Black Sabbath Album: “Vol. 4”

1972 was a watershed year for hard rock and Black Sabbath both. Luckily, the maturing group was able to spearhead the next part of the Proto-metal Revolution they'd founded with 'Master of Reality' in the form of this, their best work. 'Volume Four' was a functional, utilitarian name that was used to try and capture something whose essence could not be described with any adjective except, perhaps, 'shifting'. Unlike any of their previous three albums, the Sabs were able to keep their distance from a formula [more or less homogenous doom rock with the occasional 'let up' (although their first LP is a mish-mash of blues and the beginnings of their 'doom rock')] and make this effort become an entire soundscape filled with moving atmospheres - the ultimate in a heterogeneous texture.

'Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener' - THE STORYTELLER. The whining guitar notes, basic chord structures and past tense narrative lyrics find an experimental-minded band. The shifts in tempo were something they'd become very familiar with by this time but it never had sounded this good. Instrumental 'The Straightener' kicks in to round out the epic. Geezer's bass text is used as a canvas by Iommi here as he spatters riff spirals and twists all over the place. 'Laguna Sunrise' - THE MIND CREATES A FANTASY. Pretty number written for the beachfront where the Sabs were staying during their work on 'Volume Four'. A very haunting superimposition of Spanish guitar over a strings backing.

'F.X.' - THE UNKNOWN REALM. 1 3/4 minutes of sound effects, particularly picking noises. Probably very useful if you're doped up but much better when sober. 'Snowblind' - ROCK REFLECTION ON LIFESTYLE. The 'best' rock track of the album, 'Snowblind' was a single. It accurately depicts the group's concerns at the time. Money and fame had allotted them nicer cars and nicer drugs to fool with. 'Cornucopia' - ROCK REFLECTION ON SOCIETY. 'Take a life, it's going cheap; Kill someone, no-one will weep.' A thundering bass-driven track that's almost uglier in structure than the post industrial nightmare described by Osbourne's frenetic lyrics.

'Tomorrow's Dream' - LOVE DISCARDED. A short rocker that scored as a greatest hit. The whole feel here is of turning away from the woes of the Present and starting a whole new existence. 'Supernaut' - THE SELF TRIUMPHS. 'I've seen the future and I've left it behind.' Ward's frantic cymbal-bashing and Iommi's smokingly fast riffs and overdubs augment Osbourne's grandiose lyrical delivery perfectly. A hard, spiralling anthem. 'Changes' - LOVE REMOVED. A long piano/synth bit with Ozzy half-lamenting the joy of love taken away, half-asserting his understanding of the adjustment he's making to compensate. 'Under The Sun' - THE MIND REACTS AGAINST REALITY. Very heavy guitar and bass work drones with the strength of the nihilistic, sometimes self-contradicting lyrics. Soon the tempo changes and both the guitars and voice become more desperate to convey their point. The songs ends on a helter-skelter of doomy rhythm and amorphous riffs. 'St. Vitus' Dance' - ANTI-COMMUNICATION. This short, fast rocker bounces Osbounre's lyrics back and forth. It's about problems with understanding the female mind.

Altogether and in a sequence, these make up what is termed 'Volume Four'. There is but one other ingredient necessary to facilitate a successful listening - a mind of any type and in any condition. None of the songs will grow on you; you will see them ever after in the same light under which you orginally found them. The shade of that light depends on your perceptions and no two shades will ever be alike. This is an album saturated in an ebbing, ethereal fluid, one of the consequences being that the sounds recorded on 'Volume Four' make it quite impossible to place the whole in any single genre. This is a work that declares there are an infinite number of idiosyncratic interpretations of it available. I have given mine here: to find your own, you need to get this CD.

This album is my favorite album of any I've ever heard from Sabbath, well actually of any band. This is the definative Sabbath album.

