Album Thoughts: Black Sabbath 13

My first album thoughts post.  I suppose this is going to be a kind of "History of the band and I", then "track by track listening", and then "final summations".  Let's see how it goes.

First up, a little personal history with Sabbath, yea?  I mean, I'm not a magazine "journalist" or anything.  If you're reading this, I suppose you're a friend of mine.  So let's do this.  Sabbath is on my short list of all time favorite bands, and for sure the 70's era Sabbath is my favorite metal band of all time.  As of today, when you hear me play "metal" on my guitars, you probably hear more of Toni Iommi in my playing than anyone else.  Slow, pounding riffs interspersed with a tempo change, and maybe a solo.  I would have to say that in my own playing, "Into the Void" is tied with Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" for biggest inspiration.  My favor of the Gibson SG has just as much to do with my favor of Iommi as my favor of Angus.

I have to add a note here, and this will become important as you read my Album Thoughts, I listened to the Spotify version.  Come to find out, the Spotify version lists a selection of "bonus" tracks that aren't a part of the initial album release.  So my tracklist looks as follows:

1. "End of the Beginning"
2. "God Is Dead?"  
3. "Loner"  
4. "Zeitgeist"  
5. "Age of Reason"  
6. "Live Forever"  
7. "Damaged Soul"  
8. "Dear Father
9. "Methademic"  
10. "Peace of Mind"  
11. "Pariah"
*12.   "Dirty Women(live)"
*previous Black Sabbath song from older album

My first listen through, I could not help but hear earlier songs in the songs as I listened to them.  End of the Beginning has a strong semblance to the original song "Black Sabbath", Zeithgeist takes very clear inspiration from "Planet Caravan".  Is this bad?  Well the first parts of the album are not going to be any game changing songs for me, but you know what?  It sounds like Black Sabbath.  Probably my favorite part of the first 4 songs is "Give me the wine, you keep the bread".  At first it sounds like something a drunk would say, but remember that wine is also blood in the Christian communion.  That's classic Sabbath lyrical content right there.  End of the Beginning and God is Dead get a lot of promotion, which I think is sad because its the least interesting songs of the album. The next 4 tracks get away from this "We gotta sound like Black Sabbath" formula stuff.  Age of Reason is probably my favorite of these 4 tracks.  Its epic and varied.  Live Forever is musically sound, and well done, but I dislike the lyrics to the song and so its a killer for me.  Damage Soul reminds me of the earlier tracks of this album, but with the lyric style of the last few.  A pass for me.

So if you're connecting the dots here, this is not looking good for the album.  I was thinking the same thing, in fact that's where I stopped listening to it the first day.  I had other stuff to do.  The next day I was out smoking my pipe and decided to lug my tablet outside to listen to the rest while I smoked.  I re-listened to Damaged Soul just in case I had listening fatigue yesterday mess with my thoughts.  My thoughts pretty much staged the same.

Then.  It happened.

Dear Father started.  This... ok this sounds listenable... no wait, this is AWESOME.  FINALLY a song I think I will listen to more than once... probably alot.  If you look at the title and think we've gotten some Ozzy solo bleed over, some kind and sad song, you are mistaken.  This is a song about a priest living with the conscience of a sexual predator.  Probably 30 years too late to being "edgy", but the lyrics do hit home without beating around the bush.  No subtleness here, "you left my life in ruins", "you knew just what you were doing".  The riff is AWESOME.



And here is what I found out this morning as I sat down to write this.  This was the last track in the initial release.  WHAT?  You're telling me that if I bought the album as it was, I would get this great song and be left with no where to go? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Luckily we have 3 more tracks.

Methedemic.  It starts out all acoustic, and I let doubt creep in my mind.  Then, we get this fast tempo Sabbath song.  Not the typical Sabbath that the public thinks it is... and... and holy crap, did Geezer Butler wake up?  I think this might be the first time in the album I've heard him stand apart from Iommi.  Well Butler getting into it must have woke Iommi up too.  Let's see if this ride continues

Peace of Mind.  The next song starts out like a Sabbath song, like maybe it's going to be more "we need to sound like us"... for about 2 seconds, then the riff kicks in.  YES!  THIS IS A NEW SABBATH SONG.  This is fresh like their stuff in Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but without SOUNDING like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, is that confusing?  It doesn't sound "derivative" of their old stuff like End of the Beginning, it sounds like "new" Sabbath during their best.  Geezer is playing all over the place in a good way, Iommi is keeping up while not stepping on his toes.

Pariah.  A song about cults with Geezer and Iommi sped up.  Another quick playing song like Methademic and its good.  Geezer is nuts on this song too.  Where the hell was he in the first half of the album.. Wait, did I say first half?



How about the whole "real" album.  How did these "bonus" songs not get put on the album?  They are easily the best.  Look, I have owned albums by these guys outside of Sabbath.  Iommi's self titled was amazing, he had so many fresh and new ideas in it.  The whole initial 8 song release(until #8) I wondered where that Toni was.  Hell, Geezer is one of the best bassists of all time, and I forgot he existed while listening to the first parts of the album.  I was really worried, and the reason I stopped listening on track 7 yesterday is because I thought to myself "are there any songs you'll be re-listening to?" and I had to answer "no"  Then Dear Father kicked in, and the band showed up.  I have to wonder if the first tracks were some of the earlier recordings, and the last bit of the album was when they got serious about releasing it?  I can only speculate.

I've listened to Peace of Mind 3x during writing this and reading news this morning.  That wins as my pick of the album.  If this is the last of the new stuff from Sabbath, I feel like they did great.  I complain a bit about the beginning of the album, but really, there is nothing grossly rejectable.  By the end, the band shows why they are the Godfathers of Metal.