Black Sabbath: A Biografia

by Mick Wall

Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward e Ozzy Osbourne. A escalação do time original do Black Sabbath está na ponta da língua dos fãs. Mas até mesmo o mais ardoroso admirador teria dificuldade em lembrar o nome dos outros 21 músicos que ajudaram a construir essa lenda do rock. Em 45 turbulentos anos de existência, foram tantas e tão profundas mudanças na formação que é quase um milagre que a aura da banda tenha chegado ilesa aos dias atuais. Sobreviver talvez seja a grande arte do Black Sabbath. É o que o leitor pode constatar em Black Sabbath: a biografia. Com a riqueza de detalhes característica das obras de Mick Wall – autor que se destaca como biógrafo de grandes lendas do rock –, o livro conta a história de um grupo que tinha tudo para nem sequer existir.

Típicos garotos proletários de Aston, subúrbio de Birmingham, Inglaterra, a rotina deles se dividia entre a paixão pela música e a urgência em ganhar a vida. O que significava encarar eventualmente trabalho pesado (Tony Iommi, por exemplo, era operário) ou atividades ilícitas (Ozzy Osbourne cometia pequenos furtos), com todas as suas consequências: Iommi perdeu a ponta de dois dedos numa prensa de metal, quase abortando sua trajetória musical antes mesmo de ela começar, e Ozzy cumpriu seis semanas de prisão.

Mais que uma paixão, a música parecia a via mais rápida para fugir desse ambiente pouco promissor. O livro conta como esse improvável sonho virou realidade. E como a realidade logo se transformou em pesadelo para todos a partir do momento em que o sucesso produziu seus previsíveis efeitos: egos inflados e nenhum freio para as loucuras com álcool, drogas, sexo e excentricidades. Nada de diferente de outros grupos da indústria musical. No entanto, no período em que os dinossauros do rock dominavam a Terra, o Black Sabbath alinhou-se entre os maiores de sua espécie – e fez por merecer a fama de mais temível entre todos.

Nascido no hiato entre o verão hippie do amor e a explosão do glam rock, o Black Sabbath chegou a ser a banda mais insultada do planeta – pela imprensa, por outras bandas, por quase todo mundo. Praticamente ninguém entendia aquela mistura de pesados riffs de guitarras, baixo explosivo, bateria detonadora e vocais lancinantes. Ninguém, exceto por legiões de moleques que vislumbraram ali as bases do que viria ser um dos mais cultuados subgêneros do rock: o heavy metal.

Black Sabbath: a biografia conta sobre a expulsão sumária de Ozzy da banda; revela como o grupo perdeu os direitos sobre as próprias canções para empresários ardilosos; relembra a brilhante era com Ronnie James Dio à frente dos vocais, bem como a incessante dança das cadeiras na formação da banda, e registra a volta por cima de Ozzy, amparado pela fama como celebridade de reality show e pela astúcia empresarial da mulher, Sharon.

Tudo é narrado em cores fortes, do ponto de vista de quem testemunhou ou conheceu em primeira mão boa parte dos fatos descritos. Em sua maioria, as citações do livro foram extraídas de entrevistas formais e contatos diretos com os personagens. Seja como jornalista da mídia especializada, seja como assessor de imprensa, Mick Wall se relacionou com o Black Sabbath, Ozzy e Dio ao longo de 35 anos, numa relação que alternou amor e ódio, mas que sobrevive até hoje alimentada pela mais profunda admiração: aos catorze anos, Wall foi um daqueles moleques que entendeu o que era o Sabbath – e teve sua vida mudada para sempre.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Music Biography, Collections, Rock N Roll, History

360 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

Mick Wall is an author, journalist, film, television and radio writer-producer, who’s worked inside the music industry for over 35 years. He began his career contributing to the music weekly Sounds in 1977, where he wrote about punk and the new wave, and then rockabilly, funk, New Romantic pop and, eventually, hard rock and heavy metal. By 1983, Wall become one of the main journalists in the early days of Kerrang! magazine, where he was their star cover story writer for the next nine years. He subsequently became the founding editor of Classic Rock magazine in 1998, and presented his own television and radio shows.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There was also the band's [supposed] 'occult' image to live up to. As Tony [Iommi] put it: 'We attracted unbelievable amounts of nutters, from Satanists to acid casualties - you name it, we had 'em.' Ozzy [Osbourne] frowned: 'I got scared. You'd get people walk up and go, 'Man, we know that you know that we know that you know.' And we'd say, 'Yeah well, keep on knowing, man.'" -- on page 76

I was unfamiliar with author Wall before enjoying his entertaining Eagles' bio Life in the Fast Lane at about this time last year, but I have found that he's a veritable one-man cottage industry on 70's and 80's rock bands. (Also waiting on the mighty wings of my extensive 'tbr' is his Led Zeppelin tome When Giants Walked the Earth.) It was a no-brainer, then, to grab his Black Sabbath bio Symptom of the Universe (thank you, 'The Old Bookshop' of Bordentown, NJ) and promptly read it just after the recent passing of frontman Ozzy Osbourne. Additionally, Wall worked as a publicist for the group in the late 70's - at a time when they were experiencing much upheaval - so he literally had a front-row seat to some of the drama. Founded in Great Britain in 1968 - just like their fellow hard rock / heavy metal originators Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple - Black Sabbath, like the two aforementioned acts, truly hit the big time circa 1970-1971 with their signature weighty riffs and dark lyrics, signaling a stark change after the mid-60's 'British Invasion.' Said quartet - originally vocalist Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward - released a number of commercially successful albums before ousting the perpetually under the influence Osbourne in late 1978. The group then had a brief but unusually successful rebirth with the indelible Ronnie James Dio (who had formerly fronted ex-Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow) taking over the vocals for a four-year stretch, before then spiraling into second-rate status throughout the late 80's and 90's with an almost humorous succession of rando singer and/or drummer replacements. It is apparent author Wall parlayed his prior connection to the group to good effect to document their 35 years (note: the book was published in 2013), as well as Osbourne's own solo success. It also seemed appropriate to read after the death of their 'Prince of Darkness,' who wailed through now-standard pounding tunes like 'Paranoid' and (my fav) 'The Wizard' - see you on the other side, Ozzy. 🤘

