February 13, 2010 by A.S. Van Dorston

Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut came out Friday the 13th, February 1970.

One of my neighbors in the apartment building I moved into when I was eight had this record. I heard it and Paranoid and Master Of Reality and had to go through emotional-scarring lengths to be able to hear it. My reward was that it scared the bejeezus out of me, just like the Salem’s Lot and Exorcist movies did (and my mom’s book Rosemary’s Baby). I unsuccessfully tried to borrow it, and was almost relieved that I couldn’t because I was afraid it would conjure demons under my bed if I kept it around! It was another decade before my own demons were mature enough to party with it.

Black Sabbath’s debut is easily the first indisputable metal album. While it still employs blues structures and even a mouth harp, nearly every song is pounded out with power chords. Not to mention it sounds goddam scary, particularly in the opening title track’s use of the tritone, the musical interval that spans three whole tones, like the diminished 5th or augmented 4th. The gap between two notes played in succession or simultaneously was known by medieval musicians as Diabolus in Musica – the Devil’s Interval. The Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages forbid the use of the tritone, believing it was the work of the devil. Nevertheless, the tricky tritone made appearances in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Giuseppe Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata, Wagner’s Gotterdammerung, even West Side Story’s “Maria.” Often harmonized in thirds in the harmonic minor scale, it produces a feeling of dread. It creates a spooky tension that can either lead to a major chord resolution, or simply leave listeners dangling over the abyss of despair.

The anniversary of Black Sabbath’s debut is no small event, and deserves, nay, DEMANDS proper celebration!!! Read more on metal: https://fastnbulbous.com/metal.htm.

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Now how the heck do I upload a song these days? I’m afraid MOG is this close to pissing off the demon metal gods!