60 albums
1972 - Black Sabbath - Vol4

When I listen to Sabbath albums I generally reach for Paranoid, or maybe Black Sabbath. Master of Reality and Vol4 rarely get a look-in, although both have tracks that I’d consider to be Sabbath at the top of their game but neither often tempts me in to listen to them all the way through.

Black Sabbath - Vol4 (NEMS - 1972)

Sabbath first entered my life via a 7” single of Paranoid that I got at a jumble sale in around 1978, this was followed by a Greatest Hits album, a second-hand copy of Paranoid (the album) and, in about 1980 the unofficial “Live at Last” album that I loved. I however never saw them live, they were scheduled to play at the Heavy Metal Holocaust at Port Vale but were replaced by Ozzy (who had just released Blizzard of Ozz) - Ozzy was fantastic that day and at that point my alegience was set in stone. I never gave post-Ozzy Sabbath a look in.

I bought Vol4 around then, the price sticker reads 75p, and as well as Vol4 in the sleeve was a sleeveless copy of Master of Reality. So, 75p for two pretty good albums.

This is probably the first time I’ve listened to the whole of Vol4 for a long, long time, mainly because on Spotify it’s easy to hit the skip button when Changes starts. I’ve tried to listen to Changes without letting my years of prejudice get in the way, but I’m not sure I can, it was an album killer when I first heard it in the late 70s and is an album killer now. Luckily Supanaut is not far behind to bring Vol4 back to life.