Awesome Album Series #2: BLACK SABBATH "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"

From the classic doomy riffs of the title song, to the fading applause on "Spiral Architect" - this album is awesome all the way! Riff after riff, solo after solo, song after song - "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" is my all time favourite Sabbath album. It came out when I was 4 years old.

After a month in Los Angeles with no results, the band opted to return to the UK, where they rented Clearwell Castle in The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, which the likes of Led Zeppelin and Mott the Hoople wrote and recorded in.

Tony Iommi was suffering from writer's block, and the rest of the band themselves felt lost without his riffs to inspire them. But finally, one day he came out with the riff for what would become the title track on this album, and then what followed was a heap of amazing songs, which collectively produced the best Black Sabbath album to date.

They finished the recording sessions at Morgan Studios in London in September 1973, and released the album the same year. The members of Led Zeppelin, old friends of the band from their early days in Birmingham, showed up at the studio during the sessions. John Bonham was eager to play on "Sabbra Cadabra", but Sabbath preferred to play material other than their own for the occasion. In the end, the two bands had an improvised jam sessions which was recorded but never released. I would give my left nut for that tape!

Just a week after the release of the album, Black Sabbath hit the road to promote the album. The tour kicked off in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and ended in Sydney in November 1974.