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't go wrong with Mick Wall. Metalhead and classic rock writer, his style always combine the engaging and passionate with the factual and sincere in engrossing biographies, that make for punchy and epic reads not only for the details they reveal but the angles, always relevant, he chooses to attack his subjects. I had voraciously read his Run to the Hills: Iron Maiden, the Authorized Biography about Iron Maiden and Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica about Metallica. I had even higher expectations for this 'Symptom of the Universe', since he not only know all of the musicians personally but, has also worked with them as a PA. Such insight, then, at the service of such writing skills couldn't leave me disappointed! And indeed...

Here's an epic tale at the core of which are, bottom lines, clashes of personalities. That's actually exactly what makes it fascinating: Black Sabbath's history is an history of pumped egos and of characters not always likeable (far from that!) whose antagonisms behind the scene would nevertheless shape a fascinating saga of greed, ambition, excesses, deplorable and sick decadence, but, above all, great music (well... most of the time!).

The book, unsurprisingly, unfolds loosely around the two most obvious periods: the Ozzy Osbourne era, then followed by Tony Iommi sole leadership, both revolving around the influence of Sharon Osbourne, another strong personality. Mick Wall, as usual, doesn't wear silk gloves, and so it makes for a tough read! Ozzy and his antics, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler as shadowing puppets, Tony Iommi's iron fist yet appalling lack of judgement... Mick Wall says it all as it was, and if it's all very enlightening for the fans, well, don't expect to be inspired!

That's the thing in here: not many aren't, if not a swarm of cynical opportunists, then a bunch of addicts fuelled on booze and drugs, completely useless off a stage, when not so obsessed with money 'indecent' doesn't even covers it (just check out how Sharon Osbourne screwed over Tony Iommi to get legal rights to the name of Black Sabbath...). The drugs, nastiness, appalling and disgusting behaviours and greed are indeed so sickening that, more than once I wanted to throw the book away! Mind you, it's nothing to do with Mick Wall's writing, always sharp and enthralling. It has to do with the subject matter. Case in point: I personally found the band members to be so stupid (junkies' fried brains) that, as I discovered how they got ripped off more than once by unscrupulous management, not once did I feel any sympathy for them.

Throwing the book away, though, would have been a serious! Regardless indeed, there are here beautiful pages, heartfelt and moving, about some great personalities that have crossed path with the Sabbs. To start with, there was Randy Rhoads:

'amazing young man who wielded a polka-dot Flying V guitar and who, when he died, left behind an impossibly slender body of work that would nonetheless alter the sound of rock as we know it - for ever.'

There was, also and of course, Ronnie James Dio:

'a dragon slayer, an alchemist of dreams who could turn the dourest situation to advantage by sheer force of his iron will... a force of nature, like the very wind and rain he seemed able to summon every time he opened his mouth to sing and that incredibly powerful voice came out.'

Not all of Black Sabbath's history, then, is drown under a blizzard of drugs and greed, and such amazing characters lighten it all up in a more than welcoming way.

So what of it all? Offensive, sickening, disturbing, annoying... One has to go through a lot of appalling behaviours to follow the Black Sabbath's saga (again, to me none of the original band members are likeable people however how talented...) but if you are a fan of the music, that heavy and uncompromising sound that could shatter Hell itself, then here's the book you cannot miss. It doesn't matter whether you are more of an Ozzy era's fan ('inward-looking, misfitting, dysfunctional head-trip for outsiders and no-gooders') or Ronnie's ('fit for heroes and merrymen, for lovers and fighters of the good fight'). There's no other band like the Sabbs indeed and, when the music was good, it was so out of this world that it was revolutionary. 'Symptom of the Universe', for its insight, passion, honesty, accuracy, and incisive take is therefore the perfect read to get it all.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wall, having worked with Black Sabbath, Ozzy, and Dio for 35 + years as writer and a press agent, delivers a really thorough account of the band from their upbringing in working class Birmingham to fame as the Grandfathers of Heavy Metal despite the fact that Tony Iommi used to bully Ozzy in high school and a lot going against the band from the start.
Prior to this, I had known that Geezer Butler is a Roman Catholic so for the band to get hammered as a satan worshiping group was crazy. The band was the first to bring doom metal to the world and through force of will, mountains of coke, gallons of booze, and sex with many groupies they created 5 amazing albums to jump start their career not knowing that management was screwing them over big time. Many changes follow including lineup changes and the ousting of Ozzy for Ronnie James Dio who gives the band new life before more changes see a flailing lineup with Iommi as the only constant.
Wall's no frills way of writing keeps the story fresh and front and center. I had to laugh out loud when Ozzy tells Wall that he thought Spinal Tap was a real documentary since so much of the "mockumentary" was based on actual Sabbath mishaps.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a Sabbath fan of any stripe, you'll find much to enjoy here. If you're not, you'd still probably find it a fun read, hilarious, harrowing, and indicative.
Why indicative? Because it's easy to take them as a sign of our times. A bunch of lower-class doofballs, of varying levels of talent (Ozzy having zero, in the beginning) get thrown together by accident and say fuck-all to the trends of the times, concocting what can be argued as one of the most innovative and influential bands ever. And it was all by accident, really. And luck. Their post-hippie fuck-you to establishment industry standards defined them. They were badly reviewed and mocked in the press, but the average joe and jane loved them.
They hit their peak within a few years as drugs and booze and wild fuckin' took their toll on the band members individually and with each other.
That's just the first bit of the book. The rest of the book is an unforgiving and often darkly hilarious look at what came after their heyday: more drugs, more booze, Tony Iommi's increasingly pathetic attempts to keep the band together after Ozzy and then Dio were out, Ozzy's solo career, Randy Rhoads, and Ozzy's eventual, self-exploitative decline into a parody of himself with his reality TV show and the band's perennial "reunion" shows...
Their story is really a kind of microcosm of our times: flashy, crude, and self-destructive!

