The classic rock album that Slash called “pure evil”
Rock and roll has never been designed for the faint of heart. For every great rock and roll outfit that excites anyone who listens to it, there will always be the few that strike fear in the hearts of casual listeners, looking to intimidate anyone who stands in their way through the sheer power of their music. Although Guns N’ Roses were already signalling a change towards more brutal territory in the 1980s, Slash thought that one album captured the essence of musical evil.
Before Slash had even picked up a guitar, he was already drawn to slightly off-colour songs than most other rock acts. In an era when The Beatles reigned supreme, Slash was always known to gravitate to The Rolling Stones, loving the sounds of Keith Richards’ guitar on tracks like ‘Satisfaction’.
Permanently indebted to the blues, many of Slash’s early songs would be him working out the traditional 12-bar configuration as only he knows how. By the time he heard Aerosmith for the first time, though, he knew that there was something else that could be done with blues than just straight progressions, possessing a swagger in their attitude that no one else could touch.
Whereas Aerosmith might have got Slash’s foot in the door in his early years, another aggressive form of music was bubbling up from underneath the English rock scene. Compared to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Cream, which were taking rock in bold new directions, Black Sabbath was on the verge of creating heavy metal from the start of their debut album.
While Tony Iommi could still string together different blues-infused chords with a solid groove behind it, the sounds of their namesake track offered something different for the average listener. Using the dreaded tritone, Iommi created riffs that sent shivers down the back of everyone who listened.
Despite being one of the darkest forms of rock that the 1970s had to offer, Slash couldn’t quite turn away from Sabbath. Looking back on his formative years, Slash would hold Sabbath in high regard, thinking that it was one of the most dangerous-sounding rock music that he had heard since he started.
Discussing Sabbath’s legacy, Slash would say that there was something truly demented about how Iommi played the guitar, telling Music Radar, “This was another very eventful record for me, Sabbath’s debut album. In my opinion, there is no more ominous rock ‘n’ roll record than this one. I don’t care what band you come up with. Black Sabbath’s first album tops them all. On every level. It’s the sound of pure evil”.
Although Slash would have a tuneful bent to his guitar playing, the badass swagger of a song like ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ or ‘Rocket Queen’ does have the same kind of bite Iommi would have recognised in an instant. Slash might have his unique voice on the instrument, but any band that nicknames themselves ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Band’ is always going to be living in the shadow of what Black Sabbath had already built.
