Black Sabbath-Sabbath, bloody sabbath, 1973

Everyone has their favorite album by an artist. As far as Sabbath goes, I have switched favorites over the years, but ultimately I think my favorite is this one although the debut and Volume 4 come very close. I think this disc is a combination of aspects of the band's previous outings. I think it has some of the eeriness of the debut, the memorable riffs of Paranoid, the fuzzy distortion of Masters of reality and the heaviness of Volume four. Yet it also sees the band being able to make very smooth pace changes and Ozzy may have been at his peak. My feeling is that this is the original line-up at their tightest. The title track comes on like a steamroller with it's heavy yet fairly simple riff and the song builds and Ozzy gets his voice going to a level he has only rarely achieved. "National Acrobat" begins with all the gloom of a week full of rainy days. On this album the band doesn't just play, but rather they seem in total control of really putting emotion to every single part of this album. My favorite track is "Spiral Architect". I realize it's not a typical track for the band. It's a little less heavy and less of the gloom and doom yet it also very much brings across the offbeat approach that was so much a part of this band's appeal to me. I also think the band sounded extremely confident and excited on this album. Unfortunately it would be one more good album in Sabotage and then things would start to turn sour for the original line-up. Still this is to me one of the best heavy metal albums of all time and very much required listening for any fan of heavy music.

***Black Sabbath week continues on Thursday with "Black Sabbath after Ozzy".