The song increases to a pace that seems frantic compared its lumbering first five minutes, as Ozzy runs terrified from the figure in black. You know you’ve come to far to turn back now)
Is it the end, my friend?
Satan's coming 'round the bend
People running 'cause they're scared
The people better go and beware!
No, no, please, no!
They’ve built it up, and now they hit you in the fact with it. The next track opens with the heavyset use of harmonica in existence soon followed by thunderous guitar riffs whose rhythmic simplicity only lends power to the pounding force of their driving assault. The song, entitled simply “The Wizard” has been supposed by many to be about a drug dealer, but no! What’s way more metal than drugs? Gandalf! Before Zep ever came out with “The Battle of Evermore” Sabbath had already written a song about Lord of The Rings (although if you want to get picky, “Ramble On” predates “The Wizard” and contains a reference to Gollum).
Though not quite as compelling as the classic first two tracks “Behind The Wall of Sleep” is a solid romp in classic Sabbath territory with plenty of heavy riffs and a title inspired by the works of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.
The sweet bass solo simply entitled “Bassically” on some releases of the album leads immediately into the song N.I.B. A heartfelt love song sung from the point of view of… you guessed it… Satan!
Now I have you with me under my power/our love grows stronger with every hour/look into my eyes, you’ll see who I am/my name is Lucifer please take my hand
The central riff is the song’s main driving force, as if often the case with Sabbath songs. In fact, you may be noticing at this point that my praise of each song is something along the lines of “it has a really badass riff”. This logic is one of the strongest arguments both for and against Sabbath. It’s all about the riffs, sure the other parts of the band are great and very important to their sound, but on a certain level they’re just icing on the cake.
Now I have you with me under my power/our love grows stronger with every hour/look into my eyes, you’ll see who I am/my name is Lucifer please take my hand
The central riff is the song’s main driving force, as if often the case with Sabbath songs. In fact, you may be noticing at this point that my praise of each song is something along the lines of “it has a really badass riff”. This logic is one of the strongest arguments both for and against Sabbath. It’s all about the riffs, sure the other parts of the band are great and very important to their sound, but on a certain level they’re just icing on the cake.
(At this point in my ramblings I choose to stop talking about the album, you can go listen to side two by yourself and for your own damn opinion. I will continue to ramble about Sabbath in general however.)
Maybe if I knew enough about music theory I could explain what makes Sabbath riffs so sweet, but what it essentially what it really comes down to is whether you get it or not. If you don’t get it you’re just not a Sabbath fan. Someone once told me that you couldn’t write riffs anymore because Sabbath wrote them all already, this may be an somewhat of an exaggeration but they sure as hell already wrote most of the really fucking sweet ones. This is a scene that has doubtless taken place thousands of times all across the planet: were sitting around jamming or just fucking around with a guitar and someone says to their friend “hey that’s a really sweet riff” the friend says “yeah I just made it up”, he takes a little extra time to figure it out and plays it a couple times, another friend looks up and says “dude that’s just a Sabbath song”.
So, for those of us who bow before the black altar of RIFF, N.I.B. is pure heaven, or maybe hell is more appropriate. When I say some people don’t get it, I don’t mean to say that those people are missing something. I suppose it would be more appropriate to say that those people don’t “dig” it. Those people are just on a completely different wavelength than Sabbath fans, one can’t really call them wrong without making some sort of claim about being able to objectively judge something that’s clearly subjective. Of course everyone has slightly different musical taste, but there is a great dichotomy among music lovers over the appreciation of heavy music. By somehow inserting themselves into the “indie” (pardon my language) consciousness some heavy metal bands like them Melvins have brought people in contact with heavy music who would probably not have encountered it otherwise, or at least never given it a serious listen. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that Black Sabbath isn’t for everyone, but if it is for you and you just haven’t given it a careful (or maybe just loud) listen yet; you’re in for one hell of a treat.
In a sense the best way to sum up Black Sabbath is that they fucking rock. Many other band’s music is not conducive to this type of logic. For example if I were trying to impart you with a love of the Velvet Underground or Neu! I might have to use a more complex line of reasoning, as though I was describing a remarkable work of art, but Sabbath is more akin to world shattering behemoth of cosmic might lumbering through the void with towards earth with colossal reality shaking steps. I am your hierophant to this unholy god of metal, this titan of iron and steel. I am the herald of the Black Sabbath…
-Adrian Oei
Maybe if I knew enough about music theory I could explain what makes Sabbath riffs so sweet, but what it essentially what it really comes down to is whether you get it or not. If you don’t get it you’re just not a Sabbath fan. Someone once told me that you couldn’t write riffs anymore because Sabbath wrote them all already, this may be an somewhat of an exaggeration but they sure as hell already wrote most of the really fucking sweet ones. This is a scene that has doubtless taken place thousands of times all across the planet: were sitting around jamming or just fucking around with a guitar and someone says to their friend “hey that’s a really sweet riff” the friend says “yeah I just made it up”, he takes a little extra time to figure it out and plays it a couple times, another friend looks up and says “dude that’s just a Sabbath song”.
So, for those of us who bow before the black altar of RIFF, N.I.B. is pure heaven, or maybe hell is more appropriate. When I say some people don’t get it, I don’t mean to say that those people are missing something. I suppose it would be more appropriate to say that those people don’t “dig” it. Those people are just on a completely different wavelength than Sabbath fans, one can’t really call them wrong without making some sort of claim about being able to objectively judge something that’s clearly subjective. Of course everyone has slightly different musical taste, but there is a great dichotomy among music lovers over the appreciation of heavy music. By somehow inserting themselves into the “indie” (pardon my language) consciousness some heavy metal bands like them Melvins have brought people in contact with heavy music who would probably not have encountered it otherwise, or at least never given it a serious listen. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that Black Sabbath isn’t for everyone, but if it is for you and you just haven’t given it a careful (or maybe just loud) listen yet; you’re in for one hell of a treat.
In a sense the best way to sum up Black Sabbath is that they fucking rock. Many other band’s music is not conducive to this type of logic. For example if I were trying to impart you with a love of the Velvet Underground or Neu! I might have to use a more complex line of reasoning, as though I was describing a remarkable work of art, but Sabbath is more akin to world shattering behemoth of cosmic might lumbering through the void with towards earth with colossal reality shaking steps. I am your hierophant to this unholy god of metal, this titan of iron and steel. I am the herald of the Black Sabbath…
-Adrian Oei
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