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look into the massive egos, abusing drugs alcohol etc who somehow became ostensibly THE Heavy Metal band by another massive ego who feels justified to insert his own criticisms of their back catalog as well as sounding more and more like Sharon Osbourne's mouthpiece by book's end.

I dearly wanted to like this book more. It gives great insight into what was going on during the core six great Sabbath releases as well as the drugs and the clashing wills and egos that let to the downfall of the Ozzy years and two terrible last albums with him.

Wall continues well into the Dio years and Gillen and the madness beyond but not before venturing into Ozzy's solo career, incidentally the only solo career mentioned of the original four. Geezer solo work in the 90's is absent as is Bill Ward's output. Around this time Wall enters the picture and while uncovering everyone else's warts doesn't seem to have any flaws himself. He cannot be both an impartial narrator and an actor without more about him being revealed.

Later on he gives short shrift to the Dio reunion in the 2000's, not even mentioning the live album that sold reasonably well enough to spawn the last Heaven and Hell studio, the poorly produced Devil You Know, which he praises as the best Dio era album since Heaven and Hell. Hardly.

lastly he goes on and on about how great Tommy Clufetos ( Ozzy's solo drummer and designated Bill Ward replacement)is and I just don't hear it. On the 13 tour CD/dvd his playing is mere average and without the subtleties of Ward's playing.

As the book progressed, I kept getting the idea that he'd either picked a side or still worked for the Ozzy/Sharon camp ( I have no proof of this). He kept excoriating Tony Iommi for his many shortcomings and drug addicted mind and poor decisions and yet doesn't give the same scorn towards Ozzy's many foibles as if as long as your still "on top" none of this matters.

A disappointing but still worthwhile look in at the insanity that was Black Sabbath.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book. I've read a couple of Wall's book before Lemmy: The Definitive Biography and Run to the Hills: Iron Maiden, the Authorized Biography which were both decent, but this does a really good job of covering all the major events and all the ins and outs of all the major players, and yet remaining reasonably brief. He does a good job covering both Sabbath and Ozzy's respective careers, highlights Sharon Osbourne - not just how effective she was, but also how vindictive - as well as giving several other key players their full due - Cozy Powell, Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley, Geoff Nichols, etc.

It seems churlish to nitpick, but I would have liked a little coverage of Geezer Butler and Bill Ward's solo work. Neither of their solo work had much impact on the main story, but it does show that Bill Ward wasn't entirely idle during the period when they weren't working in Black Sabbath or with Ozzy. Also, the fact that Bill Ward's first solo album, Ward One : Along the Way was critically well-received and that Ozzy appeared on it, shows that Ward didn't just go away and disappear for those intervening years.

But those are minor complaints. Overall, Wall does a very good job, and I learned some things that I didn't know before, which is impressive as I thought this was a very well-worn story. An excellent overview of the band's career.

[Dave Barlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole, very interesting. I enjoyed the behind the scenes bit where they talked about their relationships, management, other issues etc but found some of a bit dryer like when they went through a track by track analysis of some of their albums, as someone who had listened to them, I didn't really need it so found myself skipping it. On the whole, a decent read.

[Fred Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up-to-date bio of the progenitors of the heavy-metal genre, including the bad decisions, the drugs, and the unlikely success of Ozzy Osbourne. Some of the dateline was hard to follow when the author jumped around, and I disagreed with some of his reviews, but it is his book and his opinions.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

On one humid night back in 2014, I was standing in an arena shoulder to shoulder with thousands of like minded individuals with a voice gone to hell, beer drenched hair, clothes clinging to skin soaked in sweat, a sour neck, aching feet, fists and horns on air and a heart bursting with happiness. When Black Sabbath took to stage for the first time I wasn’t even born. But when I sang War Pigs along with these godfathers in their final tour, I made a memory that’ll last for the rest of my life.

When I started reading Symptoms of the universe I didn’t know what to expect. But I found it Magnificent! Simply remarkable. If there’s something that could please and break at the same time, this is one of those things. Mick Wall has written the raw truth behind one of the biggest giants in the metal world. The good, the bad and the ugly. The story of four ragged mental small town kids delivering a high voltage shock overnight and used the same high voltage to shock themselves in to the gutter. Black Sabbath is one of those bands that always walked with a cloud of gossips, bits n pieces and garbage on their heel. This seems to be a proper account of what actually followed Sabbath around while they were alive. They surely were a wild paranoid bunch of geniuses. It was sad to read about the way they were used by every Tom, Dick and Harry around and ripped off by the industry. It broke my heart to see the gods reduced to a bunch of goats that bleats really well, put in a golden chain and paraded around hidden in a cocaine fog. Sex, drugs and Rock n Roll from the beginning to the end. If you’re interested in Paranoid nights, trashed hotel rooms, groupies, noses buried in coke, this is the book to read. If you’re interested in how Sabbath became a football between Managers, how their intentions and lyrics were twisted from day one to suit the market, how each of them drifted into their own dilemma, the struggles to stay put, what made them, broke them and made them again, this is the book to read. In other words, this is one book any pure Sabbath fan should have.

There were so many times I felt exactly the same about many events described in this book. By the time I discovered Black Sabbath, early 90s, most of the things said in this book was done and gone. Fortunately my first Sabbath exposure was that early, eerie, dark ozzy era music. I was still in my early stages of the metal world and in Iommi’s ungodly riffs & Ozzy’s sinister screams I came into contact with heavy, doom, dark and a kind of a happy world. If my music gods can be arranged in a shelf, there won’t be a place for Sabbath cos Sabbath is the shelf itself. Black Sabbath for me was never the same without that original lineup or Ozzy, which seems to be the mutual feeling among many fans, even the band itself, according to this books. Ronnie James is undoubtedly a remarkable musician but Dio era didn’t sound like Black Sabbath even if Heaven and Hell remains a masterpiece. When 13, their last album was announced with at least 3 of the original members, I was impatiently waiting for it even if most of their work in between were pretty questionable. What’s written in this about how 13 was made is another roller coaster. Still, 13 delivered. After decades Black Sabbath was born again and for old timers like me, it brought in a treat.

This is a book every Black Sabbath fan should read. Where it’s gonna leave you, I don’t know but I know where it left me. In a happy place.

Books in the time of Covid-19 #31
Book 48 of 2020

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Fantastic biography, even if the author was wrong quite a few times when he attempted to review the albums themselves. IMNSHO. ;)

[Rob Dwyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

With countless Black Sabbath biographies now on the market, the best you can really expect to hopefully glean are at least a few new insights into their tumultuous history. Mick Wall does manage to shed some light on their darkest corners, but he does so by revealing sordid details about the personal lives of the band members. This might make for entertaining popcorn gossip, but his approach is often disrespectful to the human beings involved here. By revealing these questionable truths about the members of Sabbath, he's likely also burning some bridges here as the inner circle pundit he's professed himself to be. But in writing this book, he's proved that he's much of a friend to those that he has chosen to dish on here. "Honesty" is no excuse for going down some of the roads taken here.

From the very beginning of the book, I felt bothered by his decision to portray the original members as a group of hapless losers from Birmingham who stumbled their way into fame and fortune, thanks in part to Jim Simpson and to a lesser degree, the parade of unscrupulous and/or conniving managers (Arden & Meehan) that followed. While occasionally acknowledging their accomplishments, Mick Wall's tone is most often critical and dismissive of any eras that he didn't like personally.

Wall's critical opinions of Black Sabbath's back catalog are also a bit unwelcome and annoying, but do seem to serve his pessimistic view of so many chapters of their career. With Mr. Wall having so few good things to say about the band, it's hard not to question his actual love for the band, which often seems more like a love/hate relationship. He isn't the first or last journalist to have such a jaundiced eye towards them.

Unlike most Black Sabbath bios, he's chosen to weave Sharon Arden Osbourne into their story early on. This is key to his eventual summation that she ultimately shaped and controlled the destinies of not just her husband's career, but also Black Sabbath as a band. This is an interesting and semi-plausible premise that you won't often find in any official or fan written versions of their history. While Sharon's contributions (and often skilled manipulations) are undeniable, I do resent the implication that band owes everything to her at this point in time.

To be fair, the book is an interesting read and may be worthwhile to Sabbath scholars who want to understand additional reasons for the band's decisions at many key junctures. It's probably one of the more current biographies (as of 2017), but hardly serves as any kind of final word on this subject. Not a complete waste of time, but I'd recommend finding this one for a good price (preferably used).

[Xisix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mick Wall does fair job of describing rise and fall of iconic group Black Sabbath. As a former PR writer for group for a time that gave him closer access to the key players. Was shocking to hear of so many albums that had never heard of after Ozzy and Dio came and went and came again. Mounds of drugs. Groupies. Accidents. Pranks. Was interesting to hear of Tony Iommi's attempts to carry on and grow musically. About two thirds of way through book it started to bog down with all it's talk of business deals though enjoyed it overall. Hearing of Sabbath's Stonehenge and dwarf baby tour was amusing. Spinal Tap inspirations. One can see how hard it is to overcome your classics. Progress further than your unbridled youthful proto-sludge metal fire.

