黑色安息日 (1970)

Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released on 13 February 1970 by Vertigo Records in the United Kingdom and on 1 June 1970 by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album is widely regarded as the first true heavy metal album. The opening title track, "Black Sabbath", was named the greatest heavy metal song of all time by Rolling Stone and has been referred to as the first doom metal song.The Guardian describes the cultural impact of the title track in the following terms: “a tolling bell, the sound of pouring rain, then the riff that changed everything: Black Sabbath invented an entire worldview within the first 60 seconds of their debut.”

After recording the single "Evil Woman" and its B-side "Wicked World" on 10 November 1969 at Trident Studios, the remainder of the album was recorded in a single 12-hour session on 17 November at Regent Sounds Studios, using songs from their live set to construct the album. The album's sound was largely informed by Iommi's playing style in the wake of a sheet metal accident that cut off two of his fingertips years prior.

Black Sabbath received generally negative reviews from critics upon its release but was a commercial success, reaching number eight on the UK Albums Charts and number 23 on the US Billboard Top LPs chart. It has retrospectively garnered reappraisal as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. Black Sabbath is included in Robert Dimery's 2005 musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Background

Black Sabbath formed from the ashes of Mythology, which featured guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. The two would recruit bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne as part of their new band, initially named Earth and later renamed to Black Sabbath, after the 1963 Italian horror film. After their live debut in Workington, England, the band would sign with Philips Records, and would receive distribution from the label's newly formed subsidiary, Vertigo Records.

Recording

The band recorded the song "Evil Woman" and its B-side '"Wicked World" on 10 November 1969 at Trident Studios on St. Anne's Court, London, and recorded the remainder of the album at Regent Sounds Studio on Denmark Street, in a 12-hour session on 17 November. Iommi said: "We just went in the studio and did it in a day, we played our live set and that was it. We actually thought a whole day was quite a long time, then off we went the next day to play for £20 in Switzerland." Aside from the bells, thunder and rain sound effects added to the beginning of the opening track and the double-tracked guitar solos on "N.I.B." and "Sleeping Village", there were virtually no overdubs added to the album. Iommi recalls recording live: "We thought, 'We have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff."