Tony Iommi picks the best Black Sabbath albums
Black Sabbath are the world’s most influential and crucial heavy metal band. Their doomy sound reflected the working class’s frustrations, opening the door for other artists to follow in their footsteps. That being said, it would be naïve to suggest that everything has always been smooth sailing for them. The band was plagued with problems surrounding creativity, fall-outs and drugs. This led to some albums being favoured more than others.
When Iommi looks back on the records, he criticises the likes of Master of Reality, saying: “We started getting more experimental and began taking too much time to record. Ultimately, I think it really confused us.”
He also notes on Mob Rules that “We were all going through a lot of problems at that time, most of it related to drugs. Even the producer, Martin Birch, was having drug problems, and it hurt the sound of that record. Once that happens to your producer, you’re really screwed”.
The band wouldn’t be the success they were without hits, though, and whilst some of the albums Black Sabbath may look upon negatively are liked by some fans, there are others that both listeners and creators can agree are timeless. Tony Iommi was asked to reflect on his favourite Sabbath records, and some are a bit more surprising than others.
Friend of Hades, evil guitar genius, what does he consider superior?
Tony Iommi’s favourite Black Sabbath albums:
Black Sabbath
Like the public, the band were massive fans of the album Black Sabbath. It kickstarted everything for them and saw them on the path to rock domination. It was a haphazard job, but it led to an established sound and even helped Tony realise his favourite guitar.
“Money was really scarce in those days,” he said, “so the whole album was recorded in eight hours on an eight-track machine at Regent Sound in London. We were so pleased to have been given the chance to make a record that the whole experience seemed very luxurious… For that album, I used my Gibson SG – the same one I used for the next ten years – and either a Laney or Marshall cabinet. We didn’t even have time to work on getting sounds – we just set up mics in front of the cabinets and went off.”
Paranoid
That same year, with an established fan base and more money backing them, the band had the chance to record Paranoid. They were the same people who recorded the debut but had time and money which could be put into the creative process. The outcome is one of the most crisp-sounding Sabbath records available today.
“I think the reason this record turned out so well was that we had a long time to work out all the material. We were playing seven 45-minute sets each day in a dusty old club in Switzerland… rehearsing like that for six weeks really tightened us up. It also enabled us to experiment more because we really only had enough songs for one set each day – certainly not seven.”
That experimentation was good in the short term but hindered the band in the long run. Albums like Master of Reality, Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath became confused, to the point tensions in the band started forming, and inevitable splits came. When Ozzy left the band, a barrage of singers came after him, and while everyone could pull their weight, it never achieved that original Sabbath sound.
Dehumanizer
The first singer to join after Ozzy was Ronnie James Dio on the album Heaven and Hell. “Ronnie was very excited about joining the band, but I think it was difficult for him to fill Ozzy’s shoes.” The result was a lacklustre album that didn’t prick up the ears of many Black Sabbath fans. Dio ended up leaving the band in 1982.
A decade later, he came back on board in a tense first meeting. “Getting back together with Ronnie James Dio was a little rough in the beginning – there were all kinds of egos bouncing around. We had been separated for ten years, and it took us a long time to get to know each other again.”
Iommi was adamant with the ’92 album Dehumanizer that he wanted to return to the old Black Sabbath style. “We decided to make a very heavy Black Sabbath record that had a real natural sound and a ton of doomy riffs.” The result is a chaotic and low-rumbling record that fans are still playing to this day. It falls under the radar sometimes but comes very close to that original Sabbath sound and is incredibly exciting to listen to.
“It has a raunchy sound,” said Iommi, “something I think has been missing from Sabbath over the last few years. This is very much a classic Black Sabbath record. In fact, I didn’t expect it to come out quite this good.”