[Lauri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mick Wall on tuntud rockiajakirjanik, õigemini oli, 70ndatel-80ndatel. Hiljem on ta leidnud oma niši rockibiograafiate kirjutamisel (eesti keeles näiteks Led Zeppelini "Kui Maal kõndisid hiiglased", Koolibri 2018 või Metallica "Enter Night" Koolibri 2016). Guns n' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, aga ka Bono, Lou Reed ja Meat Loaf. See raamat siin aga räägib heavy metali, doomi ja veel paari raskema rocki subžanri ainubändilisest loojast Black Sabbathist. Ülesanne on selle võrra lihtsam et autor tunneb isiklikult kõiki liikmeid, on töötanud bändi pressiesindajana ja PR-firma omanikuna on teinud nendega aastakümnete vältel koostööd. Samas tuleb au anda kompromissitu suhtumise eest ja isiklikule tutvusele lõivu maksmata jätmisele: Mick Wall toob bändi kireva ja erakordselt lainetava karjääri halenaljakad puudused ning mõningate bändiliikmete personaalsed puudujäägid ausalt välja. Eelkõige käib siin jutt Tony Iommist, kelle kohta läbivalt räägitakse tema kokaiininuusutamise harjumusest, ning trummar Bill Wardist, kelle halenaljakad katsed bändi kokkutulemist takistades rohkem raha välja pressida on raamatus ausalt välja toodud.

Sabbathi karjääri kujutav graafik meenutaks kõrvalt vaadates kas teravatipulise mäestiku vaadet, või hoopiski saetera vaadet profiilis, kusjuures sellise saetera millel on üle ühe hambaid puudu...Geniaalsele albumile järgnevad meeleheitlikud tobedad sammud ja plaadid mille ainus funktsioon on rippuda kaunistusena tagavaatepeegli küljes, suurepärased vokalistid (Dio) asendatakse pompöössete puudlimoeliste tühisustega (Tony Martin), "Snowblindi", "Into the Void'i", "Supernaudi", "Symptom of the Universe'i" ja muude tapjariffide looja saab hakkama millegi nii juustuse kui "Seventh Star"-albumiga ja nii edasi ja nii edasi. Praegused küll kõrges eas kuid vaieldamatud kultusstaatuses raske rocki jumaluste aupaistet nautivad heavygeeniused olid 80ndateks-90ndateks langenud sellisele Intsikurmu laululaval iga suvi "Farewell" tuuri sooritava Smokie tasemele ja gigantsed staadionid olid asendunud 300 inimest mahutavate räpaste klubidega ning privaatlennuk päevinäinud Ford Transitiga. Süüdistada selles paraku polnud mitte kedagi peale selle näo kes hr. Iommil peeglisse vaadates vastu vaatas.

Kõik teavad rockiparoodiat "This Is Spinal Tap", aga vähemalt mina küll ei teadnud, et stseen Stonehenge-lavakujundusega on elust maha kirjutatud ja see juhtus just Black Sabbathiga. Tõsi küll, vastupidi. Filmis aeti segi tollid ja meetrid ja taevast laskus põlvekõrgune Stonehenge, tegelikus elus juhtus vastupidine ja meistrid ehitasid tohutu 15 meetri kõrguse Stonehenge'i, mis ei mahtunud absoluutselt mitte kuhugi ja mida ei saanudki kasutada...

Naljad naljadeks, Sabbathi pingutusi oli lugeda väga valgustav; Mick Wall on päris hea kirjanik ja seda teemat valdas ta ikka peensusteni. Ühtlasi tasuks seda raamatut lugeda sellistel noortel, kes arvavad et rockstaari elu ongi selline eralennukiga ühelt staadionilt teisele lendamine, kokaiinikott taskus. Kuigi eks seal leidu ka seda, või vähemalt leidus, palju tänapäeval neid staadionirokkareid ikka enam jäänud on. Aga üldiselt need lendajad-nuusutajad väga kaua ei lenda, kui ikkagi midagi tõelist andekat ette näidata pole.

[Opetoritse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like the musical catalogue of the band that serves as its subject, Wall's chronicle of heavy metal's archetype has moments of exhilarating brilliance and others of underwhelming mediocrity, but taken on the whole can rarely be called bad. The writing is slightly above standard fare for a celebrity tell-all, layering on colorful figurative language in a way that strides just shy of trying too hard. There are more than a few run on sentences, unresolved clauses, and plain old typos, but it's never enough to make things unintelligible.

The content itself is as riveting as it gets for the genre, following the rollercoaster trajectory of one of rock's most groundbreaking and volatile bands. Even diehard fans are likely to find a few anecdotes and factoids they hadn't encountered before. Wall, having served as a press agent for Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, has a first-hand insight into the group's history and personal dynamics. Predictably, the band member of whom we are given the most intimate portrayal is Ozzy. This is in large part due to Ozzy having the biggest personality, but it's also because he is the one Wall has had the most access to, given that Wall also penned the Prince of Darkness's own biography. The second most fully realized personality is surprisingly not Tony Iommi, but Ronnie James Dio, again in part due to the latter's openness and the former's notorious tight-lipped nature. Still, it's disappointing to have most of the perspective on Iommi, the band's de facto leader, coming second- or third-hand. Even less time is spent with Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, an especial loss in Geezer's case as he was the principal lyricist of the band's heyday. Most of the direct quotes from Sabbath's non-Ozzy founding members come in the final chapter, which is mainly a series of interviews that make the reader wonder why more of the book couldn't have been this way (even if much of Bill and Geezer's contributions come in the form of Facebook posts).

