Heavy metal had to start somewhere. And while there are plenty of groups who could claim to have played a role in its birthing, none could claim a bigger chunk of the credit than Black Sabbath. Droning, ominous, impossibly heavy, frequently aggressive and enshrouded in a sense of foreboding, Black Sabbath cut a starkly original figure when they debuted in 1970, a musical vision which seemed to drag into the light the dark underbelly of everything which came before it.
Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward shook the music world with bone-shattering riffs and twisted visions of the dark corners of the human soul – and then proceeded to live the very vision they laid out of discord and dissolution and regeneration, moving from their fertile early period through one metamorphosis after another until their brief and heralded reunion several years ago, and now beyond it.
Black Sabbath have never been hitmakers, and both their latter-day dysfunction and Osbourne’s clownish turn as an MTV reality star have contributed to the partial eclipse of their significance to rock history. But the fact remains that they were among the very first bands to define the boundaries of the music we have known since as heavy metal, and for that contribution alone they merit a place as The Daily Vault’s July Artist Of The Month.
The original quarter of Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward made eight albums, in the process authoring the immortal metal anthem “Iron Man” and setting the early standard for the genre they helped to invent. Discord over the band’s direction eventually led to Osbourne ‘s departure for a solo career, whereupon the remaining trio brought in Ronnie James Dio of Rainbow fame and experienced a resurgence with 1980’s well-received Heaven And Hell album.
Within two years the new lineup had begun to splinter, though, and other than a brief reunion of the original quartet for 1985’s Live Aid concert, over the course of the 80s and 90s Sabbath largely became a vehicle for guitarist Iommi and a rotating cast of British rock royalty. Said cast at various times included two different Deep Purple lead vocalists (first Ian Gillan, then later Glenn Hughes), big-name drummers Vinnie Appice, Cozy Powell and Bev Bevan, and a variety of other players who came and went as Iommi played dial-a-band.
Eventually Osbourne, Butler and Ward were persuaded to reunite with Iommi for several tours between 1997 and 2001, though that eventually disintegrated as well, leading Iommi and Dio to reassemble the Heaven And Hell-era lineup, this time naming the band after the album rather than continuing to use the Sabbath name. Whether the original quartet will ever reunite again remains to be seen, but heavy metal aficionados will never stop wondering.
Beginning on July 3, and running every weekday through the remainder of the month, The Daily Vault will publish reviews spanning the entire nearly 40-year career of Black Sabbath including every studio album the group has issued to date, as well as a smattering of live releases and collections.
Founded in January 1997, the Daily Vault has featured more than 6,000 reviews of more than 2,800 artists from all across the musical spectrum, written by a volunteer staff from around the world. Previous Artist Of The Month retrospectives have spotlighted the work of artists from Tori Amos to Frank Zappa, including the Beatles, Depeche Mode, Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Yes and many others. Themed retrospectives have included punk, hip-hop, classic soul, classic jazz, Broadway musicals, Christian Contemporary Music, live albums and modern prog.