1.Wheels of Confusion-great song with cool riffs and bass lines.5/5

2.Tommorrow's Dream-awesome song with a great meaning behind it.5/5

3.Changes-this song is very saddening, especially with Ozzy's moaning vocals portraying a very hurt individual. 5/5

4.FX-very useless and the only song (if it can be called a song) on the album i dislike 2/5

5.Supernaut- one of the best blues/metal songs ever written. This song can never be duplicated in it's complete majesty. This is sabbath at it's best 6/5 :)

6.Snowblind-this anthem about cocaine is my favorite Sabbath song of all time (other than Supernaut, and Junior's Eyes)10/5

7.Cornucopia- cool song about people dying in wars such as the Vietnam War 5/5

8.Laguna Sunrise-this song is a really good song but it's not near as good as Orchids 4/5

9.St. Vitus Dance- I love this song. It's friecken awesome. The lyrics are complimented by great music and cool bass lines. Great song-period 5/5

10.Under the Sun- This song is awesome. It's heavey as hell and explodes into the room whenever I play it. 5/5

Hope this review helps ya

5.

I've read many controversials about this record, most of them saying that this is a sabbath's uneven record. The very first thing that comes to mind when you think about Sabbath's vol.4 is experimentalism. So far, a heavy metal band, Sabbath decided to sound a little more expansive. I can certainly point a psychedelic influence in the whole album atmosphere, not only the riffs but also the lyrics without devil rubish. The album is melancholic sometimes, but also happy, it floats like that, sounding refreshing, younger and reckless.

It's a turning point from heavy metal to mid seventies hard rock sound the band would further develop.

If you listen to this as a hard rock record from the beginning of the 70's then you get the spirit, I mean it's anacronical listening to this only as metal record. They had already created their own style and begun, from this point to diversify, and of course th influences will be everything that was going on around during that time. So you can hear the start of a compostion process that will be further developed on "Sabbath bloody sabbath", and yet you may recognize the typical Sabbath heavy riff from the previous records on "Cornucopia" and "Under the sun".

after all said and done, let's see the tunes here.

Wheel of confusion - marvelous opening track. Perfect example of what is yet to come through the intire album. Melancolic, heavy, fast and slow, reflective. yes it's a new Black Sabbath 10/10

Tomorrows dream - great song, great riff short and sharp. Perfect for a single release. The cowbell always helps - 10/10

Changes - sorry, but for me is boring, not much for the synthetizers simulating a string session, but Ozzy's voice is over here. - 5/10

Fx - overexposure to psychotropics. - 5/10

Supernaut - Here's another example of a new Black Sabbath spirit, the song has a very groove feeling, with lots of percussion, maybe one oft he best Bill Ward's work on Sabbath during the 70's. A high time upbeat song hard to find on Sabbath's records. - 9/10

Snowblind - Amazing hard/psychedelic track, the major hit of the album along with "Changes" and "Tomorrows dream". Despite the fact that the subject is quite sad (cocaine addiction), the song is very beautiful. - 10/10

Cornucopia - the song opens with a dark riff like the previous records and develops onto a psychodelic track with nice lyrics and a groove part in the middle. simply astonishing - 9/10

Laguna Sunrise - It's clearly a derivative of the instrumental parts on "Master of reality" and a prepararion for "Fluff" on the next record. It's OK but repetitive. - 6/10

St. Vitus dance - Wierd song with Ozzy giving love advices!!!. Anyway, i like it a lot. - 8/10

Under the sun - Another gloomy riff and then things go lisergic and then goes a short track inside speeding up everything and then back to heavy/psychedelia until the increasing slowing dynamic that close the record. 8/10

I still have my vol. 4 cover t-shirt, and i still get some good thrills listening to this. Certainly one of the 20 itens to take with you to that famous desert island.

Vol. 4 was the first Black Sabbath album I heard. I picked it up in a thrift store (in 8-track form) back in the early 80s. I've upgraded since then and Vol. 4 is still one of my favorite Sabbath albums. I'd only put Sabbath Bloody Sabbath above it as it is more solid. Some of the tracks here are amazing! "Wheels of Confusion," of course, is classic. "Cornucopia" is perhaps the darkest track here followed by "Under the Sun" (until it starts rocking during the bridge) and both are excellent. I like the lyrics to "Under the Sun" (I don't want no preacher telling me about the God in the sky and I don't want no one telling me where I'm going to go when I die") as well as the guitar solo at the end. This album offers variety with the slow "Changes" and the pleasant instrumental "Laguna Sunrise." "FX," which some regard as pointless, always intrigued me. As a kid, I'd swing the drawer knockers on my dresser to try and replicate the knocking noises on the track. It is not great even from an experimental standpoint, but, at least it is a quiet interlude and is not annoying (not to me anyway). "St. Vitus Dance" has an almost country sounding guitar that begins to rock at the verses. My favorite, though, is "Snowblind." Most of the reviewers here agree and why not--it is amazing! It is my all-time favorite Sabbath track. It is about cocaine abuse ("Feeling happy in my vein Icicles within my brain"). Anyone just getting into Ozzy and Sabbath who does not have that song needs to get this album right away! Neither "Snowblind" nor Vol. 4 will disappoint.

