BLACK SABBATH — Vol 4 (review)

BLACK SABBATH — Vol 4 album cover Album · 1972 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Changes...

Genre: heavy rock / heavy metal / doom metal

After having been on a roll of groundbreaking records, Black Sabbath's "Vol. 4.", while still a great album, and unique, having the typical Sabbath sound and Iommi trademark riffage stamped all over it, is less engaging than the preceding albums. That does not mean that "Vol. 4." is a bad album, which contains a number of strong songs, but it also seems that the band were growing tired at this point.

There are plenty of heavy riffs as the intro and main riffs of "Wheels of Confusion", which in general contains a plethora of cool hard rocking guitar riffs, as does the stoner "Tomorrow's Dream". "Changes" is a cheesy piano-based ballad, which may have worked better with another vocalist. "Supernaut" is another stoner rock tune whose driving Iommi riffs are as headbanging-inspiring as anything, and then it contains a nice little percussion-driven bridge. "Snowblind" is a quite heavy track, but its main track ,and while it's a good song, to be sure, it doesn't quite reach the level of heavy classics like "Iron Man", "Black Sabbath", "Electric Funeral" and the like, "Cornucopia" is a very dark tune which blends doom-laden slow riffs with uptempo boogie-driven riffs, and, while it is not as well known as "Snowblind" it is a more engaging and captivating song, I think. "St. Vitus Dance" strikes me as being a bit ordinary compared to a lot of the other material on the record, while "Under The Sun / Every Day Comes And Goes" is a heavy doomy rock song, with uptempo parts, which has not been given the attention it deserves.

As with the preceding album, "Vol. 4" has an extremely dirty guitar sound which suits the heavy and dark hard rock style of Black Sabbath.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Из Чего Я Состою Crust Punk
MARIE GUELLA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Surowica / Slavenkust Hardcore Punk
SLAVENKUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Surowica / Slavenkust Crust Punk
SUROWICA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Nie Wydarzy Się Crust Punk
SUROWICA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Repulsive Forms Sludge Metal
UMA
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
In Sulfur - Parasite (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
In Sulfur - Abysmal Grave (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO)
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
In Sulfur - Windchaser(OFFICIAL VIDEO)
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
In Sulfur - From Green/To Grey (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed