Staying the heavy rock course and influencing rock and roll as we know it across their first six albums, Black Sabbath pulled off a monumental feat. Black Sabbath Vol. 4, their aptly titled fourth studio album, is a continuation of those thrills. The Ozzy Osbourne-fronted group had not been received too well on their debut, not critically, but hindsight is everything. You can trace back even the worst of modern-day rock and roll developments to what Black Sabbath were doing. But this is where you can hear Black Sabbath feeding in the influences of those they had influenced. Every genre is cyclical. Someone will come along and shake things up, it’s up to the contemporaries of the time to adapt and explore that, to dare and push a little further. Black Sabbath Vol. 4 is all about doing that, the focus being not on the volatility of the sound but the impressive depths the band can create.
Case in point, Wheels of Confusion. It’s a song which still gives that credible Osbourne energy a showcase, and the wailing thrills of Tony Iommi on guitar are impressive, but it feels softer. There is room for menace and meaningful commentaries by the band, who had offered as much in the past, but with more of a punk, counter-culture edge. Here, the mix is better, a sleeker sound is reached, and that’s no bad thing. Black Sabbath Vol. 4 certainly benefits from the sharper recording quality and the stylish confidence found throughout. This is not the barrage of sound which brought out the best of the band on Paranoid, but a rather considered, slowed piece of ever-adapting rock. A piano-led track is not what listeners would expect from the band, but it’s what they get with Changes. A true great from Osbourne and the band here, not just because of the tenderness that acts as such an immense contrast to the rest of the band’s work, but because the writing is so delicate, the piano a tear-jerking success.
That’s not to say the band are just making ballads to redefine their sound. Some of their very best heavy metal, rock and roll sound can be found here. Supernaut and Snowblind play with a slower tempo but have all the heart and messiness of those self-titled album spoils. Delicate moments like Laguna Sunrise are more than just the band proving they can make that calmer sound, it actually suits them, too. Every band needs to break from the heaviness, the bolder tones and shapes only work as well if you can master the softer, stripped-back sound. Black Sabbath Vol. 4 is a shock to the system, the complete inverse of what many heavy metal fans would say the band stands for. This is an album filled with a hopefulness which would regress and dissipate as Osbourne and the group worked their way towards the 1980s.
Black Sabbath Vol. 4 holds some indefinable magic within it. Some all-time great songs from the band that come very close to rivalling the sound of Paranoid. Even a song like St. Vitus Dance, which could very easily have been that formidable rock and roll sound Black Sabbath were best known for at the time of this album’s release, is passed over. Instead, that flourish of instrumental beauty, that suggestion of lighter appeal is present. It isn’t about watering down the band’s sound but bringing them to the tip of a new evolution. That’s what happens here, and it sounds incredible. Under the Sun brings in that heavier guitar tone so many fans will have clamoured for, but the revolution to Black Sabbath’s sound is clear to hear, and it marks one of their best albums.
