Black Sabbath, Lex

With their debut album, Black Sabbath let the world know they were here. A sound unlike anything anyone has ever heard was enough to make a massive footprint in the world of heavy metal. The opening self-titled track has a sense of dread and anxiety that builds to a crescendo of panic and distress, topped with a face melting guitar solo. A great way to set the mood for what's to come. 

When it comes to raw sound and effortless transitions, Black Sabbath (album) is unmatched. With the Prince of Darkness as your front man, Ozzy Osbourne's vocals seem to fit perfectly in a complex puzzle of heavy bass and even heavier drums. Tony Iommi's guitar riffs and solos throughout are like the magic bringing it all together. Mix in a sprinkle of harmonica solos and you got yourself one of the greatest debut albums to be released in the '70s. 

While "N.I.B." is my personal favorite song on this album, some honorable mentions are "Black Sabbath" and "The Wizard." I had a lot of fun listening to this album, as I often do. It was really nice to share the experience with others, whether or not if it was your first time hearing the album in its entirety.

Album of the Week: Black Sabbath

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WEEK 323 — April 6-12, 2025

Black Sabbath

by Black Sabbath

LISTEN:

Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Apple

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PICKED BY LEX

LEX'S COMMENTS: "I love Black Sabbath. I'm a huge fan, but I'll admit that I haven't listened to their debut album as much as I should have. My favorite Black Sabbath song ('N.I.B.') is on here, though. So I'm excited to check it out in full."

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Heavy metal, hard rock, blues rock, traditional doom metal, heavy psych

RELEASED: February 13, 1970

LENGTH: 38:10

TRACKLIST:

1. Black Sabbath
2. The Wizard
3. Behind the Wall of Sleep
4. N.I.B.
5. Evil Woman
6. Sleeping Village
7. Warning

TRACKLIST NOTES: Some tracklists (Apple, for one), combine the last three tracks into one song as a medley. I don't know what the deal is there. Some refer to "Evil Woman" as "Evil Woman, Don't Play Your Games with Me," but I'm going with the version from Wikipedia. Some also include an eighth bonus track called "Wicked World," and, as you know full well, Record Club does not fuck with bonus tracks!!!

LYRICS: Genius.com

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ARTIST DETAILS

PRONOUNS: The four original members each prefer he/him/his pronouns

ABOUT: In 2020, Ozzy Osbourne (born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948) performed in the voice cast for the critically acclaimed and commercial blockbuster children's film Trolls World Tour, voicing the role of King Thrash, the patriarch of the Rock Trolls. 52 years prior to that, he was forming the English heavy metal band of Black Sabbath with guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, and bassist Geezer Butler. They weren't known as "Black Sabbath" at first, that was decided in 1969. The lineup was not consistent over the decades either, with Tony Iommi being the only member part of every iteration of the band. Osbourne, for example, was kicked out a few times in the '70s for substance abuse concerns. He had a solo career, became a reality TV star somehow, and has reconnected with the band for albums and tours throughout the 21st century so far. There's a whole Wikipedia page detailing every member of the band over the years (and don't worry, Ice-T is on there). Black Sabbath has indicated that they will be playing their final show on July 5, 2025. No word as to whether Osbourne will be reprising his role in the Trolls film series at any point, but one can hope.

DISCOGRAPHY: Black Sabbath is Black Sabbath's first of nineteen studio LPs. They released their first five albums (this, plus Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) in a four-year period. The most recent album is 2013's 13. No plans to release any new music recently, but you never know.

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: an archived interview feature from 1972

WATCHING SOME SHIT: title track played live in 1970 Paris

RECORD CLUB CONNECTIONS: So... in Trolls World Tour, there are two other Record Club alumni in the main cast. George Clinton of Funkadelic is the patriarch of the Funk Trolls, and Kelly Clarkson is the mayor of the Country Trolls. The Funk Troll matriarch Mary J. Blige has appeared on tracks by the Roots and OutKast's Big Boi, and Beyoncé has featured on one of Blige's songs. Rachel Bloom plays Ozzy Osbourne's daughter in Trolls World Tour, and sings "Crazy Train"; the movie dropped on streaming nine days after her Crazy Ex-Girlfriend songwriting partner and Tinted Windows member Adam Schlesinger died of COVID. (Non-Trolls quickie: Osbourne's actual daughter, Kelly Osbourne, is currently dating and has a child with Slipknot member DJ Sid Wilson.) Poppy a.k.a. Anna Kendrick also stars in Pitch Perfect, which featured renditions of "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson, "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus, and "No Diggity," which was featured on Virginia Coalition's OK to Go. Branch a.k.a. Justin Timberlake performed at the Super Bowl the first time that the Philadelphia Eagles won the big game (obviously not as good as the performer for the Eagles' second win, Kendrick Lamar); Justin Timberlake also cheated on RC alumna Britney Spears. Biggie a.k.a. the unspeakable terrible James Corden had a recurring skit on his late show called "Carpool Karaoke" that featured an obscene number of RC alumni. One of those was No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, whose Troll character DJ Suki I should note does NOT appear in Trolls World Tour. Tresillo the Reggaeton Troll a.k.a. J Balvin appeared on Cardi B's #1 hit "I Like It" with Bad Bunny. Prince D the Funk Troll a.k.a. Anderson .Paak appeared on Cordae's The Lost Boy. Hickory, the Yodeling Troll faking as a Country Troll, a.k.a. Sam Rockwell, won an Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards for his supporting role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the same year that Sufjan Stevens was nominated for his Call Me by Your Name song, "Mystery of Love." Zooey Deschanel a.k.a. Bridget, the Queen of the Bergens, is in She & Him with M. Ward, who is in Monsters of Folk with Jim James. By the way, RuPaul has a role in Trolls Band Together, but I don't really like writing about the Trolls series, so let's just leave it at that. OH, and Ozzy Osbourne was featured on Hollywood's Bleeding by Post Malone! Too distracted by the Trolls joke to give you an actual answer for this space!!!

MENTIONS ON THE BLOG: Black Sabbath's third LP, Master of Reality, got the Year of Blind Spots treatment three years ago, featuring a rare use of a gif by ol' JMK. Other than that, there haven't been any Black Sabbath tunes on PoYB, but a couple Ozzy songs made the cut—Pat chose "Crazy Train" for SSC Day 11, and Sara chose a wild Jessica Simpson duet for YSC Day 172. Finally, I am very sorry, but I reviewed Trolls World Tour for the blog.

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OTHER ALBUMS TO CHECK OUT

LAST WEEK'S ALBUM: Long Lost by Lord Huron, and make sure to check out the reviews if you wanna see what we thought of it!

RC@5: We're relistening to the Record Club album we featured exactly five years ago this week. The RC album for this week in 2020 was You Know I'm Not Going Anywhere by the Districts.

SHADOW RECORD CLUB: Each week, I'm exploring a genre of last week's album by listening to one of that genre's top-rated albums. Last week's Long Lost was an Americana album. We're listening this week to Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris.

NEXT WEEK'S RC ALBUM: In case you need some extra time with an album to write a review for it, you can get a head start on it's Franky baby! by Young Franco!

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!