Even so, there's enough here to walk away with at least a general idea of what all the major players were like, and while Wall doesn't pull his punches when it comes to skeletons in the closets, his writing leans more toward honest reporting than sleazy exposé. It's easy to tell that despite his insider knowledge of the less-than-savory aspects of his subjects lives, Wall retains a healthy respect for the amazing things these people have accomplished, and would like to cultivate the same feeling within readers.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inizio col dire che, non essendoci nel secolo scorso e ascoltando i Black Sabbath solo da quattro anni, non conoscevo molto più che l'essenziale. E quello che mi sono ritrovato è il ritratto completo, per quanto decisamente cupo, di persone che, attraverso molti alti e ancora più bassi e lotte personali non indifferenti, negli ultimi cinquant'anni hanno inciso la storia della musica in maniera ben più profonda di quanto probabilmente chiunque potesse credere all'epoca - musica che oggi mi è incredibilmente cara e che mi ha accompagnato per oltre metà della mia vita anche nei momenti peggiori. Di conseguenza, sono rimasta ammaliata. Consigliatissimo ai metallari tutti.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think for a second the music business is all glamour, read the first couple pages of this to understand how wrong that is.
Mick Wall delivers a great retelling of the saga of Black Sabbath.

[Rosalind · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read. I wanted to read more about the bands I've listened to for years and this book did not disappoint. Will be picking up more of Mick Wall for sure.

[Himanshu Damle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost in the darkness
I fade from the light
faith of my father, my brother, my maker, my saviour
Help me make it through the night
Blood on my conscience
And murder in my mind
Out of the gloom I rise up from my tomb into impending doom
Now my body is my shrine…

-- ‘God is Dead’, Black Sabbath – ‘13’

What is the Tritone, or the Devil’s Interval?

Tonny Iommi, the master of riffs is credited with introducing the Tritone in the opening riff of ‘Black Sabbath’, the song from the eponymous first album. This is where ‘Heavy Metal’ began, and the song is considered to be the first heavy metal song.

So, what’s the Tritone anyway? The Tritone is a musical interval spanning three whole tones. The Tritone is one of the most distinctive and unsettling intervals associated with dissonance and instability, and is known for its eerie sound, so much so that it is referred to as the Devil’s Interval or the Diabolus in Musica.

A Tritone is exactly half an octave, or six semitones. For example, in the key of C major, the Tritone would be the interval between C and F#, or G flat. Often called the augmented fourth (A4) or the diminished fifth (d5), contextually with the harmony, the sound created is filled with tension, ambiguity, and getting nowhere to resolve. This is the music of the foreboding, the haunting harmonic instability, which in the medieval period was out-rightly banned by the Church, for the institution believed that the Devil played the Interval himself.

Tony Iommi freaked out to a classical piece by Gustav Holst called ‘Mars, The Bringer of War’. The composition included a triad, and when Iommi imitated the sound on guitar, he liked the unsettling feeling it created. He experimented with the passage and slowed it down to a crawl. Thereafter, he added a trill to the flatted fifth, repeatedly wavering it before adding vibrato the other notes to emphasize the tension in the music thus created. This was Iommi’s introduction of the Devil’s Interval, the evil sounding combination of notes that births a darkened atmosphere. This atmosphere, in turn, introduced Black Sabbath, the song and the band to the world.

With Ozzy having gone on to the other side (RIP), and the Sabbath saga officially ending with a colossal ‘Back to the Beginning’ concert in the mid 2025, a few weeks before Ozzy’s passing, the godfathers of heavy metal, originally part of the British Unholy Trinity of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, one of the four defining moments in the 20th century musical history (in my opinion, the first being Robert Johnson’s superlative guitar playing after the encounter with the devil at the crossroads in the Mississippi Delta {the mythical one or?}, Miles Davies’ the blue moment {the Jazz crossover}, Black Sabbath’s invention of the heavy metal genre, and Napalm Death’s inhuman velocity while inventing the grindcore) have finally decided to hand their boots.

The four lads, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne were growing up in the British Midlands in Aston, a town that was dying even before being born, in a state of abject exclusion. It was chance that brought the four together calling themselves the Polka Tulk Blues Band, and then Earth, before settling down on the name synonymous with Heavy Metal, Black Sabbath. From Blues to the heavier sound, the transition was as a result of an accident, ironically on the last working day of Tony Iommi’s in a sheet metal factory, before the guitarist decided to focus on his music. The machine he was operating slammed into his left hand chipping off the top of his middle and ring fingers. Iommi, the southpaw player slid into depression thinking he would never get to play again, until his factory’s foreman urged him on to listen to Django Reinhardt, who only used two fingers to play his guitar after having lost his others in a dreadful fire accident. Iommi, then inspired, made thimbles to fit the lost tips of his fingers, down-tuned his guitar, used power chords and changed music forever.

Black Sabbath - Symptom of the Universe by Mick Wall is a book he was meant to write, as the sleeve puts it, thanks to his having worked with some of the band members for close to 35 years as a press agent. The book is a far cry from his own ‘When the Giants Walked the Earth’ (on Led Zeppelin), or even Joel McIver’s ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’. This is partly due to the entire book reading like a sponsored version from the Osbournes (both Ozzy and Sharon), and Tony Iommi being portrayed as an unsentimental task master, with Geezer and Ward as good as thrown to the margins; well as good as, though Ward’s ambivalence surfaces hither-thither. The addiction to drugs, alcohol and sex has been extrapolated to such a degree that the biography says little of their returning to sobriety or the procedures involved therein. The book, however does cover the lives of Ronnie James Dio, who helped stage one of the most spectacular comebacks for Black Sabbath with a masterly Heaven and Hell album, especially when the Sabs were written off after the disastrous last two albums with Ozzy fronting, viz. Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die. The unceremonious exit by Dio after Mob Rules, before staging yet another handsome comeback with 1992’s Dehumanizer reads like a plot already engineered with Dio succumbing to the vagaries of Iommi and Butler. Eventually Dio would be consumed by stomach cancer, but not before signing off on a high note with Heaven and Hell (the band that had Iommi play the guitars and Geezer bass).

