Vol. 4

Ozzy's voice is so pure on this album. It's great to hear this album on this day (the day after Ozzy's death), considering I know Black Sabbath, but don't know this album. Liked Songs Added: Changes Snowblind Cornucopia

After their first 2 albums that were ground breaking this one doesnt seem to be equal altough fucking amazing

Somethings go better with Coke. Great album. Popped up on the day after Ozzy passed. Should’ve appreciated him more while he was alive.

First off RIP Ozzy, you went from this hard core dude who bit the head off of a bat to an animated Trolls character, really solidifying yourself in pop culture. This album is actually pretty good to me. Metal hard core rock can at times be a bit much, but Black Sabbath manages to merge the loud guitars, yelling lyrics and random anger in metal into a palatable experience for a main stream audience. Could 'hardcore' metal fans say this means they 'sold out' sure, but I always have a hard time with people getting mad when others create music that can be received by the masses....are you mad or jealous? This album makes me want to listen to Black Sabbath more and maybe learn more about the genre in general...isn't that good? Solid 4 to me

Black Sabbath are masters of groove metal. Props to some great guitar riffs and awesome drumming. And respect to Ozzy for his legendary voice. Overall, I especially liked the first songs of the album more than the second. With the exception of FX, which is just some wankery incindental bullshit. But only serves to function in the listening of the album as a whole by creating an intermission piece before kicking into Supernaut which is a pretty awesome song. One thing I like about Sabbath is their willingness to do something unexpected like Changes or Laguana Sunrise, a mellow guitaring instrumental. I seriously hope they opened a few shows with this song because it would be the kind of opener to give you chills. As for the second half of the album, St. Vitus Dance is pretty rocking. "The title comes from Saint Vitus (290-303), the Christian patron saint of dancing. “Saint Vitus’ Dance” or Sydenham’s chorea is a disorder brought on by bacterial infection in the brain, named after the Saint. It results in uncontrollable muscle spasms in the hands and feet." - But the lyrics are actually just Ozzy giving some friendly relationship advice about giving a girl another chance.

Lot of shredding all the tracks except Laguna Sunrise, which was a welcome change of pace. Low 4.

7/10 - It was pretty good

Really liked this. Unless I’m forgetting something this is my favorite metal album we’ve had thus far by a lot, really good

I feel bad not giving a 5,but it's just not as good as some of their other albums.

4.5

RIP Ozzy. Far from my favorite Sabbath record, but happy to rip this one today. This is far less sludgy with a more refined air to it than its predecessors, with some more "tender" offerings within -- looking at you Changes. Things kick off with multi-part opener in Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener. First part is great, but The Straightener is a straight ripper through the conclusion. Love the fretwork and whatever the hell gives the tone in the background. Never been the biggest fan of Changes in an isolated environment, but listening to it now, it is really hard to deny the simple beauty of it. The synth warble lends a ghostly undertone to the sparse piano arrangement and Ozzy's vocal delivery is nothing other than solid. FX serves as a nice sonic interlude as we transition back into the space of Metal proper with Supernaut. Snowblind ranks among the great rock odes to cocaine. Love the intro riff on Cornucopia -- so ominous. Kind of wish it stayed so sludgy, but its a great song regardless. Under the Sun / Every Day Comes and Goes is just a fantastically satisfying closer. As I said in the intro, not my favorite from Sabbath, but plenty to love. This is a soft 4 for me.

Funny how the first track starts like they were in the middle of the song when they hit record. Changes reminds me of Bigmouth, didn't realize it was a Black Sabbath song. Laguna Sunrise was great. High 4 for Volume 4!

I just read the other day that Ozzy took so much acid before writing this album that he stood in a field for hours until a deer came up to him and told him to fuck off, and that is why he stopped taking acid. Not super familiar with this one from Black Sabbath but it sounded super raw and just straight metal. Snowblind and Under the Sun were the top songs on this for sure. Excellent album in a vacuum but in terms of Sabbath it was not in their top tier for me. Very high 4 still

Heavy metal, but nothing spectacular

Awesome

Liked it but would not buy.

Awesome album. Also crazy that it came through the week of Ozzy's passing. Happy to have it run across my desk and be able to reflect on his music. Great listen.

RIP Ozzy

Another great album that I've heard some of the songs but didn't know who sang them. And especially special and melancholy with the passing of Ozzy Osbourne.

Nice guitar, quite good, not a 10/10 though.

RIP OZZY 4.5

Oh sick, everybody's covered this.

This is the first I've listened to a full Black Sabbath album. I was expecting heavy metal for the whole album and I was pleasantly surprised by the variety. I can see why they're a beloved band

RIP Ozzy.

Rocks hard, and occasionally simple and beautiful

I got this album the day after Ozzy passed away. It is a Black Sabbath album that I not listened to before. I knew Changes and Snowblind but the rest were new and it was good. Not amazing like some of the previous ones but good non the less.

Even though I like rock and hard rock music, I hardly expected this album to be anything I’d like. I was pleasantly surprised to find it quite good, balanced and satisfying to listen to.

Solid metal, very enjoyable

8/10 changes and supernaut are the reason this album is among their best. 7-31-2025

This album being the one that was generated a day after Ozzy died: OUCH 4/5

klassisch schön

Got this one 2 days after Ozzy died. Long songs, great riffs, passionate vocals. Would listen again

First time I listened to it I did not like. I listened to it again in the morning and it's been playing nonstop!

Alright, now this is getting a little weird. I get this record the day after Ozzy passes? This is the second time this year this coincidence has happened - the first being "Pet Sounds" by The Beach Boys the day after Brian Wilson passed. This is a fantastic record. "Changes" is such an important song to me and resonates so loudly with my being. The entire record certainly hits a bit different now that Ozzy has crossed over to the other side, but it does not objectively devalue its beautiful composition. Even the engineering and mixing is so impressive. Such a variety of moods on this record compared to another one of their classic records such as "Paranoid." This is truly an album that we should all listen to before we die.

