Sabotage

AMG Review of Sabotage

Greg Prato
All Music Guide

Years of constant touring, alcoholism, and drug abuse finally began to affect Black Sabbath around the time of their sixth release, 1975's Sabotage. While it's not a bad album (in fact, it's one of their most underrated), you can sense that the magical chemistry that made such albums as Paranoid and Vol. 4 so special was beginning to disintegrate. But guitarist Tony Iommi again comes equipped with an arsenal of sturdy, ultra-heavy riffs, as evidenced by the raucous album opener, "Hole in the Sky," as well as the drug-induced anthem "Symptom of the Universe" -- both tracks coming as close to garage rock as Sabbath ever got. But the album's biggest surprise is the melodic, synth-laced "Am I Going Insane (Radio)," which is more akin to '70s power pop than to the band's patented doom metal (although the lyrics are what you'd expect -- detailing a person's downward spiral into dementia). Although often overlooked, Sabotage remains an interesting and challenging release.