Black Sabbath: Sabotage [RHINO/WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This reissue puts Sabotage on remastered 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. It's the album where Sabbath pushed their heaviness into new shapes, and "Symptom of the Universe" is often cited as one of the earliest blueprints for thrash metal.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Most bands make records to get away from their troubles. Black Sabbath made Sabotage in the middle of theirs, cutting it at Morgan Studios in Willesden in 1975 while a legal fight with their former manager raged on around them. Bill Ward later called it the album made with lawyers in the studio, Ozzy Osbourne remembered writs turning up at the mixing desk, and Tony Iommi credited the whole mess for the album's angry, heavier sound.

Iommi co-produced with Mike Butcher, working late into the night on guitar tones while Ward chased backwards cymbal effects. "Hole in the Sky" kicks the door in, "Symptom of the Universe" moves from a riff like a pile driver to an acoustic jam that grew out of a single day of improvising, and "Don't Start (Too Late)" is a brief acoustic showpiece named for a tape operator who could never get the machines rolling fast enough. "Supertzar" brings in the English Chamber Choir, "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" leans toward pop, and the closing "The Writ" carries a rare Osbourne lyric aimed squarely at the music business.

Mojo called it one of their finest offerings, and it still sits among the best loved records of the original lineup. When Ozzy first walked in and saw the choir, he assumed he was in the wrong studio and left, which is perhaps the most polite thing anyone did during those sessions.

Also at Kops: more Black Sabbath on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Warner Bros. / Rhino (cat# 2822), a reissue of the 1975 album.