7/23/25. Glad to finally dive deeper into Black Sabbath, R.I.P. Ozzy Osbourne. Feel like this lays the groundwork for a lot of later stoner/desert rock bands that I like, the guitar tone is incredible.

RIP to a legend. Ozzy will be missed. I enjoyed this album but it's not my favorite Sabbath work. Changes is so different from what I expect that it delights me every time I come back to it. Apart from that gem, Under the Sun was the only other stand out for me. The rest where good not great.

Great sound. I got this album the day after Ozzy died - spooky!

I'm sure everyone has a Sabbath or Ozzy record today. Such a loss yesterday. Whether or not you're a fan of heavier music, Ozzy's influence and contributions to music in general are undeniable. My first thought listening to this album today is that it's incredible that this is from 1971. It's pretty heavy even listening to it now 50+ years later. I would imagine when this came out it was kind of like that line in Back to the Future: 'I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.' When this was released I bet most people couldn't really even fathom what they were hearing. It was so much different from even the harder rock at the time. I mean Led Zeppelin IV came out that year too but this just kind of hits different I think. And actually now looking at records from 1971, that was a great year for music - Hunky Dory, Who's Next, Maggot Brain, Sticky Fingers, Fragile, What's Going On. Damn. But still, this is a little different from all of those. This is a great album. I don't like it as much as Paranoid, that's an absolute fucking masterpiece. This album has a couple slow spots on it for me - Changes isn't my favorite, and the weird 2 minutes of random sounds kind of takes you out of it. But then you come back strong with Supernaut and that's a banger. And I feel like Bill Ward doesn't get enough credit - that guy was a monster drummer. Really good drums on this record. 4/5

RIP Ozzy

Look, Vol. 4 isn’t a bad album. It just followed three of the greatest albums ever made in a row.

I was expecting a theatrical 70s mess, but holy Prince of Darkness, Vol. 4 rocks harder and cleaner than a band with a cocaine line item in their budget has any right to. "Changes" was a my favorite, a tender, piano-laced left turn that somehow didn’t feel out of place. But what in Lucifer's fresh hell was "FX" all about?

RIP Ozzy. Tuli aika sopivasti tää levy nyt Ozzyn kuoleman jälkeen. Vähän tuntemattomampaa Sabbathia ja jopa yllättävän iloista. Ei siltikään mikään Sabbathin paras levy. Perus hyvää Sabbathia kuitenkin. Parhaat: Changes, Snowblind, Under the Sun / Every Day Comes and Goes

One of the great things about this album is the diversity on display. You might expect a relentlessly heavy kind of thing, but it’s actually really melodic and quite surprising. You know straight away on the first track when it segues into that kind of vibey, mellow musical breakdown. Then obviously ‘Changes’ is a real change of pace. But of course this is a rock record, and there’s plenty of great riffs and good guitar work on here. I love Snowblind which has a bit of everything.

This album should remind folks that Black Sabbath wasn't just a bunch of two chord musicians and Ozzie wasn't just biting bat heads off and screaming into the mic. RIP

Não é o melhor álbum deles mas tem Changes e mais duas tracks animais, Iommy revelando-se um ótimo produtor, a banda estava em forma...a capa (!!!), merece 4,5 estrelas

Well this is timely since Ozzy just died yesterday. I’m not really a Sabbath fan, but Paranoid has some really good songs on it. So how does this album stack up to that? Not as many iconic, undeniable songs. But also it’s way more of a psych rock sound, which I like more than metal. So on a personal level I enjoyed it a lot

I got this the day after Ozzy died. it was pretty great.

Right of the bat, I liked the start of this album more than paranoid. The mix is better and as a huge fan of corrosion of conformity, it's very easy to hear to the influence that black Sabbath on them! Very experimental and I was surprised to hear so many unconventional song structures from Black Sabbath. I will admit that I've definitely blown them off, historically, due purely to the fact I've heard some of their songs (iron man) a million times without seeking them out. I am glad to say that my pre-concieved opinion of them was wrong and that they're are quite enjoyable. I never understood what it was about them that made people absolutely love them, but I am starting to understand....

Listening day after Ozzy’s death. Album a bit all over the place but fantastic! Snowblind tells it all. Gorgeous surprise to me Laguna Sunrise.

Great album all the way through. RIP Ozzy.

RIP Ozzy Osbourne first of all. Paranoid was pretty good, but I need to listen to this another time.

Belting rock classic; highlights were Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener and Changes. RIP Ozzy

RIP Ozzy - can't believe I started listening to Black Sabbath the day he passed.

Surprisingly solid - no a Sabbath fan, but some very good songs here.

Pretty solid album, I always love me some Sabbath. Not quite as good as their debut though.

some good classic heavy metal, which i like

The best Sabbath album I’ve listened to so far. It starts with two great tracks, Wheels of Confusion and Tomorrows Dream, before the unbearable dirge that is Changes begins playing. Changes appears to be the most popular track on the album and I’m not entirely sure why - who listens to Sabbath for ballads? The song doesn’t fit Ozzy’s voice or style at all and sticks out like a sore thumb in the midst of the rest of the heavy riffs present on essentially every other track. Thankfully, the album improves drastically on Side 2, with the crazy run of Cornucopia, with a quintessentially Sabbathesque dark and moody sound, through to the album closer, Under the Sun. Overall, it was an album I incredibly enjoyed listening to and definitely see myself coming back to in the future. 8/10

Liked it more than I thought I would, especially St. Vitus’ Dance.

RIP Ozzy. Good to hear some of their more experimental tunes.

Tú qué sabes de rock chamaco pndjo

I was surprised how secondary the lead vocals were in favor of the guitar work. The guitar riffs are amazing. There is some variety to the record which makes it a satisfying listen

Surprised myself by enjoying this album that I resisted in my teen years :)

I listened to this yesterday at the news of the passing of Ozzy. Glad to get this today as a tribute. I think this one is my least favorite of the big BS albums. You can practically hear the cocaine in it which I find to be a good effect on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but here, it's a lot less focused. Obviously there are some bangers- Snowblind, Supernaut, Changes, among others. But there's some experimentation that, while commendable, ever so slightly misses the mark for me. Still, I love it.

First time hearing this album. It’s raw, nice flow of tracks from start to finish. Would listen again.

8/10

Love Supernaut, but the rest was not as good in my opinion. Maybe if I listen to the previous three albums, I'll appreciate this one more.

Slower than I thought it would be. Great Album

Iconic Black Sabbath, shows great range with Changes

Not bad! Liked it more than I expected. Free Gaza though.

Rip ozzy! Really important album, and just crazy how early in the timeline of metal music they were writing this stuff. Personally i really enjoyed listening to it again - doesnt have any weak points, and has some really great songs, and incredible riffs (supernaut!!). Wish i could give a 4.5 out of 5 for the rating, as it definitely sits between 4/5 and perfect for me. But have to go with a very very strong 4/5.

While I don't love Ozzy's vocals, the guitar, bass, and drums go so hard in this album. It's hard not to enjoy the music. This is 70s rock at its best. Favorite track: Snowblind.

Great rock album

Ozzy was the master

Ah, the super random album selection today is... huh. Well good call because any Ozzy is good Ozzy, and I've actually never listened to this one! Which is a shame cuz it fucking rules. I don't have much to add to the billions of words being written about the legend, suffice to say the legend is accurate. RIP to a metal god.

Good dirty metal fun

Bängää

still sounds fresh

A stunning, heavy metal record with amazing vocal performance and insane guitar riffs. A surprising mixture of heavy metal with softer and deeper cuts like Changes. Ozzy will be missed, and his influence on Metal can't be overstated

Music history!

Inte Paranoid bra, ändå mysigt för att vara hårdrock!

A classic.

1. Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener - 9 Solid vocals paired with an absolutely massive lead guitar. Great riffs are paired with a solid drum that leads the track between the pleasing verses and great instrumental segments. This is a double track, which Wheels of Confusion being the shining song of the two. Having said that, The Straightener is a purely instrumental part of the song and it's brilliant with an awesome guitar solo. 2. Tomorrow's Dream - 8 Solid track. Great good vocals and a great guitar sound. The percussions on the drums sound excellent. Overall a pleasant sound. 3. Changes - 11 Brilliant song. I heard the Charles Bradley cover and it's just as good. Lyrically it's an unbelievable song. Instrumentally it's just as strong. Incredible piece of music. 4. FX - 0 Pointless piece of music. 5. Supernaut - 8 Solid song. Mostly instrumental but they're very good outside of the bridge which I find a little bit dull. Lyrics, when they are there, are great. 6. Snowblind - 9 Incredible guitar right at the halfway mark of the track and again in the outro. Absolutely amazing sound. It tone changes twice in the track which one the second one comes a bit without warning but it eventually builds back into the great sound we've come to love from Black Sabbath. 7. Cornucopia - 6 Another song with a tone shift half way through. Song instrumentally just feels too all over the place. Can't really get into it because all the tempo and beat changes. Leaves you exhausted with it by the end. 8. Laguna Sunrise - 7 Pure instrumental but a great sound. Acoustic guitar sounds really nice alongside the strings. 9. St. Vitus' Dance - 7 Lead guitar is so nice on this track and leads the song well. The lyrics leave a little to be desired in the first verse, but overall it's a decent track. 10. Under The Sun - 8 Decent song. Really great drum line on it but the octave of the lyrics is really off-putting in the middle part of the song. Almost reminds me of a track on the SNES game Uniracers. Ending sound on the guitars and drums is really good. It's a solid way to conclude the album. Average Rating: 7.30 Adjusted to a 5-Point Scale: 3.65 Rounded Up: 4 Stars

Heavy but also catchy. Some classic OG Heavy Metal here.

Not the best by Sabbath, but a classic. RIP Ozzy!!! Fav: Supernaut

Second Black Sabbath album (presumably this time because of Ozzy) This was super good RIP

Well, it’s nice that the generator shines a light on recently deceased artists. First up was Brian and now it’s Ozzy. Interestingly enough, I could’ve gotten the more famous records such as Paranoid and the debut, but I was given Vol. 4. From prior knowledge, I knew the song Changes (from Big Mouth, sadly), so a lot of this was new to me. Overall, I had a good time with it. The songs that are actual songs (and not odd sound effects) move me in a direction that I like for heavy metal. Early heavy metal is dark, gloomy but doesn’t go to the extreme. The lyrics are dark, the vibe is intense and the energy is incomparable. That’s something I can go for: just some great hard rock. What Ozzy did for music with Sabbath and by himself is something I have to praise. I’m glad that I got a moment to honor him today (8/10, 4/5 on this scale)

Excellent

I've spent my entire life avoiding Black Sabbath mainly due to the myth (Not entirely interested in a band that bites heads of bats) and because "Hard" metal wasn't my thing. Happy to say this project forced me into listening to my first Black Sabbath record and it was...pretty good. Excellent musicianship and the lyrics were surprisingly insightful. I look forward to digging into more of their work.

RIP Ozzy. Not as complete an album as Paranoid but that Supernaut riff makes we want to run through a brick wall.

The classic status of this one depends solely on what you think of Changes. Personally, I find it very moving, especially in the wake of Ozzy’s death. It isn’t their greatest, but it’s one of the all time great cocaine albums.

R.I.P. Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness. The story behind this record is that it was really difficult to get done because everyone was jacked up on cocaine—they were having it smuggled in via speaker boxes. They were going to call it Snowblind but Vertigo Records thought that was too edgy, so they changed the name and album cover at the last minute while Black Sabbath was on vacation. It’s got two of my favorite Sabbath songs on it: “Changes” and “Supernaut” are the songs that I think shine particularly bright, but the whole album is cohesive. It’s the first Black Sabbath album that Lester Bangs had anything good to say about. While I like Master of Reality and Paranoid a bit better, the first five Sabbath records were all so wonderful and worthy of high praise, no matter what Lester Bangs said.

Typically I prefer Ozzy’s solo stuff over Black Sabbath but I quite enjoy this album.

RIP Ozzy. One of the great pioneers of music. Sabbath are known for the heavy stuff, but honestly even their less heavy stuff like Changes are still excellent. There's definitely an element of experimentation in this album. FX is literally just sound effects.

How timely. Not only an album I grew up with but just 2 days after his death.

Great.

RIP Ozzy \m/ frankly it's a miracle he lasted as long as he did, based on the sheer amount of drugs he consumed during the making of this record alone. But the end result speaks for itself.

Love that I got to listen to this right after ozzy’s death. Focusing on this record, it’s not one of my favorites but it’s still great. I always an enjoyed little interludes like Laguna sunrise to offset the sludginess. Great album closer in under the sun…ozzy is an icon

im going through changes! what a beautiful song. RIP to a legend

A solid album

RIP to a legend

RIP Ozzy not my fav Sabbath tho sorry

Absolute classic. RIP

I was very impressed with the depth of sound and variety of melody and instruments that shared space adjacent to metal

If I'm going to have to listen to metal, this is what I want to listen to. Hell of a voice, great guitar tone, surprising highs and lows. Ozzy is a legend. RIP

this was pretty decent. still not exactly my thing but i could appreciate it for what it was—it was much more dynamic and blues-adjacent than other heavy metal, to the extent that i don’t even know if you could really call this heavy metal. but what do i know…

hey that was pretty good. idk this worked for me more than other heavy metal, i guess because i liked his delivery better and felt like the music ebbed and flowed in a way that felt more interesting and varied to me than just pure consistent volume (which is how a lot of other metal sounds to me).

Some good heavy metal. Liked what was going on the whole time. RIP Ozzy, poetic that this album came up the day after his death. Probably won't seek out again, but still good nonetheless.

RIP Ozzy - this album rocks.

Rip Ozzy. This album goes hard, although I don’t feel like there are many recognizable songs on here. Just Going Through Changes which is kind of a weak sabbath song. But the rest on this album are dank

Great

This is my first Black Sabbath album and I enjoyed it way more than I was expecting. I thought I would get tired of his voice or the heavy sound, but this album does a nice job breaking things up with calmer, melodic tracks like "Changes" and "Laguna Sunrise". RIP, I’m gonna snort a line tonight in honor of the Prince of Darkness. Favorite tracks: - Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener - Changes - Supernaut

Pretty awesome album! Ozzy is a legend!

rips

Supernaut is one of the absolute bangers of all time

The album where Ozzy gave up taking acid after talking to a horse for an hour and the horse told him to Fuck Off.

I'm not a huge Black Sabbath fan but I have to say, almost every song I hear from them just meets a baseline of "this is great" and even though it's not 100% my thing, if any one of the songs on this album came on in my general area, I'd be fine.

Excellent. Had some variation between songs, vocals and drums were impressive.

I'm starting to realize I should've been listening to Sabbath a lot more all these years.

I listened to a fair amount of Ozzy solo in my youth, he was hard to avoid when you subscribed to multiple guitar magazines in the early 90s. Black Sabbath not so much, and I'm now wondering why their music was not played on the classic rock and hard rock stations, outside of Iron Man every once in a while. Also for some reason I thought Changes was an Ozzy song from the 80s/90s this whole time. This stuff is great.

Shocked SHOCKED that there was a Black Sabbath album today. It was better than I remember. It's probably a 3.5 but again, we don't have that and so remembrance and numerology, this nets a 4. Top Tracks: "Changes," "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes," "Laguna Sunrise"

Great riffs, love the vocals - feels bluesy in places, much more closely related to hard rock than the thrashier metal of the 80s and extreme metal of the 90s. Has the sensitivity of Changes - which somehow fits right in with the other tracks - and the nice folkiness of Laguna Sunrise. Rest of the tracks all rule

Well done generator. Always knew of Sabbath, but never did any intentional listening. Reading the Apple summary of the album, I was surprised/not surprised by the shear amount of...em, nose candy, being used in its creation. Despite being being very much in an altered state, the sound is tight and reasonably well put together. I think this would have been better as a 6 song ep to be 5 star worthy.

that was some solid rock!

Well rounded album

Liked more than I thought. Good music to work to.

4.3/rip to a real one

No one sounded like these guys at the time and no one has really sounded like them ever since. As the years went on metal became really loud and chaotic and busy but this is just fucking heavy. The entire band played (and sang) like John Bonham drummed. Then some really nice interludes with changes and Laguna Sunrise. Bravo. Fare thee well, Ozzy.

I listen to a lot less hard rock and metal now than I did when I was a teenager but this was good enough to make me want to revisit the Megadeth album we got a couple months ago that I gave a firm 2. Hard to believe this and the other early Sabbath albums were happening as early as they did. Truly one of the few bands dropped from outer space.

RIP to a king. You're classic heavy metal with some surprise changeups (Changes, Laguna Sunrise) that highlights their collective talent.

RIP OZZY! Really impressive album where the band, now well established, got an opportunity to show off that there was more to Black Sabbath than doom

I was hoping the languid blues cold open was a continuation of a final fadeout on Masters of Reality, like a drugged-out Finnegans Wake or something, but Black Sabbath does what Black Sabbath does - fill the shadows of one's heart with a gothic potential and actually offer something different. The fathers of bleak metal were really a hippie rock band of the finest order and Vol. 4 might be the peak, album-wise., of that trajectory. RIP Ozzy, god of teenagers, scourge of uptight parents, most successful myth maker since the Greeks or at least Kiss, one of the greatest male singers in rock.

Talk about timing! The intro on “Wheels of Confusion” is one of my favorite album opener anywhere. It feels like a soundtrack to an epic, chamber-clearing bong hit, going straight to the brain and transporting you to a different plane where time and perception shift. Vol. 4 is book-ended by the absolutely filthy riff-fest of “Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes.” In between is plenty of dark and doomy playing, adventurous songs and excellent vocal performances by Ozzy. “Laguna Sunrise” is a gorgeous palette cleanser of classical guitar, but the sentimental “Changes” misses the mark, portending sappy 80s hair metal ballads (Charles Bradley completely reinvigorated the song with his wrenching, soulful cover; look it up if you’re not familiar). There are some stone-cold classic Toni Iommi riffs here.

Really good but not up to par with the first three albums. Still rocked out to it and would listen again and again. 4.5

what those hands do

This is surprisingly catchy, it doesn’t feel edgy or tryhard, but more like pop/blues/folk music meandering down a dark alley, into a weird headspace. I found it easy to get into; good vocals and drums. RIP Ozzy. I’m glad we could all take part in this together.

Aww Ozzy. 💔

MET0L! Rest in Paradise Ozzy! It is crazy to think that he only performed about 2 weeks ago in Birmingham with the whole metal ensemble. I'm kind of remorseful of not going to Ozzy's leaving party, but I have to remember I'm not really a metalhead anymore. This however, was great to visit. I have not listened to this before but I really enjoyed it. A wide variety of musical styles blended into one great 42 minute package. Special thanks to their sponsor: Columbian Marching Powder

Good night, sweet prince

RIP Ozzy :***( Klassischer Ozzy Sound, aber für mich jetzt auch nicht n legendäres Metal Album. War gut

Im going through changeees. Hätte nicht gedacht, dass ich Black Sabbath so mag \m/

Perhaps given the prescience of Ozzy’s recent passing, the opening of Wheels of Confusion felt like it had an eerie sense of finality to it. It does give way into your standard Black Sabbath fair afterward though with some pleasantly lengthy tracks. Nothing on here that I would say tops Paranoid but that’s a fucking mount everest of a hurdle to leap frankly. I love how without making anything overly intricate, Sabbath were able to culturally shape the sound of darkness and evil that is still present to this day. RIP Ozzy, even before I had properly listened to your music and only knew you through your cameo in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged me I could tell you were a real one

Great album. Definitely prefer paranoid though. Its more dynamic, varied and complex. Extremely backloaded Snowblind through to Under the Sun are phenomenal. 8/10

RIP Ozzy The first album of Black Sabbath's I ever went out of my way to listen to because a girl I met at an Iron Maiden concert recommended it to me and I was super keen on her so I listened to it a bunch (you can guess how this ended). That was ten years ago and now it's time to revisit it (along with all my trauma-blocked embarrassing memories)! Overall, it's not exactly what you expect from a metal album with my two favourite tracks being the soft ones (Changes and Laguna Sunrise). The variety here is what makes this a great album. Rather than being a one-track metal/rock album, the band experiment and change things up. Sometimes this even happens on the same song (Wheels of Confusion and Under the Sun feel like they're frankenstein'ed together in the best way possible). The original title for this album was Snowblind, owing to the fact that these guys were consuming marching powder by the kilo during its making. Whatever they paid for all of that, it was well worth it. Highlights: Wheels of Confusion, Changes, Supernaut, Laguna Sunrise, Under the Sun

Never been much of a metal guy, so didn’t know much behind Ironman, paranoid, and war pigs, none of which ever really grabbed me. But this album is really good - heavy in a fun way, but also interspersed with softer stuff I didn’t know they had in their catalog. My favorite is changes, which I think is the most distinct of the songs on this album. If I have a criticism, it’s about lack of catchiness despite the abundance of riffs. While I liked listening to all of these songs, after three spins through this album the only one I remember the tune to is Changes. Anyway, RIP ozzy. Even though I blame him in some ways for the rise of the kardashians, he seemed like a fun dude so I don’t hold it against him. And he had better pipes than I thought.

Holy mother fucker. This album hits wayyyy harder than I thought it would. I did a quick run through of Ozzys hits with my wife last night. Some fun tracks, sure, but I left thinking that we’ve moved beyond his style. It felt a little depressing This flipped me big time. Supernaut sounded like a Hendrix song with a little Paul Simon in the middle. Changes was pure theater. Snowblind and Cornoucopia were great as well. The album sounds metal, but has hits of pop and random all over the place.

I’m of a generation that knows Ozzy more for the Osbournes than for his music. I was never allowed to watch it in grade school but would sneak it in the basement or at a friends house after school. I knew Crazy Train and some other hits not by name, but this record is so different from what I expected from Sabbath. Kind of psychedelic and proggy at times. And Changes was just so surprising - did not expect them to have a ballad in them. Not going full 5 - this is rocks and will come back to it, but none of the songs are super memorable or iconic in the end.

I was listening to Janes Addiction's Pigs in Zen the other day and thought - this sounds like a Black Sabbath song. They are incredibly influential. This album had a few surprises including a ballad (Changes). R.I.P. Ozzy.

Honestly I don’t like this one as much as the other Black Sabbath album we reviewed but it’s still good. My view is admittedly a little skewed by Changes which for some reason was my High School class song. I’ll be generous and say 3.5 stars rounds up to 4.

The black lord lives!

Icicles within my brain (cocaine)

RIP Ozzy. This album is one of Black Sabbath's best. Definitely worth coming back to.

I first heard snowblind via a SOAD cover. Lotta songs on this obviously blueprints for the armenian boyz structure wise. Continue to develop their sound and expand it.

Changes usem 1972😂

hahahah noaaaml gad nomal es black sabbath album kenn mich glaub nöd so uus mit vol. 4 I'M GOINNN THROUGH CHANGEEEEES isch det druff oder ahh ja obvio kennis aber sicher nöd so guet wie anders ahh classic sabbath solo I'M GOOOIIING THROUGH CHANGEEEES sehr es komischs aber soo guets liiied hahaha fx isch es meisterwerk de zappa hegi supernaut gern, freumi puuuh de iommi het da spass druff hä KOKS snowblind isch richtigrichtig geil laguna cuute! under the sun typischs iommi-riff WOW BILL WAS 1 FILL jaa hans gfühl das album isch meh gitarre-fokussiert und weniger catchy. immerno sehr guet aber für mich weniger guet wie paranoid, sabbath bloody sabbath oder heaven & hell wird glaub es guets 4i! (nach 1001-massstäb wärs glaub es 5i eifach will nach dem massstab fast alles vo black sabbath es 5i wär aber jo)

I'm realizing that while I'm quite familiar with 80s/early 90s guitar pyrotechnic Ozzy era, Black Sabbath is an oversight for me outside of the bigger songs. Fascinating to see that while 80s Randy Rhodes/Jake E Lee/Zakk Wylde Ozzy defined a certain shredding era, 70s Black Sabbath was its own thing that seems to have help lay the framework for 90s grunge.

