Tony Iommi-Lead guitar
Geezer Butler-Bass guitar
Ozzy Osbourne-vocals
Bill Ward-drums

This album is kind of an enigma for Sabbath reviewers. Most consider this album to be their best all around release while a vocal minority consider Paranoid or Master of Reality to be their best. If you ask me, I would not consider Sabotage to their best, that prize would have to go to Master of Reality, but it is certainly Sabbath's last "great" album.

Sabotage took almost a year to produce and complete. A far cry from the old days when they recorded their first release Black Sabbath for a measly 900 dollars US! It was produced by the band themselves. Sound quality is not that great. The original master tapes were not produced that well so the sound quality suffered. Static and tape hiss can be heard at times.

This is most likely Ozzy's finest performance on a Black Sabbath record. He can still hit the high notes quite well and his nasal vocal style is in abundance. Butler's bass guitar is pushed back in the mix but not too much that he is not noticeable. He is rather laid back in terms of showing of his talent but he does shine through in places. The real star of the show is Iommi's lead guitar work. He has always been at the top of the heavy metal world in terms of coming up with heavy and catchy guitar riffs mostly because he virtually created the genre in the late 60s. Bill Ward's drumming is up to par with any other Sabbath album he played on. Nothing special but he gets the job done.

Just before the making of this album the band had been involved in a legal battle with their mangement. It seemed that their mangement at the time were not treating the band with respect. It seemed that their manger Patrick Meehan was all so keeping money from the group that was suppose to go to Black Sabbath. To make a long story short, Sabbath won the court battle and as a result we have this album.

The opening tune is entitled Hole In The Sky. The track starts with silence. Then about eight seconds into the track the main riff is unleashed onto your speakers. Soon after Ozzy Osbourne's voice joins the fun and then there is no turning back. The lyrics are very straight forward as usual. That is what I love abouth this band. Their straight forward approach works well because you do not have to spend all day trying to figure out what the band are trying to say. The guitar solo starts of the middle section before reverting back to the main riff before ending the track in a very strange way. Instead of ending the song by fading the song out, the song just ends while the riff is still being played. It is a very neat idea that worked out well.

The next song is not really a song at all. It is the intro to the next track. It is entitled Don't Start (too late). There is no real point for this to be on this album however. I always wonder what kind of song they could have put here instead of a worthless intro. After the intro comes the next track called Symptom Of The Universe. The riff in this song is one of Iommi's finest of his whole career. The song writing on this track is nothing short of amazing. About four minutes into the song an acoustic guitar section comes into play. The genius of this song is that it goes from really heavy in the first four minutes. And then the last two minutes or so is so peacful. Awesome track.

The next track called Megalomania is the albums centerpiece and masterpiece as well. The song features many different riffs in its ten minute running time. The first half of the track is more laid back then the second half. But don't let that fool you. This song gets very heavy towards the mid section and does not let up after that. Thrill Of It All is another track worth hearing. There is a lot of guitar feedback on this tune that just adds to the heaviness. However the songs mid section is kind of uninspired and flat. But the song is worth hearing.

The next track is another boring instrumental called Supertzar. Except this one is more painful because it is way overlong at over three minutes in length. The track features some kind of choir singing a chant. Very cheesy and takes some of the power away from the other tracks as well. Some fans love it though I can not see why.

Am I going Insane (radio) is another dud. The song features Ozzy repeating the song title for over four minutes with Iommi coaxing weird feedback sounds out of his guitar that always seems to give me a headache. The albums final song is the masterpiece called The Writ. The song is a blow to their ex manager Patrick Meehan who I mentioned earlier in the review. The track features many time and riff changes which the band uses a lot.

Overall this album is their last true masterpiece. After this record the magic was not at the apex that it was on Sabotage. Probably the only reason this album is not their best is because of the duds I mentioned in my review. However the other five songs are well worth your time AND money.

Recommended: Yes