With singers hard to come by in the wake of Ozzy’s departure in 1979 for a solo career that made the band looked like a pale shadow, the multiple line-up changes, especially on vocals, drums and bass did the Sabs dig their own graves, i.e. until Dio came along, but his departure surprised the rock world like nothing else would. Black Sabbath got Ian Gillan, the original vocalist of Deep Purple. Born Again was delivered, which was Gillan at his wailing best on tracks like Trashed, Disturbing the Priest and the highly disturbing title track, which undoubtedly was the icing on the cake. The album was mired in controversy, thanks to its cover, a Satanic baby with horns, claws and blackened color coda. Gillan left for Deep Purple shortly after. Once again without a singer, Glenn Hughes was roped in. Seventh Star had a typical bluesy guitar-work, especially Heart like a Wheel and listenable ballad, No Stranger to Love. Meanwhile Ozzy’s solo career had sky-rocketed with Randy Rhoads on guitars, but his untimely death in a plane crash was a shock the rock world would never recover from.

Now comes the gross disservice from the pen of Wall. The Tony Martin years have just been skimmed over. Martin, who according to my personal opinion was the brightest singer to front the Band had a vocal caliber, the notes of which Ozzy couldn’t be thought of reaching, or even Dio couldn’t with his vast range. The five albums by Martin, beginning with the Eternal Idol, Headless Cross and TYR (the inimitable Cozy Powell on drums), Cross Purposes and Forbidden have been mentioned as low points. This simply is a downer in Wall’s narrative. The albums mentioned have the riff master fluctuating from the melodic to the dark sounds Sabbath has been the inventors of. Relegating Martin to the periphery only adds a lot of dissent to the bio. I haven’t mentioned the early albums of the Ozzy-era, for the first five albums have left a legacy birthing stoner, doom, grunge and what-not of the various schisms of the Heavy Metal genre, and a lot of ink has been spilled over them. Of particular note is the third album, Master of Reality, which opens with the most famous cough in metal history, with Iommi’s opening riff to the classic Sweet Leaf.

While the Band eventually reunited, sans Ward for its final studio album ‘13’ after a lot of flip-flops and eventually giving in to the management skills of Sharon Osbourne, who, once her father’s child was determined to beat him at his own game in the music business, which she conveniently did, the saga of the Band will never dilute, even in retirement. Coursing through the ups and downs of life as musicians, including finagled by its own management in the heydays, the grit had always been metal-solid that saw the Aston boys live through almost 60 years of god-like figures, bouncing back when the cards were decidedly considered down.

[Matthew Lipson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, I enjoy listening to Metal in all its forms. Yes, I'm a fan of the band and of Ozzy Osbourne. This is what attracted me to the book along with an odd fascination for Rock biographies. Not of the individuals but of the bands they made up. My fascination started when I read my first band bio on The Who and I have never stopped. This is a world I will probably never live in, but we are all subject to the musical forces in our lives and how they influence us, mold us, display a certain aesthetic and philosophy that is all our own.

I remember in junior high going to a friends house. While there, he put on an album by a little known Band named Rainbow and Deep Purple, both fronted by an amazing guitarist by the name of Richie Blackmoore. My next window was Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath. Little did I know the link between Sabbath and Rainbow till I read this book.

It shows a sad and distressing tale of a group of middle of the blokes from Birmingham on how they stumbled into fame and eventually lost it to excessive coke use and infighting. The band would never be the same after the departure of Ozzy, even with the brief promise of Dio coming in as lead singer. Ozzy's own solo career would not exist if Sharon Arden, now Osbourne, hadn't dragged him out of his drug induced death spiral and back into the studio. This book goes into detail about this while giving blunt and unapologetic reviews of each album. Wall gives absolutely no reason to even think of listening to the albums between the Dio years and Heaven and Hell and follow up reunion album 13.

For Sabbath fans this will be a sobering look at a band who helped define a genre in its nascent stage. They will also see them try to hang to relevancy and eventually get it back, even if it is through the eyes of nostalgia. Black Sabbath is a power band, an influential band in spite of its core founders. This book shows this quite well.

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Black Sabbath offering would make my Top 3 rock albums of all time, & might even sneak into 1st place. I vividly remember hearing it for the 1st time in an import record store in Angel Arcade in 1969 - yes, I stood there, in my school uniform, pretending to browse record sleeves, for the entire 40 minutes. It was (& the word is way over-used these days) an awesome experience. I lost interest in the Sabbs after Volume 4 (until the Reunion live album), but Mick Wall successfully immersed me in the years since the golden Ozzy period & left me loving this book. I had already consumed Wall's Zeppelin biog When Giants Walked The Earth, his Doors book Like A Funeral Pyre, & his collection of articles Appetite For Destruction & was aware of his relaxed style that effortlessly captures the madness & excitement of the rock life. What is perhaps most astonishing in this book is that Ozzy comes across, in conversations/interviews, as by far the most perceptive member of the band. His insights are, at times, delightfully on the money, evn when talking about something like Live Aid. If you love rock music biogs that try harder than scandal & gossip then Wall's books might be for you.