RIP Prince of Darkness

4/5

Hell yeah. RIP Ozzy Best song: Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener

As news broke about Ozzy's death, a co-worker asked if I was a fan of Black Sabbath. I had to think about it. Yes, I recognize their significance, really like a bunch of their tunes, generally think the band is cool, but I never reach for a Black Sabbath album when I'm looking for something to listen to (and am not participating in this fabulous adventure). So... I don't know that I'm a fan. And as much as I was appreciating Tony Iommi's soloing and riffs on this record, I do get tired of the sludgy guitars after a few songs. But there's something undeniable at work, somehow these guys transcend their individual talents and have created a behemoth, and music is better for it. And even though they bury it under a mountain of plodding thunder, the blues are under there, writhing and grinding. And after all that... who knows if I'll ever spin it again. RIP Ozzy. Long live Black Sabbath.

My least favorite of the first 4 Sabbath albums, but it's still decent. Supernaut is one of their best tunes. Wheels of Confusion is great, too. I don't love Changes or Laguna Sunrise, and some of side two is a little less than inspired. They're still my favorite metal band, though, so while this is probably more of a 3.5, I'm giving it the half-star bump.

Honestly, I’ve always liked Ozzy’s voice. Is he known for his vocal chops? Hard not to be sentimental with this one…today. Black Sabbath rocks.

Early Sabbath at their heaviest, most psychedelic and progressive. One of their best.

Great stuff. No notes.

R.I.P Ozzy :(

Sabbath are great, listening to this album it was very shortly after his last concert and it does make me remember how special they are

Great album!

Standout Songs: Tomorrow’s Dream Snowblind Cornucopia Under The Sun

This is metal. Holds up over decades.

7.5/10 Second Sabbath album, and they are definitely my speed of metal. Good stuff. Really well played and put together. Ozzy’s voice is excellent. Doesn’t feel insincere like some of the other stuff Best: Changes

Half of these songs made me surprised the album is categorized as metal. Surprisingly coherent and fluid with this genre stretch

favorite so far

Very good. Tempted to give it 5 stars after the first track. But a solid 4 stars overall.

metal

Solid metal album through and through. Except for Changes. It sticks out like a sore thumb to me. It's a good song, but it just sticks out. And that's not just because Charles Bradley's cover of it is better than the original.

You have to love this album, even if not a fan of that genre.

"Cocaine is a helluva drug." -Rick James. 11/10 album -Germ. Great stoner/sludge album, but compared to their entire catalog there must be other of their albums on this list. - mitona

I’ve been thinking this was randomized, to get this the Monday after the final show is pretty coincidental timing

Really enjoyed this album.

Somehow I've not heard this, despite owning a few Sabbath albums. Probably going to have to buy it now! Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit ✅️ Purchase ✅️ An easy ★★★★☆

4/5 bat heads

almost goes off the rails but manages to stay on in the end. 8/10

Highlight Song/s: Wheels Of Confusion, Changes, Supernaut I listened to this 2 days prior (01/07/25) to getting Vol. 4 here on 1001 (03/07/25), which is a little funny out of all 1000 albums it could've chosen from. But it probably did need a re-listen. Now, about the songs themselves that stand out: FX is terrible, what were they thinking? my god; Supernaut sounds like the Max Payne 1 combat music called 'Battle For Free'; That guitar solo that ends Snowblind is incredible; St. Vitus Dance kind of sounds at times the House Building Song from Red Dead Redemption 2, that sort of boogie sound.

I liked this one a lot, my first time listening to Black Sabbath through. Very talented group. I may not always write a review moving forward unless something specifically sticks with me or warrants it

4.5

Ta grand-mère pensait que c'était l'apocalypse. J'trouve ça pas mal chill. Vaut l'écoute juste pour le son des guitares. 3.75 étoiles

snowblind it's an amazing song

Honestly, this album rips. I'd never heard it before.

I won't lie, I was a little skeptical about a Black Sabbath album on this project with essentially no hits on it. But I really needed to just trust the process on this one. No, there is no "Paranoid" or "Iron Man" on this album, but it still rocks, and it rocks hard. There is truly some excellent playing on this album, resulting in some outstanding riffs on this album. It's just an example of outstanding 1970s metal from the guys that practically invented the genre. I'd probably give this about a 3.5, overall, but the superb playing by Black Sabbath here really inspires a round-up. And thus, Vol. 4 gets a 4. Fitting!

Solid. Very easy to see their influence on Metal / Hard Rock for years to come.

Pretty interesting stuff especially for '71. And im especially thrown when all of a sudden they throw a slow acoustic song at you

Classic. Ozzy sounds much better here compared to his solo stuff.

Pretty darn good.

Liked this album so much more than the first Black Sabbath album. I had no idea Black Sabbath is the original artist for Changes. Great song.

Better than the debut album we listened to. They clearly evolved a lot, but because I already know some of the other albums, I still don't think it's them at their best. Still, I've always loved "Changes". Lot of good stuff in here.

It's black Sabbath - classic

Its good, but when you have records like Paranoid and the self titled, it kind of pales in comparison. There are still some amazing moments here though, shout out to Snowblind, Changes, and Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes.

Love how patient and kinda introspective this album is for them - these guys frickin rule of course!! With all its little detours, I feel like this could be a great soundtrack for a sword n sorcery type of movie

i mean this is the best band ever and Changes is an all timer

Dark and heavy riff rock, fantastic stuff

decent to be fair

Filthy in all the right ways. If Paranoid was the classic, Vol. 4 is the sewer-dwelling cult favorite.

