Black Sabbath

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Black Sabbath

Post by absent » Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:44 pm

I've been listening to the first two Black Sabbath albums recently. I remain amazed by how awesome they still sound to me.
How about an article discussing the techniques/engineering on THOSE records?


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Re: Black Sabbath

Post by kdarr » Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:40 pm

absent wrote:I've been listening to the first two Black Sabbath albums recently. I remain amazed by how awesome they still sound to me.
How about an article discussing the techniques/engineering on THOSE records?

William Price
I don't know much about the specific techniques, but I have read in multiple interviews that the first record and Paranoid were each recorded in about a day.

Sabbath was a 7-night-a-week pub blues band before the record deal, so they had the chops to get those performances down more or less live, aside from the obvious overdubs like double solos and whatnot.

[<|>]

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Post by fossiltooth » Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:12 pm

I thought I'd just stop by to say that early sabbath rules.

All of the early stuff aside from volume 4 sounds awesome to me.

It makes me said to think that I might go my whole life never working something so influential, awesome sounding and badass.

...and I'm not much of a metal fan or classic rock fan at all.

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Post by TapeOpLarry » Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:42 pm

I thought they hit their peak with Dio on board. Kidding.
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Post by Vogon » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:51 pm

fossiltooth wrote:...and I'm not much of a metal fan or classic rock fan at all.
Well, I don't like that much other metal, but still I listen to sabs stuff.
I really like Never Say Die, for the disgusting phasey guitar sounds and lunatic arrangements... though this album is apparently pretty un-cool to the hardcore fans.

Iomi is the master of fun riffs.
Actually they're all brilliant in their own ways.

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Re: Black Sabbath

Post by ultravioletray » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:28 am

I'd be interested in reading that article. Me, and my Sabbath cover band (no joke!).

Sometimes it seemed like Iommi would put his stack in a giant hall, and crank the crap out of it. I'm guessing it's something else, but wouldn't it be nice? I still maintain the dream...

Looking up Black Sabbath in the Wikipedia, Rodger Bain was the producer of the first three records. Apparently he let them record live, and then do the overdubs. The most I could find (without spending another hour on this damn machine) on him was this:

http://www.answers.com/topic/rodger-bai ... ertainment

and this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodger_Bain

FWIW, he did the first Judas Priest record as well.


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Post by PeterAuslan » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:34 am

Something about that band...albums are louder and better produced these days yet no one can beat the "heaviness" especially on the first 3 records.

+1 on Never Say Die - odd album, but fascinating.

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Re: Black Sabbath

Post by ultravioletray » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:47 am

Uhm....

Found another link, on closer inspection of the Paranoid Wiki article. And then I'll stop, because I could go all day on this. It's an article that has some interesting stuff about them recording Paranoid, which was eventually done at Island Studios - a church converted into a recording studio. Hopefully this isn't total sacrilege linking to another recording mag. But whatever, we take from where we can. Enjoy.

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_classic_tracks_black/


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Post by A-Barr » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:37 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqy4DTHGqg

I think the reason Paranoid was so great is that it's nice and stripped down. Just awesome arrangements, great playing, great, great guitar sounds, man that looks like such a blast for those guys.

The solo at 6:16 in that video is just one of my favorite rock n roll moments.

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Post by fossiltooth » Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:17 am

A-Barr wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtqy4DTHGqg

I think the reason Paranoid was so great is that it's nice and stripped down. Just awesome arrangements, great playing, great, great guitar sounds, man that looks like such a blast for those guys.

The solo at 6:16 in that video is just one of my favorite rock n roll moments.
Great link.

They're so good it's depressing.

I can't believe those motherf*ckers are all 22 years old when this was filmed, and can play that f*ing good. I just want to walk around my apartment beating my head against things and dropping f* bombs all over the place.

We should all be ashamed of ourselves.

F*ing musicians and sh*t. Do they still make those anymore?

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Post by Jeff White » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:37 pm

I guess Rock and Fucking Roll meant something back then.
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Post by kayagum » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:45 pm

One thing that amazes me is how mid-heavy the recordings were. No crazy lows or highs. But somehow it stays heavy. Maybe it's the arrangements, not the EQ.... hmm....

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Post by rripror » Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:29 pm

... i love 'never say die'! 'Technical ecstasy' was also an interesting record.

Really appreciated the album 'sabbath bloody sabbath' :twisted:
" it was the year of the wolf, and all the world smelled good "

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Post by Alex Netick » Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:31 am

It sounds better than I thought it would. I don't know -- I used to love those Sabbath records when I was 15, but as I approach 40, they seem kind of stupid -- a bit like Spinal Tap, but with a bunch of horror-movie religious mumbo jumbo.

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Post by idealfreedistribution » Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:21 pm

They're really stupid if you just listen to the leerics by themselves, but rock and roll ain't about a lyric sheet. It's the whole sound that counts, and the first two records sound awesome.
Craig

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