[Adonay Quetzal · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I really wanted to give this a 3 1/2 Stars, Goodreads doesn't allow half star ratings. So I opted for 3 Stars mostly because of the content. The writing style is amazing, you really get drawn into their world, and the reviews of the albums within the book are enough to make you hop on Amazon and order all what he says is good and down vote all the albums he says suck. The difficult part of this book is though, the fact that the story of Black Sabbath is a god damn train wreak. When you get pulled into their world, you get hit with every ounce of shame and failure and coke that they buried themselves in for decades. It becomes a chore to carry on at times because just when you think they'd make the smarter choice - nope! They just end up digging themselves even deeper. But it is worth the trudging through though because the end of the book definitely does show the light at the end of the tunnel for Black Sabbath; assuming they don't fall back into their old ways. Hell, the last chapter has me thinking of finally checking out their album "13" on Spotify at least. So yeah, very well written and immersive but damn, they did a lot of coke.

[Michael Conland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent history of the band, but not especially well written. There are numerous times where someone is quoted and it's unclear who exactly is being quoted from the conversation, nor when/where the quote is taken from.

I also didn't especially care for the descriptions/reviews of each album release. A small synopsis of the album or the prevailing view of it would be fine, but track by track descriptions are just bloating the word count.

However, on the positive side, the book offers a decently balanced point of view from each of the four original members. I think it would be easy for something like this to get bogged down in Ozzy's celebrity or stuck in the tawdry details of their various addictions (think The Dirt), but it manages to avoid all that and instead lays out a very compelling version of events. Wall also does a great job of winding together the timelines of Sabbath and Ozzy as a solo artist (as well as all the other musicians who were involved at one time or another).

[Dáire Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the third Sabbath book I've read in the space of a year, the first two being I am Ozzy and Iron Man. It took a while for me to get into the book because the first couple of chapters basically retread the same story of how hapless the four of them were in Aston, and how scary Don Arden was. Things really started to get interesting when Ozzy was fired and they brought Dio in. Ozzy's book obviously wouldn't talk about what happened in Sabbath from that point on, but Wall definitely gives a more in depth insight than Tony Iommi's book ever did.

Overall, an enjoyable read. It's the first book by Wall that I've read, and most of my knowledge of him prior to this stemmed from Axl Rose's displeasure with the press in "Get in the Ring". Definitely interested in reading more of his material.

[Derek Neveu · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love all things rock and metal, then this and anything by Mick Wall is worth checking out! I learned and reinforced so much that I already knew about this band, and it's amazing that they made it this far, let alone lived to tell their tales. I'm glad that I was young and self absorbed in the eighties and early nineties, because I missed a lot of the misses and complete whiffs of that time period in Sabbath's catalogue, but either way Sabbath will always be the Ozzy and Dio eras to me. Both distinctly different, but equally bone crushing and mind blowing nevertheless.

[Tonarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again a good book from Mick Wall. Detailed, not obscuring the use of four letter words that goes with this territory, balanced and sometimes a bit of wandering a side path. If you like Black-Sabbath a must read. If you like (heavy) rock: dito. If you don't know who Black Sabbath is, be ashamed, buy an early Black Sabbath record and then read the book!

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative book on the genre founding band. Out of all the rock and roll band biographies I've read, this was the strangest in one important regard- I got the impression that author Mick Wall, in the end, didn't really like his subject. I like honest biographies, but Wall lays on the insults fairly thick.

[Jeremy Hallum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really kind of a sad book. Even though they threw it all away, in this biography, you can't help but feel a little sorry for Tony, Geezer and Bill. Worth reading once, for sure for its near completeness....

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides the early classic years and stuff about the original four members you get plenty about post Ozzy Sabbath and the revolving door of singers, Ozzy solo years, Randy Rhoads, Dio, Sharon Osbourne, Don Arden. Very well done book about one of my favorite bands ever.

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good story although I found times when I couldn’t conceive who was speaking or making comment. A good insight into the bands history and troubles.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wound up actually really enjoying this. Prior to delving into these pages I have always considered myself to be a somewhat casual fan of Black Sabbath yet also a massive fan of the metal genre in general. I had some prior knowledge going into this but nowhere near the depth of context and understanding of the band’s history than I do now. There’s plenty of story to tell and it’s no wonder why they are one of the most well known and instantly recognizable names in the industry. That said, what this book really brought to light for me was the fact that most of the Sabbath content I’m familiar with is of course, arguably their better iterations and most successful. In recent years I’ve explored their back catalogue of lesser know releases that lacked any sort of commercial success or traction only to find that honestly, I wasn’t a big fan in most instances. It’s no wonder now that I have a little bit of context. There’s massive egos, insane amounts of drug abuse paired with these constant delusional mentalities that make up the entire Sabbath story, one that is filled with ups and downs, woes and victories, laughs and flying fists all the same. If there is any band that needs to have their wild and crazy story told, I think this is it. What Mick Wall manages to accomplish here is nothing short of a victory in my opinion. Chronicling several decades of musical history, spanning across various musical and commercial movements, a plethora of band members and contributors, as well as the shady side of management and the hot/cold relationships and subsequent falling outs with Ozzy and Sharon as well as with Dio and Wendy. This is quite a wonderful and sprawling story and is great for even the die hard fans or the most casual fans of heavy metal. It’s quite a remarkable story to really step back and look at how this band changed the sonic makeup of music only to be cast to the wayside and lost in their own stupor of substance abuse and delusional mentalities. If I could offer my only critique, the structuring of the book could have been laid out a little better in my opinion. Sometimes it’s hard to follow the quotations of who is actually being quoted and what the context is. I would have much preferred some of the sentence structure to mimic that of an interview where things are separated out a bit and easier on the eyes. In some cases, it all sort of blends together. But that’s just me being picky. Overall 4.5/5
One of the best band profile kind of books I’ve ever come across in its thoroughness and sincerity to pull absolutely no punches.