Music / Black Sabbath (album)

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Black Sabbath is the debut album by Black Sabbath, released on Friday, February 13, 1970. Widely considered the first true Heavy Metal album, it was recorded within only a 12-hour period between a few European gigs. The lyrics deal with far darker themes than their contemporaries, dealing with occultism, Satanism, and Lovecraftian horrors, and the trademark dark banjo-stringed guitar, alongside Ozzy Osbourne's vocals, made it even more radical and unique.

The album was a commercial success, having gone to number eight on the UK charts after its release. After its June 1970 release in the States, it peaked at number 23 on the Billboard charts and sold one million copies during the year that it was ranked there.

Tracklist (original European edition):

1. "Black Sabbath" (6:20)
2. "The Wizard" (4:24)
3. "Behind the Wall of Sleep" (3:37)
4. "N.I.B." (6:08)

1. "Evil Woman, Don't Play Your Games with Me"^note often shortened to just "Evil Woman", including on the original UK LP's centre label (3:25)
2. "Sleeping Village" (3:46)
3. "Warning" (10:28)

Tracklist (original North American edition):

1. "Black Sabbath" (6:20)
2. "The Wizard" (4:22)
3. "Wasp"^note intro to "Behind the Wall of Sleep"; reprised later in the song/"Behind the Wall of Sleep"/"Bassically"^note bass solo intro to "N.I.B."/"N.I.B." (9:44)

1. "Wicked World" (4:47)
2. "A Bit of Finger"^note despite its placement in the track list, there is uncertainty as to what section "A Bit of Finger" actually refers to, varying between the acoustic intro to "Sleeping Village", the instrumental section of said song, or the middle section of "Warning"/"Sleeping Village"/"Warning" (14:15)

Personnel:

• Ozzy Osbourne - vocals, harmonica
• Tony Iommi - guitar
• Geezer Butler - bass
• Bill Ward - drums

"Never troping, just keeps walking, spreading his magic":

• Alliterative Title: "Wicked World"
• Big "NO!": Ozzy's response to the figure in black telling him he's The Chosen One in the title track.
• Cover Version: "Evil Woman" was originally recorded by Crow, and "Warning" was by Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. The Sabbath renditions of both songs are now much more famous than the originals.
• Crapsack World: "Wicked World." It's right there in the title.
• Darker and Edgier: Than anything else in rock and roll at the time.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Black Sabbath sounds notably different from all of the other Ozzy-era albums, due to the quick recording process (around 12 hours in total, which was all the studio time they could afford) and Ozzy singing in a slightly more hoarse, lower register; only on "Wicked World" does he begin to sound like he would from Paranoid through Never Say Die!
• Epic Rocking: "Warning" runs 10:32, doubling as Longest Song Goes Last.
• Fading into the Next Song: Happens twice: in the first example, the drums-only fade-out of "Behind the Wall of Sleep" leads straight into the bass solo that opens "N.I.B."; in the second, the held guitar note at the end of "Sleeping Village" can still be heard for a few seconds after "Warning" starts up. In both cases, these tracks were combined into one on North American pressings and padded out with extraneous subtitles.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The title track starts this way.
• Fun with Acronyms: Subverted. "N.I.B." doesn't actually stand for anything; they came up with the title because of how drummer Bill Ward's beard looked like a pen nib. That hasn't stopped people from saying it stands for "Nativity in Black," though.
• Heavy Mithril: "The Wizard" is the Trope Maker, being a The Lord of the Rings-inspired song about a traveling wizard that helps people with his magical abilites.
• Instrumentals: "Wasp," "Bassically", most of "Sleeping Village".
• Love Redeems: "N.I.B." is about Satan finding love and turning away from his evil ways.
• Non-Appearing Title: The title track is not a Singer Namedrop. "N.I.B." doesn't appear in the song either.
• Performance Video: They made one for the title track.
• Record Producer: Roger Bain.
• Self-Titled Album: Well, duh
• Single Stanza Song: "Sleeping Village":
  "Red sun rising in the sky
  Sleeping village, cock’rel’s cry
  Soft breeze blowing in the trees
  Peace of mind, feel at ease"
• The "The" Title Confusion: The 1996 remastered CD release of the album erroneously calls the last track "The Warning".
• Title Track: "Black Sabbath"
• Trope Maker: Of Heavy Metal genre as a whole.
• Wandering Wizard: "The Wizard" is about a wizard who walks about the world, fighting off evil powers and demons with his spells. He never talks, only walks as he spreads his magic.
• Wham Episode: For rock music in general—this and Paranoid were where Heavy Metal truly started.
• Wham Line: "N.I.B." starts off sounding like the metal version of a Silly Love Song, then you get to this line:
  Look into my eyes, you'll see who I am
  My name is Lucifer, please take my hand