Review:

on 2011-02-22 CharlesMartel Said:

This was the album that saved Black Sabbath, in my opinion. Recorded at the reputedly haunted but very secluded Clearwater Castle on the Welsh bank of the Severn River in Gloucestershire, the album marked a significant musical departure in two major ways, both of which were to have a significant impact on Black Sabbath and heavy metal for the future.

First of all, the band discovered synthesisers on this album and used them to great effect. Up until this point, Black Sabbath had been a guitar-bass, guitar overdub band, a format which had severe limitations. Once they added synthesisers, they found they were still able to make swirling, moody, almost depressive songs, still possessing that heavy metal theme, but played with more depth than just standing there and thrashing the hell out of guitars. The use of synthesisers marked a departure from the industrial sound of their first four albums. It also brought them closer to the prog rock which was becoming more prominent in rock circles. In that sense the album heralded the start of the prog-metal sub-genre (more about that later).

Most importantly, this album benefited from a more sophisticated production than its predecessors. Gone were the sounds recorded in an aircraft hangar, or songs recorded and produced with everything louder than everything else. Potentially, it could have lost some of the edge as a result, but the title track proves that the band had not lost their heavy metal credentials with a startling riff which still stirs the soul today.

Yet the big link to prog rock was the accession of Yes ivory-tinkler Rick Wakeman to the contributors to the album. He appears on keyboards and this was something of a surprise. The High Priest of pompous prog rock dirges on a heavy metal album!! No wonder the difference in style between this album and its predecessors was so marked. I am not sure who was more shocked - the quasi Neanderthals who drubbed around in unwashed clothes in basements smashing their heads against walls to the strains of "Paranoid", or the pseuds who felt that thinking "Tales from Topographic Oceans" was a work of musical genius, an understanding of which gave them access to a higher plane of consciousness than ordinary mortals. Either way, the Opeths and the Tools of this world owe a huge debt to Ricky-boy for it was he who opened up their world to the potential for dribbling on about hobbits and dragons.

"Spiral Architect" is perhaps the stand out track simply because it is so different from anything Sabbath did before. Who Are You was also an interesting departure. It was written by Ozzy (a rarity at the time) and seems to pre-date the early eighties synthesiser pop of Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, though I doubt either would admit to Black Sabbath as an influence. For me, the most interesting thing about it is the apparent absence of the mainstay of the Sabbath sound - the guitar driven riff.

Nevertheless, the album and the change in style it brought enabled Black Sabbath to keep going. Had it not been for this album I am not sure if Black Sabbath would have survived into the eighties. "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was a one-off for Black Sabbath never repeated it, but it did show the world the potential they had to create something different, and the lingering effects of it enabled them to stay the course into and beyond the coming onslaught of punk rock a few years later.
Rating: 7/10