{"id":13026,"date":"1972-09-25T00:00:32","date_gmt":"1972-09-25T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=13026"},"modified":"2013-07-20T11:31:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T11:31:54","slug":"album-review-black-sabbath-black-sabbath-vol-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-black-sabbath-black-sabbath-vol-4\/","title":{"rendered":"BLACK SABBATH – Black Sabbath Vol. 4 (1972) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BLACK SABBATH
Black Sabbath Vol. 4<\/strong><\/span>
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\nVertigo (1972)<\/span>
Rating: 9.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Album number four comes thick and fast off the tails of Master Of Reality<\/em><\/a>, but surely Black Sabbath<\/a> can\u2019t live up to the magic of that heavyweight classic? Well, they can. Vol. 4<\/em> boasts another classic cover, seemingly more rock \u2019n\u2019 roll than sinister, and yet this opus boasts some of Sabbath\u2019s heaviest stuff, as Sabbath themselves take over the production duties from Rodger Bain, who twiddled the knobs on the first three records.<\/p>\n

This time around the band find themselves in their darkest corner, drug-induced up to the eyeballs with cocaine spilling from the speakers, and yet still the four-piece plough on, churning out another set of astonishing tunes.<\/p>\n

Album opener is the dirty dirge known as \u2018Wheels Of Confusion\u2019, the sort of track that seems to suggest the band are wallowing in their own self-pity, a world now riddled with booze, blues and drugs. Even so, the riff, despite lumbering along, is once again killer, with Bill Ward, although at the end of his tether, is rattling away as if his habits depended on it. For some, the track is too self-indulgent, an eight-minute rambler that incorporates what has become known as \u2018The Straightener\u2019 and it\u2019s the sort of jam one would expect for an album closer rather than the opener.<\/p>\n

Track two is the bubbling \u2018Tomorrow\u2019s Dream\u2019, a heavy blues-laced chuggernaut that once again features another Tony Iommi riff sent down from the gods, while Geezer Butler adds further weight to matters. Such is the darkness now that smothers the Sabs sound, that Ozzy Osbourne seems almost intoxicated by the grey haze of fumes. Strangely, \u2018Tomorrow\u2019s Dream\u2019 was released as a single but not surprisingly failed to chart, especially when one considers that the B-side was the baffling instrumental \u2018Laguna Sunrise\u2019, which also features on the album.<\/p>\n

\u2018Laguna Sunrise\u2019 is another of those wistful Sabbath moments to break up the doom, and sits alongside the weirder spook-fest that is \u2018FX\u2019, an instrumental that sounds more like a message from space rather than a piece of music.<\/p>\n

However, weirdness aside, Black Sabbath really shines on the momentous \u2018Snowblind\u2019. If ever there was a drug anthem it\u2019s this, Ozzy\u2019s vocals drowning in a sea of powder as Iommi\u2019s riffs fill the ears with star-dust and Ward\u2019s drums dance with the fairies.<\/p>\n

\u2018Snowblind\u2019 is Black Sabbath at their most epic, but for me the strongest segments of the record has to be a certain trio of tracks which includes \u2018Cornucopia\u2019, an absolute metal mammoth of a track that lumbers with the grace of an aged ogre. The second of the terrible trio is the merriment that is \u2018St. Vitus Dance\u2019, an upbeat rocker featuring some of Iommi\u2019s best work. But the almost joyous structure of the tune is contradicted by the track which I still believe is Sabbath\u2019s heaviest of all time \u2013 the doom sludge that is \u2018Under The Sun \/ Every Day Comes And Goes\u2019, a truly punishing number in which Ozzy barks, \u201cI don\u2019t want no teacher telling me about the god in the sky\u201d<\/em>; his cries suffocated by Iommi\u2019s well-soiled riff.<\/p>\n

Strangely, despite my obsession with these three tracks, Vol. 4<\/em> will probably be best remembered for the ballad that is \u2018Changes\u2019, which Ozzy would bring back to life several decades later in a duet with daughter Kelly. The message in 2003 was revised, the track being a wistful hit despite originally being written about love lost. Despite the irritating track it\u2019s become, \u2018Changes\u2019, in its original form, is a beautiful song, led merely by piano and Ozzy\u2019s grief-stricken twang.<\/p>\n

Vol. 4<\/em> may not be the Black Sabbath album that everyone talks about, but it\u2019s another vital cog in the wheel of a band that at the time, despite their habits, could seemingly do no wrong.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLACK SABBATHBlack Sabbath Vol. 4 Vertigo (1972)Rating: 9.5\/10 Album number four comes thick and fast off the tails of Master Of Reality, but surely Black Sabbath can\u2019t live up to the magic of that heavyweight classic? Well, they can. Vol. 4 boasts another classic cover, seemingly more rock \u2019n\u2019 roll than sinister, and yet this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-sabbath"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13026"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13075,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13026\/revisions\/13075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}