Ozzy Osbourne on “the last truly great” Black Sabbath album
At the dawn of the 1970s, no one was prepared for what Black Sabbath had to offer. After going through years of flower power and the golden age of psychedelia, the riffs of Tony Iommi signalled the new guard in rock and roll, featuring staggeringly heavy music that struck fear into the hearts of millions around the world. Although Ozzy Osbourne was more than happy to be the emotional translator for bassist Geezer Butler’s lyrics, he was not meant to be the band’s voice forever.
Before the band had even started, there was some question about whether Osbourne would be part of the band at all. When putting together the group’s first lineup, Iommi was initially hesitant to take on Osbourne behind the microphone, remembering how much he had picked on him when they had gone to school together.
Informed by the factory sounds and horror movies they were accustomed to in their native Birmingham, Osbourne had the distinctive wail that the band sought, singing songs with a blues-infused inflexion on tracks like ‘NIB’ and ‘The Wizard’. Though the band were happy to play hard rock for the rest of their lives, Iommi’s riffs would become the progenitors of metal, with Osbourne becoming the ultimate crazed frontman alongside him.
As the band moved beyond their blues roots, albums like Master of Reality saw them dip their toes into stoner rock, featuring Iommi tuning his guitar down to unheard-of levels. By the time the band reached Vol. 4, they wanted to go beyond their traditional lineup, featuring different keyboards on their records alongside the heavy guitars.
While many fans may have felt cheated by the band’s switch to a new sound, that didn’t mean their heaviness would stop. Across Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Iommi dove into the darkest sides of his soul to create riffs, including the biting title track and the demonic blues of ‘Sabbra Cadabra’.
Even though Osbourne would stick around for the following few albums, he would consider the band’s fifth record to be the last time they were happy, recalling in I Am Ozzy, “[It was] our last truly great album, I think. And with the music we’d managed to strike just the right balance between our old heaviness and our new, ‘experimental’ side”.
For the next few years, though, Osbourne would find himself increasingly out of step with the rest of the band. Although the group rallied together for the album Sabotage in response to their record company woes, Osbourne was sinking deep into his cocaine addiction, even being featured on the side of the stage at gigs while Iommi stood in the spotlight.
After struggling through both Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die, Osbourne would be shown the door, with the band drafting in Ronnie James Dio for the next phase of their career on Heaven and Hell. Then again, Osbourne wasn’t about to roll over, either, drafting Randy Rhoads on guitar and launching his solo career with Blizzard of Ozz.
While Sabbath would have many great songs after Osbourne’s departure, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath feels like an apex. After pioneering the sounds of heavy metal, the band created a mission statement on experimenting with the genre while staying true to what made them heavy.
