The British pioneers of heavy metal, BLACK SABBATH, have never been more relevant than now; on July 5th, 2025, the world witnessed these legends reconciling for their final performance at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham – the town where it all began in 1968 – and the massive list of guests read like a genuine A-list of “Who’s Who in Heavy Metal.” Then, two weeks later, the one and only Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, passed away, and I don’t think I’ve ever been moved by a celebrity death like this since Freddie Mercury died in 1991. Ozzy wasn’t just a heavy-metal vocalist – in fact, he wasn’t even much of a vocalist in terms of technical prowess or range. He was an icon, and the first major-league band he fronted, BLACK SABBATH, weren’t just a band, either. They were a monolith. The band’s rise to the pantheon of elder gods of heavy metal had not always been easy, though. Their sixth studio album, “Sabotage,” released on July 28th, 1975, via Vertigo, for example, was recorded in the middle of a legal battle with the band’s former manager, who, according to the band, had excelled mostly in sabotaging and ripping off the band. Drummer Bill Ward later dubbed the album the only one in their catalog that was made with lawyers in the studio. Guitarist Tony Iommi has since credited these legal troubles for the album’s heavier and somewhat angrier sound. On this album, as per the zeitgeist of the mid-1970s, the band wasn’t afraid to experiment with all sorts of quirky studio gimmicks. Thus, “Sabotage” has been dubbed one of the band’s most eccentric efforts, in retrospect. While it’s true that this album doesn’t seem to have received just as much love from the fans as, say, “Paranoid” (1970) or “Master of Reality” (1971), it still boasts quite a few top-tier BLACK SABBATH bangers.
The album kicks off with somewhat LED ZEPPELIN-esque riffs in the intro of “Hole in the Sky.” These vibes dissolve almost immediately when Ozzy Osbourne starts singing those trademark nonsensical lyrics. His vocal delivery is every bit of that characteristically frenetic variety which he became famous for. Ward‘s drumming is as energetic as ever, and bassist Geezer Butler lays down that familiar BLACK SABBATH groove. So, it’s a bit strange that this opener is one of the most underappreciated songs from those “first magical six albums.” The abrupt ending is a bit jarring, but otherwise the song slaps just as hard as those earlier classics.
The short, instrumental showpiece for Iommi‘s prowess with the acoustic guitar, “Don’t Start (Too Late),” leads into the album’s biggest track, “Symptom of the Universe,” which has since conquered a well-deserved place in the pantheon of timeless BLACK SABBATH classics. The song’s main riff has been cited as one of the earliest precursors of thrash metal, which is no small feat! This is 1975 we’re talking about, after all, and thrash metal did not become the defining sound of heavy metal until 1983. This is such a unique song, overall, what with all the banging riffs and the sweet-scented hippie-folk jam at the end. Not many metal bands would pull this type of a 360-degree turn, from proto-thrash to Simon & Garfunkel, over the course of a single song, not even in this day and age when we have all sorts of avant-garde freak shows around.
The sonic explorations do not stop there. “The Thrill of It All” flirts with thick stoner-doomish vibes even, and “Megalomania” rolls out one of the grooviest Iommi riffs ever, adorned with Ozzy‘s frantic, heavily processed vocals – and epic Mellotron chords toward the end of the song. Maybe I’ve heard “Paranoid” way too many times, but revisiting this song after a long while almost makes my inner prog nerd feel compelled to dub it superior to that gargantuan classic on all counts – riffs, vocals, solos, general atmosphere. Maybe, if the first half of the song were not such a slow-burning, lysergic fever dream, this song would get more love from the fans and garden variety Top-40 normies across the board.
The absolute most eccentric song on this album is neither of these, though, but the weird mixture of choral music, courtesy of the English Chamber Choir, and those signature Iommi riffs in “Supertzar.” For me, this song sounds almost like a haunting precursor of “The Prophet Song” by QUEEN, from their blockbuster album “A Night at the Opera,” which came out later in 1975. Both of these songs pick up the traditional notion of rock vocals and shove it in the shredder. Juxtaposed against the weirdness of this song, the follow-up track, “Am I Going Insane? (Radio),” sounds nowhere nearly as insane as its title would suggest. Sandwiched between pure aural madness and the slithering riffs of the closer, this Sabbathian take on insanity feels almost like a filler.
The Ozzy-penned rarity, “The Writ,” closes the album with a savage diatribe directed at the band’s shady manager – hence the lyrics, “Are you Satan? Are you man?” The music comes off almost like a cross between heavy metal and glam rock, the latter of which was the talk of the town at the time. I guess this is the closest you can get if you ever wondered what it would sound like if Ozzy covered a David Bowie song. The coda resonates with the thick air of PINK FLOYD‘s “Brain Damage,” which had come out a couple of years earlier, and in my ears, it sounds pretty cool, actually.
While “Sabotage” did lack the groundbreaking originality of some of the band’s previous albums, tracks such as “Symptom of the Universe” and “Megalomania” were remarkable leaps forward compared to the band’s earlier work. Apart from “Symptom of the Universe,” you might not hear these album tracks too often at your local heavy-metal disco, but they do provide enough earworm content for even the most seasoned heavy-metal connoisseurs. Plus, despite the album cover having been voted as one of the worst album covers ever in the history of rock, “Sabotage” was the last of the first six BLACK SABBATH albums that are considered untouchable classics by most. Now, as the grand magus has performed his last magic trick, I guess we’ll be listening to these timeless classics for the next couple of weeks, non-stop.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Hole in the Sky
- Don’t Start (Too Late)
- Symptom of the Universe
- Megalomania
- The Thrill of It All
- Supertzar
- Am I Going Insane? (Radio)
- The Writ
Lineup
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitars, piano, synthesizers, organ, harp
Geezer Butler – bass
Bill Ward – drums, percussion, piano
Label
Vertigo
Links
https://www.facebook.com/BlackSabbath
