Black Sabbath Songs Ranked
Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by the English rock band Black Sabbath. It was released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom by Vertigo Records and on 1 June 1970 in the United States by Warner Bros. Records. The album is widely regarded as the first album in the heavy metal genre. Additionally, the opening track, the self-titled “Black Sabbath”, has been referred to as the first doom metal song. Upon release, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts and number 23 on the US Billboard 200. It was included in Robert Dimery’s book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Black Sabbath‘s music and lyrics were quite dark for the time. The opening track is based almost entirely on a tritone interval played at a slow tempo on the electric guitar. Here are all of the Black Sabbath songs ranked.
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7. Sleeping Village
“A wonderful, beautiful, doomed slow-paced, at first, but coming strong after, track, with ones of the strongest riffs and most well played in the whole album, the instrumentals are highly pushing themselves toward, and you feel internally to such power, that’s Doom Metal. Drum is joyful, guitar is playful, the bit of vocals on it exhilerating too. Nirvana, nirvana, nirvana.”
6. Wicked World
“That picture sleeve seems out of place for Sabbath…”Wicked World” is an overlooked gem from the band’s self titled debut, and the mini jam that opens the song is awesome, not to mention Iommi’s 15 second solo in the middle…”
5. Warning
“Psychedelic, influenced by Jimi and co, a little beauty, with typical but modified blues rock instrumentals, the heartbreaker, the vocals, the lyrics, a love departure track and how hard it is to depart from the one you love and depend on, this is a hard listen, but it’s worth all the seconds you’d give to it, it’s your Black Sabbath piece of music on love, to its own uniqueness and point of view, and what a final to terminate, one of the most, if not the most revolutionary album in the whole rock music genre. All the little riffs on it are sugar, and all the little details on it are precious.”
See more: Black Sabbath Albums Ranked
4. Behind the Wall of Sleep
“More abrasive than the two others that came before, embracing a sound that bands like Taste and Them had, a bit Bluesy, not like The Wizard, the vocals on this are fresh, but come out as abrasive as the instrumentals that grinch your skins, without losing any of its chill, of its own cool, without losing anything at all that makes Black Sabbath, such a godlike entity of a band. Melodic, cathartic,transforming your body into a zombie by this flower of audiovisuals, still quite comedic, but more serious than the last one, the transition is even more clear here than on The Wizard, the melody is stronger, but it stays Rock, heavily drifted.Nonetheless it’s a track that you can’t die without listening to it, if you do, then you would have lived a life without the holy grail. Ozzy is orgasmic, Ozzy is passionate, Ozzy is Ozzy”
3. The Wizard
“Bluesy track, funny track, every part of instrumentalization is a great souvenir that Black Sabbath started as a band as a Blues rock band. You recognize the Blues Rock common sound but then it slowly change and then come back and then change to Black Sabbath own sounds, lyrically speaking of witches while the instrumentalization is sarcastically backing it up, but also doesn’t forget the bit of horror into the comedy. It’s an unique piece of jouvence that nobody before was able to do and that no one will ever do. It’s the transition of Black Sabbath of its Blues roots to its Doom nature.”
See more: Black Sabbath Songs Ranked
2. Black Sabbath
“Revolutionary, necessary, blunt, ruthless, raw. The heavy guitar riffs that started Doom Metal, Iommi’s riffs penetrate in me a place where nothing else can, i worship it, my body is trembling on it, my mind idolizes it, fantasizes about it, i think that perfection is not a thing but when i listen to the riffs on this, the drum and bass, my mind closed up and i start to think that perfection might be a thing. Ozzy vocals, i fangirl over, so unique, and tangible. Fitting, a word in itself has never been that much fitting.”
1. N.I.B.
“More personal, while Black Sabbath is infact, i think, again a track about Ozzy’s drug addiction which he represents as the grim reaper, as Satan, he is desperate to get ride of his crack, puffing addiction. On this track he is talking about it, but instead of doing subtly with wit like on Black Sabbath, he is doing it straight in your face, he represents Satan with envy and says that the only thing he loves and that love him back is his drug addiction, talking about his downfall toward his addiction, and asking for help. The instrumentalization is representive of the tragic and helpless situation he is in, and yeah, the riffs and the instrumentalization on this track is breathtaking, it’s ironic, it’s so powerful, it’s assassinating.”