Tolling belles, autumnal rain, thunder: it’s a set-up for a horror movie screenplay, and that’s what Black Sabbath delivered with “Black Sabbath,” the long-winded title track from their eponymous 1970 debut. Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals were pitched in the key of hysteria as he enacted a shuddersome scenario of demonism. The music brought the nascent genre of heavy metal to new places, thanks largely to guitarist Tommy Iommi, whose thudding style may have resulted from the loss of two fingertips in an industrial accident.
The earliest Black Sabbath albums have been reissued in Deluxe Editions, their release timed to the band’s promised “final tour.” The albums have been remastered to brilliant clarity and the packages contain second discs of bonus material. Of interest on the debut album’s bonus disc is the non-LP single “Evil Woman,” a cover of a minor hit by the Minneapolis band Crow.
Coming hard after the first album, Paranoid (1970) was filled with doleful heaviosity as well as a pair of standout tracks. The title cut roared at full-tilt like a fore-glimpse of punk rock as Ozzy captured the lyric’s adolescent anxiety and depression. “Iron Man” boasted one of the oddest guitar riffs in rock, suggesting Gilbert and Sullivan had they surfaced in a 1970s rock band rather than in 1870s operetta.
With Master of Reality (1971), Black Sabbath continued on the arc of downer rock with behemoth rhythms and riffs. The opening song, “Sweet Leaf,” was a stoner’s anthem; such titles as “After Forever,” “Children of the Grave” and “Into the Void” carried on with the horror show motifs. Each Black Sabbath reissue includes a booklet with informative, capturing-the-times essays and photographs.
