SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH

On Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, they tried to expand their style a bit further. They even decided to try out some progressive moog doodling from mr Wakeman, who puts in a fine performances here by the way (take it from a non-fan!) They also tried to diversify their song writing into something more polished and mature. That certainly charmed the progressive rock audiences but even though it works really well on some songs, the attempts to broaden the sound can not mask that things were going downhill for Sabbath.

Especially Ozzy has lost something for me, he's sure singing very passionately and he looks fresh and crisp like a schoolboy on the back cover but he has this very winy tone in this voice here, it's no longer the human incarnation of the hoofed Prince Of Darkness but rather resembling the sound of a goat that you stepped on the tail.

Anyway, the first two tracks together with Sabra Cadabra and Killing Yourself are excellent, the rest of the album gets painful at times. Especially the vocals on Looking for Today and Spiral Architect are very mediocre, not to say cringe worthy. Too far fetched for Ozzy's possibilities. Even Wakeman's nice mellotron parts can't hide that.

My conclusion is that Sabbath should be applauded for the ambition and the drive to go forward and explore other lands. But it doesn't sound like they felt very good at easy there. The most effective songs are the simplest ones again.

Besides, some band pictures reveal that Iommi had cut his hair and his moustache during this period. That sounds like a serious identity crisis to me! 3.5 stars.