4 but only cause changes is a terrible song

Very satisfying

“Changes” is such a sad song “Laguna Sunrise” is beautiful The final track rippppsssss, 4.5 maybe for that alone

Good one, not the best

their best album

Awesome. Great Sabbath album.

Classic moody heaviness with melodies and Ozzy's characteric vocals, liked it a lot even if it would never be my first pick

Ozzy is awesome.

Very listenable and addictive. Especially CHANGES, ST. VITUS DANCE and SUPERNAUT. Ohh and toss in an epic closer with UNDER THE SUN/EVERY DAY COMES AND GOES.

Black Sabbath rocks I’m finding out

yeah black sabbath rocks, groundbreaking

Soy parcial. No podría ser traidor, siempre les tuve un gran aplauso, y está vez no será la excepcion

Never listened to them before, was not what I expected! Great vocals and riffs, changes gave me feelings

Gloriously doomy and heavy metal from the early 70s. These guys were the absolute kings of this sound - nothing ever misses.

Fat fucking riffs Standouts: The Straightener • Changes • Snowblind • Laguna Sunrise

Uma "aula" de heavy metal. Riffs pesados, temas sombrios e melodias marcantes. A heavy metal "class". Heavy riffs, dark themes and striking melodies.

me ha encantado no lo conocia y entiendo que este en esta lista 8/10

It's gud

Surprisingly good. Great riffs, proper dirty rock but also really fantastic lighter melodic moments. High 4/5, close to 5/5.

This album brought out all the huge fondness I have for Birmingham, Ozzy, Tommy, mellatrons, the song Changes, etc etc. There are some great riffs and creative passages and (surprisingly?) some really nice melody lines, even in the heavier songs. Is this Black Sabbath at their freshest or best? I genuinely don't know, but they sounded pretty good to me, especially in the middle of the album. Supernaut was excellent, and Snowblind was particularly enjoyable too - made me nostalgic for the days of vinyl only, where you'd finish side 1 buzzing from a brilliant song, then turn the album over and get excited all over again by a great start to side 2. Yeah!

yeah guys go ahead just keep inventing metal

Liked

J'ai pris beaucoup de temps pour bien écouter et réécouter l'album, qui ne ressemble pas vraiment au trois premiers de Black Sabbath. C'est plus acoustique, moins «goth» et dark, c'est quasiment plus du prog rock que du métal. Ça brasse, mais pas autant que je le voudrais. Après mûr réflexion, je lui donne un 4, je changerais peut-être d'opinion plus tard

ZAAAMN I WAS EXCITED SEEING ON THIS ON THE TO DO LIST. IT'S NOT MY DAILY TUNES BUT WHEN I HIT THAT ERA THIS IS AT THE TOP OF THAT LIST.

great driving with the windows down!

Excellent album

Another surprise. Dirty yet melodic. Not what I expected. Sounds fresh given stuff from that era has aged terribly.

Jag har aldrig lyssnat på denna, har bara kommit till de två första. Helt suveränt

I like.

Ahh...my first 'cool older girl next door' record. To be honest, she was so cute to me I'd have given the Osmonds a second look if she wanted me to. Luckily, she had great taste. She was blasting this in her room and I could hear it in our driveway, shooting hoops with my dad. Saw her out in the yard later and mustered up "I like your music" with all the bravado a 12-year old with braces can in the face of a devastatingly beautiful HS senior. "Cool. I'll put it back on and put a speaker in the window." Asked mom to take me to the record store the next day so I could get a copy. Then I saw a kid her age kiss her as she got out of his car. Spell broken. Heart broken. Still have the vinyl, tho. So there's that. A top-ten metal album for me. And Changes is epic.

None of my favorite songs of theirs very solid album overall.

Not as iconic as the earlier albums, but still pretty damn good.

This might be the best Iommi's guitar has ever sounded, but they don't quite have the songs to match. I think it's an improvement over the overrated Master of Reality, but not really as good as the first two. Still pretty good though!

05.23.2025 4☆/5

point2.

Good album.

I didn’t know any of these songs but I really enjoyed this album! What talent.

The most popular song on this album is the worst one. Thankfully, it's out of the way pretty early and then it's bombs away.

Best: Snowblind, Changes

This is a great record, Black Sabbath show great range and versatility. They're able to go heavy on tracks like "Under the Sun", but also write these beautiful slow moving pieces like "Laguna Sunrise". Really liked the lyricism and topics: wealth, religion and apparently a lot of drugs. Osbourne really gets personal at times and it serves the music really well. My favourites were "Changes", which manages to find the middle ground and also make a catchy classic, and "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes", which is super heavy. Ozzy's distinctive voice works well within the tracks. The production and instrumentation are just right, mixing both well for laid-back tracks and making harder tracks hit even harder with great tone for the guitars and the drums. The drumming is also excellent, particularly in "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes". Overall, I really liked it, a very complete, versatile and consistent record.

Solid album - I think they had such a good sound on this. Nice fuzz tones on Tony’s guitar and Ozzy’s voice is top notch too. 3.5/5 will round it up to 4

Listened to this with my husband. Familiar and enjoyable. Did not like the weird ambient noise track. Snow Blind was my favorite

Not as good as some other Sabbath albums, but still damn solid for me. I just love the heavy, dirty sound they produce.

genuinely never listened to black sabbath before. i liked it.

Cocaine is a hell of a drug! And Black Sabbath Vol 4 is one hell of an album. Damn this thing rocks! As I type this part I’m nodding my head to Supernaut. That guitar riff is fantastic. I know some Black Sabbath but not this album. So listening to this was like opening an awesome present on Christmas morning. Just banger after banger. I will say the back half of the album slipped a little but was still very strong. I thought the transitions from Cornucopia to Laguna Sunrise to St. Vitus Dance seemed weird and forced. If the track listing moved around some it would flow better, but I digress. The only real misstep is FX. It just seems to be a bridge preparing you to get smacked in the face by a wall of metal after the beauty and calm of Changes. I will take getting smacked in the face by Vol 4 by Black Sabbath any day. This is a great record that I’ll give a 4 rating. 4/5

Cool album! Nice guitar solo

of course this was awesome. I’ve only listened to 2 other Black Sabbath albums, but they were both awesome. This one I only knew songs from covers. And what a wild range on this one. Too bad they kicked out ozzy! They could have been even bigger!

