Recently via a brief introductory video, Black Sabbath revealed 27 seconds of a new song and the artwork for their long-awaited new album featuring their original lineup (minus Bill Ward, plus Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine). Finding the video rather disappointing, I was discussing it with a friend and she commented that most of Sabbath’s artwork was utter crap, with the exception being Heaven and Hell‘s smoking angels (which isn’t even from the Ozzy era). I thought, “That can’t be true,” and set off to reexamine the situation.
Recently via a brief introductory video, Black Sabbath revealed 27 seconds of a new song and the artwork for their long-awaited new album featuring their original lineup (minus Bill Ward, plus Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine). Finding the video rather disappointing, I was discussing it with a friend and she commented that most of Sabbath’s artwork was utter crap, with the exception being Heaven and Hell‘s smoking angels (which isn’t even from the Ozzy era). I thought, “That can’t be true,” and set off to reexamine the situation. It only seemed fair (and easier, because I am lazy, so fuck you) to review just the Ozzy era covers, since the new album (sort of) reunites that era’s lineup. And I won’t be looking at greatest hits, live albums, reunion albums, or bootlegs (though some of those are fuckin’ sweet). Just the original studio albums.
Let’s roll the clock back to 1970. I want to imagine what sort of visual accompaniment groups in the hard rock realm were putting out. The Guess Who’s American Woman featured the typical “dudes peering out” front cover. Owing to the album’s title, they were placed in the silhouette of a woman’s face. Alice Cooper released Easy Action, which had a similar theme, but their backs were facing out, seemingly from a window. Possibly a parody of the “dudes facing out” cliche. Sabbath would repeat a similar atrocity later (see Sabotage, below). Other notable album covers were Deep Purple’s In Rock (egotistical bullshit) and Uriah Heep’s Very ‘Eavy Very ‘Umble (kinda grotesque). This was the context in which Black Sabbath appeared.
My first impression of Black Sabbath’s self titled debut is that it looks ominous and foreboding. A sense of dread subtly becomes apparent. Even for it’s time, it looks lo-fi and run down. Released orignally in a gatefold sleeve, the inside of which contained an upside down cross and a poem (“Still Falls The Rain”-Unknown Author), this inner sleeve was added without the band’s knowledge, and not used on the US version. Nonetheless, it’s fitting, since the album starts with rain, thunder, and church bells, before THE RIFF causes your entire reality to crumble. A total package of sight and sound.
Ignoring the fact that Paranoid is the absolute best goddamn album ever made, the cover looks like a Monty Python joke about a holy artifact. A lone bloke highlighted with vaguely neon colors in LARP (Live Action Role Playing) gear is dashing through a dark blue hued forest? Even if the titled was changed from War Pigs behind the member’s backs (or Walpurgis, as revealed in the liner notes to the Reunion live album), the cover is still nonsensical. There is a cognitive dissonance between the visual representation and the life-altering aural orgasm in the grooves of the record.
Their third album, Master of Reality, possesses a black background with the band name and album title emblazoned across the entire cover. Could it possibly be an attempt to avoid the record label tampering with the artwork, as was done on the two previous records? Eh, who knows? I do think the font and rad purple color is indicative of the album’s prevailing drug endorsement. Other than that, it is simple and utilitarian. Maybe this was the way to go.
With Vol 4 it appears as if they had a theme going. Keep it cheap, simple and useful. Other than insinuating that it’s a live album with its silhouette of Ozzy in front of a mic giving the piece sign, it is possibly the only Sabbath cover art besides Paranoid and the self-titled album that seems to suggest what’s inside. It promises The Undeniable Groove™ that the best bands have, some psychedelic weirdness (“FX” anyone?), amazing riffs, and… a piano ballad? Huh? Nonetheless, you know what you are in for.
Oh baby, let’s put Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on and settle down for some sinful and depraved sexual liaisons courtesy of the premier satanic hard rock group……what’s that? Not satanic? Only one sexy song, you say? Um, ok. Well, at least the art is pretty cool looking, even though I got the lotion out for nothing.
I have to ask this: with Sabotage, were they even trying? I think I seen the same clothes in a thrift store being shat on by someone’s grandmother for never getting her laid in the first place. Just no. At least the album spawned some fantastic music. [Wait, but what about the fact that the mirror shows their faces instead of their backs? How does that work? I’ve been puzzling over that one for 24 years… -ed.]
Let’s do it. Let’s look at Technical Ecstasy. Ugh! This is why file-sharing was invented–because bands stopped trying. They should’ve left the experimental sci-fi art to lesser bands. It appears to be a human-shaped egg pile, with a plate neck, spewing a black stream onto a skyscraper that is returning fire with green projectile vomit, while they both go opposite directions on adjacent escalators. Yeah. It looks as stupid as you do right now.
Finally on to the last Black Sabbath album featuring the original lineup: Never Say Die. And it is crap. It is a completely relevant example of a band falling apart in every way. And that’s just from looking at the fucking thing. This was the breaking point. It looks as if they just picked a random image from a magazine (D.A.M.N.-Douchebag Aviator Monthly News?) that was being read in a doctor’s office while waiting for Ozzy to get his limited talent removed for his upcoming solo career [Turtle’s opinions about at least Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman are his own and do not reflect the editorial position of RVA Magazine-ed].
Whew! It’s been a tough journey, one that’s left us with a mixed bag. But before it concludes, I should probably look at the art for the new album again. Let’s load this video up… Come the fuck on! 13? Really? Did they actually pay someone to build a large “13” out of flammable materials (Bill Ward’s beard from the ‘70’s?), light it on fire, and photograph it? Did Brad Wilk get to flick his Bic? I think I’d almost excuse it if I found out the label just strong-armed them into this. Or if they had increasing drug habits to support and went cheap again, but I’m sure their dinosaur blood wouldn’t allow that level of debauchery. We can all hope that after this, they’ll get yet another singer and start using bad ass fucking art again like Heaven and Hell or Dehumanizer or TYR or The Eternal Idol. One can only hope.
Black Sabbath’s 13 comes out June 11 on Vertigo Records. It can be pre-ordered from blacksabbath.com.
