#355 Black Sabbath, 'Black Sabbath' (1970)

Previously #243

With the release of this record, the Heavy Metal genre was born by former blues musicians and hippies. Opening with the sounds of rain and ominous tolling of a bell, the eponymous ‘Black Sabbath’ is widely regarded the first ever Doom Metal song. I just love Ozzy Osbourne’s cries and pleas of “Oh no! Please God help me,” before the tempo change and Tony Iommi’s guitar solo. This album was remarkably recorded in one 12-hour stint, the band essentially recording live with Ozzy separated in a vocal booth. Iommi has sad that most of the songs were first takes.

In his later years, Ozzy Osbourne portrayed himself as a bit of a bumbling cartoon character, thanks to ‘The Osbournes’ on MTV, and due to that, it’s easy to forget what a great vocalist he actually is. Tony Iommi’s heavy sound on this record (and subsequently) was due to the fact that he lost the tips of two of his fingers in a factory accident. He used the plastic from a shampoo bottle to create thimbles to protect his injured fingers. He strung his guitar with lighter gauge banjo strings and tuned the strings down three semitones to allow him to bend the strings properly. All this combined created the heavy guitar sound that he’s known for.

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