Great Chad metal

I rather enjoyed this album despite them apparently high on cocaine. The change in song styles and tempos was well done.

That was a bloody lovely surprise. Not heard this before and really enjoyed the whole experience. Will add this to my library and will definitely give it more plays. Respect!

More diverse than I expected from a Sabbath album.

This is a four-star album for me in the same way Mariah Carey's Butterfly was a four-star. Not music I'm interested in or really care to hear again, but expertly crafted to the point of being enjoyable.

Masterful riffery as Sabbath expand their soundscape. Absolute must listen.

Cocaine!!! So much cocaine. An amplifier filled with the stuff. Sometimes the drugs are a good thing. This album is a testament to that. The party can't last forever though. With these guys maybe it can.

Good sabbath album. Can't decide if i love or hate "Changes"! Supernaut is so dope, love the percussion breakdown.

This was soooo good. I regrettably never listened to them growing up, but I'm glad I was reminded of them as an adult.

Many good licks, nice melodies, interesting variety of songs, thought it was quite good.

Found out they wrote “Changes,” so that was cool

Its a fun album to listen to, with the occasional switch of style for three or so tracks.

Not generally my taste, but I enjoyed listening. Should listen to it again while paying some more attention.

Like many others, I’ve been a casual fan of Black Sabbath, but have really only listened to their first 3 albums. The songs are heavy and crisp with a bit more sludge and doom sound. Still not my favorite Sabbath album, but a great one to revisit.

Liked this more than I thought I would! Great running music.

Very good classic rock album

Fuck yeah.

Good album but not their best.

Love me some Black Sabbath

Even better than Paranoid. The first metal album on this list that I would consider listening to more than once.

Wouldn’t think to listen to this off the dome, but so insane for 1972.

Black sabbath… now we’re talking. Punchy, heavy music without the irritating components that you sometimes get with this genre. Great riffs as always, and the uniqueness of the vocals really staple home that it’s Black Sabbath. Changes gives a balance of melancholy to the album and supernaut, well - gives a balance of metal with a superb solo. This band would EASILY hold up today, let alone the 70’s. 8/10.

I like it. FX is a weird filler, but some parts of it were kind of interesting.

Works for me. (27 known/56 new)

Love the dark fantasy gothic vibes. Not the biggest fan of Ozzy's vocals but they aren't enough to detract from the music.

eh, I've never cared for the mixing of these early metal albums. Ozzy sounds good but also incomprehensible at times.

Very few actually know that Ozzy is the half brother of Lenneth Houmous! Born Oswald Grimace Houmous. 3.6

Great album.

Really cool album. Just oozes cool.

Solides Album, nicht erwartet.

🤘

Interesting choice. I wonder if we’ll get more sabbath here? If expect Master of Reality, Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Heaven and Hell long before I’d expect Vol 4. Vol 4 is a very cool chapter in early Sabbath. After solidifying the heavy evil heavy metal sound they pioneered in their first early album, in Vol 4 Sabbath got heavier and started digging even deeper into heavy sounds. In metal circles Black Sabbath is not only considered as the originator of all of heavy metal, but also of specific sub genres such as doom metal and stoner rock. This album shows why. The music here starts to take more of a wall of sound characteristic, Ozzy sings a bit lower, and Tony adds epic dirge-y solos on top of his heavy riffs. A lot of the changes in Sabbath’s sound came in the previous Master of Reality album, and here they allow themselves to take it further in songs like Wheels of Confusion, St. Vitus Dance and Snowblind (the intended title track) but also expand their music palate in Changes, a piano ballad or FX with its weird noises. Overall an important chapter in the history of one of the most important bands in the history of music. Not entirely mind blowing so I’m giving it four stars.

Surprisingly diverse. The guitar sounds unique. Definitely a good listen.

Nice

I’m finding with this list it’s a good sign if I don’t notice it’s finished. Changes is still balls though.

Doesn't quite have the bite of the ST debut album, but still good nonetheless.

Very good.

Pretty good! I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

It sounds like Sabbath and I actually liked the soft tracks, but I think they strayed just a little too far from the cool riffs and dynamics from their earlier works

Ikkje så dumt

+0.5 Changes, +1 Under The Sun, Strong heavy album

Black sabbat

I’ll start out by saying I’m not a big metal fan with a few exceptions like Metallica, Motörhead, and Opeth, a fantastic Swedish death metal band. This album has everything I like in metal, grinding buzz saw guitars, a hint of melody and the inclusion of slower songs like Changes and St. Virus Dance which offer relief from auditory assault.

Every time I listen to Black Sabbath I think to myself, why don’t I listen to Black Sabbath more?

Decent album, love me some Sabbath

4 for Vol. 4. Cool-sounding, but not life-changing.

Solid

I don’t really listen to a whole lot of Black Sabbath. I only really know the couple of big hits that came from Paranoid. This was great, definitely need to check out more of them!

Black Sabbath is a great testament to just how far solid hard rock songwriting can get you. They might not have the most technically impressive or detailed sound, but by god, are these riffs and solos ever satisfying. Add some spice in the form of a little bit of extra heaviness, and you’ll get one of the most celebrated bands in rock (and metal) history (and for good reason). This particular album, though, is a bit inconstant and stylistically all over the place, but the highs are so high that I'm willing to forgive FX... but only begrudgingly.

Not as familiar with this as there other early stuff, Changes excepted, but same great musicianship and nasty riffs and Ozzies even present nasal whine! Great stuff.

Surprisingly really enjoyed it! It wasn’t as intense as I expected and I really liked the musical composition, it can be really beautiful. A really good mix of different styles.

I’m not really much of a Sabbath fan. This album is probably better than others.