| Sabbath Bloody Sabbath | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Black Sabbath | ||||
| Released | 1 December 1973 | |||
| Recorded | September 1973 at Morgan Studios (Studio 4), London | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 42:35 | |||
| Label | World Wide Artists Vertigo Warner Bros. (US/Canada) |
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| Producer | Black Sabbath | |||
| Black Sabbath chronology | ||||
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the fifth studio album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in December 1973. With this album, the band expanded upon their slow, crunching style of music by strings, keyboards and more complex orchestral arrangements.
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Following the 1972–1973 world tour in support of their Volume 4 album, Black Sabbath again returned to Los Angeles, California to begin work on its successor. Pleased with Volume 4, the band sought to recreate the recording atmosphere, and returned to the Record Plant Studios with new producer and engineer Tom Allom. Although the album credits the band's manager Patrick Meehan as producer, guitarist Tony Iommi said "Meehan's ego got involved, and he stuck his name down as producer".[1] With new musical innovations of the era, the band were surprised to find the room they had used previously at the Record Plant was replaced by a "giant synthesizer". The band rented a house in Bel Air and began writing in the summer of 1973, but due in part to substance issues and fatigue, were unable to complete any songs. "Ideas weren't coming out the way they were on Volume 4 and we really got discontent" Iommi said. "Everybody was sitting there waiting for me to come up with something. I just couldn't think of anything. And if I didn't come up with anything, nobody would do anything."[1]
After a month in Los Angeles with no results, the band opted to return to the UK, where they rented Clearwell Castle in The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. "We rehearsed in the dungeons and it was really creepy but it had some atmosphere, it conjured up things, and stuff started coming out again".[2] While working in the dungeon, Iommi stumbled onto the main riff of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", which set the tone for the new material.[3]
Recording was completed at Morgan Studios in Willesden, North London in 1973. Keyboardist Rick Wakeman of the band Yes (who was recording Tales from Topographic Oceans with Yes in the next studio) was brought in as a session player, appearing on "Sabbra Cadabra".[4]
Building off the stylistic changes introduced on Volume 4, new songs incorporated synthesizers, strings, keyboards and more complex arrangements. In particular, "Sabbra Cadabra" and "Who Are You?" utilise a Moog synthesizer, a common instrument in progressive rock at the time. Lyrics of some songs on the album were written about problems within the band at the time.
"Killing Yourself to Live" was written by bassist Geezer Butler while in hospital for kidney problems caused by heavy drinking. Drummer Bill Ward was also suffering from binge drinking, and the song reflects the problems caused by their "extreme" lifestyles. An earlier incarnation of the song can be heard on the records Live at Last and Past Lives.
Drew Struzan was the artist requested to do the cover painting, under the direction of Ernie Cefalu. It depicts a man on a bed, seemingly having a nightmare or a vision of being attacked by demons in human form. At the top of the bed is a large skull with long, outstretched arms and 666 (the Number of the Beast) written below it. The other side of the album features the opposite of the front cover, as shown here. Inside the gatefold sleeve there is a photo of the band members shown over a photo of a bedroom.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [5] |
| Rolling Stone | [6] |
Black Sabbath released Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on 1 December 1973. For the first time in their career, the band began to receive favourable reviews in the mainstream press, with Rolling Stone calling the album "an extraordinarily gripping affair", and "nothing less than a complete success".[7] Later reviewers such as All Music's Eduardo Rivadavia cite the album as "a masterpiece, essential to any heavy metal collection", while also displaying "a newfound sense of finesse and maturity".[5] The album marked the band's fifth consecutive platinum selling album in the United States. It reached number four on the UK charts[8], and number eleven in the US.[9]
In the UK, it was the first Black Sabbath album to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in February 1975.
The band began a world tour in January 1974, which culminated at the California Jam festival in Ontario, California on 6 April 1974. Attracting over 200,000 fans, Black Sabbath appeared alongside such '70s rock giants as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Deep Purple, Earth, Wind & Fire and The Eagles. Portions of the show were telecast on ABC Television in the US, exposing the band to a wider American audience.
| Side 1 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" | 5:45 | |||||||
| 2. | "A National Acrobat" | 6:16 | |||||||
| 3. | "Fluff" (instrumental) | 4:11 | |||||||
| 4. | "Sabbra Cadabra" | 5:59 | |||||||
| Side 2 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Killing Yourself to Live *" | 5:41 | |||||||
| 2. | "Who Are You?" | 4:11 | |||||||
| 3. | "Looking for Today" | 5:06 | |||||||
| 4. | "Spiral Architect" | 5:29 | |||||||
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RIAA certification[10] (United States)
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BPI certification[11] (United Kingdom)
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CRIA certification[12] (Canada)
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| Book: Black Sabbath | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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