Black Sabbath. A bunch of un-educated blokes from an industrial wasteland who played simple, mindless music. Really now? You could have fooled me. I'm going to make another Black Sabbath/ Led Zeppelin comparison (Yes, I apoligize)But nor do I have any desire to put any of these bands down. If anything, it truly benifts both; as it lends a sense of understanding to both of these unique,highly influential, musically gifted bands: In their approach, and there aim. Listening to both bands, Black Sabbath, if anything, tends to be the more jazz-oriented band of the two. Whereas Led Zeppelin is truly more into the blues. Musically, timing and precision meant a great deal to Zeppelin. Black Sabbath on the other hand never really played "in time". If anything, they were more about the feel of things. And this most certainly determined the out come of a song. A greater comparison can be made ultimately when comparing both band's rythm sections. Sabbath's dummer Bill Ward was no John Bonham, in that he played on time (he didn't). Nor was his playing nowhere near as precise. It wasn't. Ward's playing, tended to be more over the map, more jazzy, in that he would time and time on add numerous, unique fills, that at times, wouldn't be needed. He was a very unothodox drummer. Just as Gezzer Butler was somewhat of an unorthodox bass player, in that he really didn't play a bass like a bass, but like a rythm guitarist (which he was before he learned to play the bass) unlike Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, who was by all means your standard bass player. Nothing wrong with this, as Jones was a superb bass player (Led Zeppelin II was clearly his album, and shining moment) Diversity is another issue: Which band played more diverse material? The answer: Both Bands. Though, Zeppelin might've beat them by one (folk ala Led Zeppelin III) But as "Black Sabbath Vol.4" would prove (as well as their next few albums), Sabbath were certainly intrested, and capable of not just playing other tpyes, other styles of music, but they were in a way, far more (than Zeppelin) successful at incorporating these other styles into their sound. Proof? Well not only were Sabbath more conservative in their views of music, but it certainly might take a few people a while to point out the various musical touches, styles, and genres buried in Sabbath's signature sound. Where as Zeppelin's attempts were far more in your face, and at times, rather hamfested(Houses of the Holy, anybody?). Both bands of course went into two different directions, as Sabbath become interested in adopting progressive arrganments into their mix. And Volume 4 was their first attempt at such an experiment. (Was it a 100% success? IF anything, it's a yes & no) At the same time, they began branching out musically. As VOLUME 4 incorporates blues, jazz (Cornucopia), pop(St. Vitues Dance), boogie (Supernaut), psychodelia (Wheels of Confusion), and even latin beats(!) (which can be found imbeded through the second half of Snowblind, Cornucopia etc) into their sludgy mix (under the sun) Lyically, this album represents the point when Sabbath stopped being preachy, and became more introspective ( an approach that become far more successful on their next two albums) VOLUME 4, also perfectly showcases Sabbath's most drug-heavy period. As this is evidence through the music, and, well, the production. Which if anything, is really the only negative thing for the album: As it's probably (audio-wise) the most poorly mixed and produced of the original Sabbath albums. As Geezer Butler's bass is sadly, at times, buried in the mix. Not even the recent release and remasters of the Black Box have really done it justice. Though, the quality has been immensly cleaned up. It was the producer's (and Iommi's) poor decision to tune out the bass so much. On the plus side, you have some of Tony Iommi's best ever guitar work, riffing, and solos. And perhaps what is drummer Bill Ward's finest hour - as his arragments and fills at times prove to be truly mind-blowing and the best of any Sabbath album.