The gears and cogs of Sabbath churn ever slower and slower on this ear-splitting grind-out as Ozzy is singing lyrics liberated from reason, proclaiming innocence as illusion as the circular trudge does nothing but continue. From the opening notes of “Wheels Of Confusion” that begin the album with the most deeply mind-rotting, drugged-out and nowhere riff EVER, total mental oblivion is guaranteed. On “Vol 4” Sabbath’s sound remained heavy as ever but like all their previous albums, the instrumentation would once more get re-shuffled in importance: Here the mix would be predominated by Tony Iommi’s guitar, measurably reducing in turn Geezer Butler’s bass lines while Bill Ward’s playing was a much harder profusion of drums and a welter of flying cymbals and Ozzy’s vocals raged within the crossfire. Fuck: they even christened their publishing company “Rollerjoint Music” while the lyrics reflected this shift in their abstract, addled simplicity that reeked of pharmaceutical and narcotic overexposure under the burning haze of LA skies. hangs over it probably as much as their cocaine connections did (who were rather transparently thanked on the album’s credits) as the band got into a head/spaced/zone like never before. The Record Plant, Los Angeles was the site of recording, and the influence of L.A. Not only would it be their last album on Vertigo and the last to speak so directly of monochromatic, nighttime-death-sky-compassion-big release head trips, “Vol 4” was also the first album Sabbath self-produced (co-joined by Patrick Meehan), as well as their first recorded outside of England.
4” caps off Sabbath’s initial flush which ran uninterrupted through their first four albums. You have to remember too, Dio was coming from Rainbow when he joined Sabbath, so he already had somewhat of a non-metalhead audience that he brought with him from there.“Vol. Granted their debut and Master of Reality are a bit higher, but I don't think it is by a margin that suggests that they have vastly more appeal.
That's not really any surprise given how much airplay Iron Man, Paranoid, and War Pigs. In very general terms of how widespread their appeal was, I think a fair metric to measure such a thing would be how well the albums have performed overall, and when looking at that, Paranoid is the only one that really blows the doors off of Heaven and Hell. Dio-era albums, using that sharpter 80s metal sound really only appeal to metalheads. Stylistically, old Ozzy-era Sabbath appeals a lot to general rocks fans, whether they're psychedelics or grungers or hard rockers or whatever. There is that, but it's also a matter of style. 13 was very precise and too quantized for me. I don’t care much for 13 because I miss Ward’s swing and the way he pushes and pulls within the songs. I can say Ward may very well be my all time favorite drummer. I prefer the Ozzy era for the groundbreaking powerhouse it was. I feel Sabbath needs Geezer’s lyrics and low end thump. Guys like Appice and Powell were definitely better fits when things needed to be more straight ahead and click-track like. Ward was like the conductor or band leader pushing and pulling against Iommi and Geezer. It pains me to say it, but the stylistic shift wasn’t suited for Ward’s drumming in my opinion. Not every song is my cup of tea, but there are great gems to be found through the non-Ozzy catalog.įor the Dio era, I’m a Mob Rules guy. I was definitely an Ozzy-era only guy for a long time until reading Iommi’s book and gave all the non-Ozzy albums an honest, open minded re-listen. I struggled with the abrupt stylistic change for many years.
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