This is not where I expected them to go. A small disclaimer: the only other Black Sabbath album apart from this one that I've heard is their self titled, so I'm jumping from first to fifth here. That said, this is very much not the direction that I thought that they would head. This album is much lighter than their first, with the haunting, heavy feeling that it had being completely vanished. Now, there are more upbeat guitar solos, and even synth solos (which I was pretty surprised and pleased by). Throughout the whole thing, everything just sounds less doom-ful, if that makes sense. The skill of the band is still here in regard to their instruments, if just a tiny bit lesser than what I've heard from them before. The same cannot be said for the lyrics and vocals. I'm so split on the lyrics here. I never really go into the lyrics in these reviews because they usually serve their purpose really well or are, at the very least, passable and just nothing special. This album, though, has some of the strangest lyrics that I've heard in a good while. Take A National Acrobat, for example. The song is from the point of fetus still in the womb who has apparently lived countless lives and remembers all of them, and gives life advice to the listener. What. And then a lot of the other songs have exceptionally strange lyrics as well, such as Who Are You? or Spiral Architect. Sometimes these lyrics are cool in some regards, like Spiral Architect, while other times they are just downright unnerving and freaky, in a bad way. I think for the most part the lyrics are good. But the vocals. Man. Ozzy Osbourne, can I call you Oz? What the fuck? I can't quite pin down what it is about his performance, but it just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe its something about his delivery, or that his inflection is too bright, or maybe it's the colossal mountain of drugs that I'm sure that he was on, but it sounds off. Now maybe that's a part of the style and people may like it, but I just personally don't care for it. Again, at least they can still play well. Speaking of which, I'd like to just give massive props to Tony Iommi again here, because the guitar was just great here too. Also, like I said, the synth was a nice surprise and I'm glad that it was as prevalent in the album as it was (except for Who Are You?, that was just plain monotonous). Overall, a weird trip that I think won't be sticking with me all too much, save for the better elements.
Highlights: Fluff, Sabbra Cadabra, Spiral Architect.
Rating: 4/6
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