Ace Audio: "Black Sabbath" - Black Sabbath

Opinions change overtime. Some people can look back on something they said and consider it a moment in their life that they were being stupid. That is the problem with doing these reviews as well as my opinion may change and something will cease to be an Ace Audio or an Auditory Abomination. Something that was at first hated by many, can soon become one of the best things in that particular medium. The Nostalgia Critic did a video about when critics are wrong, and you should definitely check it out before you read this blog. [Link]

Bands that are some of the biggest names in the world started off as bands that were panned by critics, such as AC/DC, The Sex Pistols and even Led Zeppelin didn't get the best reviews when they released their first albums, and although AC/DC tops my list of bands that critics got wrong initially, Black Sabbath is definitely my second pick.

Now, when I talk about changing opinions, I have to ask one very simple question: Why was this song, and album for that matter, critically panned and a commercial failure?

Remember, this is from 1970, the year that followed the 1960s with the race riots, protest shootings, the summer of love, John's misunderstood quote about Christianity and Rock music, The Vietnam War, the dreadful Altamont Free Concert, Woodstock and plenty of other historical events. This could've been a victim of poor timing, remember this was still at the end of the 1960s. It can also be noted that a band like Black Sabbath just was not ready to really be listened to, remember the earliest form of heavy metal we got before this was "Helter Skelter" and "Born to be Wild", and this was a far cry from both those songs.

This song has tuned down guitars, slow almost moaning vocals and dark lyrics. The tuned down guitars are actually pretty cool, giving the song a horror vibe that makes it more chilling. It did not sound like the upbeat "Born to be Wild". The subject matter itself is also very dark being about a weird figure the band's bassist Geezer Butler saw one night.

When we ask why the song was hated at first, we can not say for sure, although I myself guess that 1970 was not the year to introduce a genre like Heavy Metal.

However, we also have to ask the question: What changed? Why did a song that was originally hated, become not only recognizable, but celebrated? It's hard to say because people often praise the band's second album Paranoid on bringing heavy metal to a mainstream audience. The times have changed and with it our ideas of what is acceptable in music. From Black Sabbath we got amazing bands and songs from the thrash metal scene to the grindcore scene, so in some respects it can be said that Black Sabbath doesn't qualify as heavy metal anymore.

I guess it wasn't the attitude towards the song that changed, but the times that have, because there is always going to be somebody discovering this song for the first time, and whether they like the song or not is their own choice.

When I'm talking about a highly important or well known song it's hard for me to talk about the song itself, because many people have heard it before, so it's hard to say something that other people don't know, so I often have to tie Ace Audio posts to a single theme. However, I know that there is somebody out there who has never heard these songs before and makes their own judgment themselves.

Black Sabbath helped create a genre that brought many of us together, and we have all heard their influence, from the tuned down doom metal to the fantastical power metal. Times are different from 1970, and some people enjoyed this song at the time, and some people enjoy it today. It makes me wonder how many songs I liked or disliked at one point ended up being a song I loved or hated, I guess it can be the same with bands as well.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I have nothing to say here so, Happy Halloween.