Black Sabbath Armageddon: Kerry King, Billy Corgan, Mayhem, Opeth & More Save Their Fav Albums
Black Sabbath is the very DNA of everything we know and love today. Without them, everything we know and love about heavy music, simply doesn’t exist. Even if you’ve never actually sat down and actively listened to the founding fathers of Heavy Metal (and shame on you if you haven’t) then the very least you can do is bow down and acknowledge that whatever sub genre of metal you’re into, from Slayer to Sleep Token, it was all created in the wake of the sound and music created by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.
No Black Sabbath means no Metallica, no Ozzfest, no Slipknot, no Knotfest, no Download Festival, no pilgrimages to Wacken, no battle jackets, no statues of Lemmy, no mullets, no sick soundtrack to the Iron Man movie, no reality TV, no moshpits, no Monster Magnet, which means no Negasonic Teenage Warhead, no tales of snorting ants and no songs about generals gathered in their masses.
Wall of Sound’s resident bogan metalhead Duane James has spent the last few years interviewing the biggest and best that all of heavy metal and alternative rock has to offer and he’s finished a few of those interviews with one of, if not, the most important question on the planet.
If the world was going to blow up and we all had to get on a big spaceship, but you were only allowed to take one Black Sabbath album with you, which one would you grab, and why?
Kerry King // Slayer
Album: Sabotage (1975)
Response: "I would take... it's easy and it's hard cause I'm a super [Ronnie James] Dio fan, but, I would take Sabotage. Something about the vibe on that record, it's cool, I mean they're all cool, but something about that one, maybe 'Symptom of the Universe'. I don't know.
It's nonstop badassery!
Billy Corgan // The Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath (1973)
Response: "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. Tony [Iommi] was such a pioneering guitarist and a visionary musically, and what makes him so interesting is he pioneered the idea of a riff becoming part of the song in a way that was almost atmospheric and cinematic. And I think we really all understand that now, especially those of us who love metal.
But then in about '74, '75, Tony starts to take this kind of artistic turn. It's almost alternative Sabbath, if you really look at it and I think that's why Sabbath has so much street cred with alternative musicians and even rappers and stuff like that. There's this other Sabbath.
'Cause early Sabbath is more bluesy, heavy, doomy, but somewhere in there, it starts to get really out there, and that's the Sabbath I love the most."
"I did ask Tony once (I'm bragging, but I got to work with Tony on his solo record) and I said, 'Why does 'Vol. 4' sound so weird?' And he goes, 'Well, we were living up in the hills in L.A. And every day the guy with the drugs would show up.' And he said, 'We were just so high. And we were working in a house.' He said, 'I think it's just the way we were living.' 'Cause it is a very unique, strange-sounding record. It doesn't sound, really, like any other Sabbath record.
"The great thing about, obviously, one of the best bands ever (my favourite band ever) every album is different. And even when it starts to get weird that at the end with Ozzy and things start to kind of fall apart, they're still trying to kind of be a little punk and a little bit, I don't know what they were going for... There's some good stuff in there."
Matt 'Youngy' Young // King Parrot
Album: Greatest Hits Cassette (1977)
Response: "The first Sabbath record I got was the old Greatest Hits. The one that's got all the Ozzy/early stuff, and that was the first cassette I had that my Dad bought me. We used to listen to it in the car. It only seems fair 'cause it's got so many of the good songs on it, but it doesn't have some of my favourite songs on it...
I'm gonna have to say that one 'cause I've got fond memories of that, listening to it as a kid."
Dexter & Noodles // The Offspring
Album: Paranoid (1970)
Response: Noodles: "Paranoid. It would have to be Paranoid". Dexter: "That's what I was gonna say too. We're on the same page".
Burton C Bell // ex-Fear Factory
Album: Sabotage (1975)
Response: "I would take Sabotage. I think all the records before that are fucking great. But something about that, and every song in that record, just resonated with me. It's perhaps because it was the very first Sabbath record I listened to back to back and listening to it, I was like, 'holy fuck. This whole record just smokes.'
Every song just smokes and the words and the intensity of the music, and it just sounds amazing. It's just like everything about Black Sabbath all into one.
Phil Campbell // Phil Campbell & the Bastard Sons & Motörhead
Album: Master of Reality (1971)
Response: "Masters Of Reality. It's heavy as hell innit! You got a little interlude with the little acoustic song number, the usual Iommi thing, the rest of it was like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer, it's great!"
Necrobutcher // Mayhem
Album: Born Again (1983)
Response: "I saw that tour, the Born Again Tour. I believe that was the first concert on the tour. Aka was the first concert with Ian Gillan on vocals. It was in a place called Drummond, just outside of Oslo. And I remember that they played so loud that my intestines was shaking around in my body. I’m thinking, 'what the fuck?' Never experienced anything like that. Not even after, actually. I mean, I was at the front, but still.
Gill, had his hair over his face and the microphone was coming into his hair, so you can just see half of the microphone and you know that album, he’s just screaming his fucking head off the whole fucking time. I just couldn’t fucking believe it. Wow. Blew me completely away.
Especially since Dio previously played those two records, which was like this more, very fine, almost a more classic way to sing. It’s hard to pick [but] Yeah, I guess Born Again."
Fredrik Åkesson // Opeth
Album: Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath (1973)
Response: "It will be Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath... I actually have two UK vinyl original [copies] of it in mint condition."
Butch Vig // Garbage
Album: Paranoid (1970)
Response: "I can't take all fucking albums with me? Probably Paranoid. I gotta take Paranoid, man. Because I listened to it a thousand times as a kid. When I was learning how to play drums, wanting to be in a band, I listened to Black Sabbath... I put headphones on and play along with it.
I can put Paranoid on right now and just be amazed by the sound.
The way that Tony Iommi played guitar - I didn't know this until later that he had injured his finger, so he played differently - and however he plays, it sounds different... It didn't sound like any other guitarist or any other band I knew. And Bill Ward the drummer, incredible. Geezer Butler... the whole band!
Ozzy was fucking crazy. He was crazy then and he's crazy still. And that's one of the reasons they're such a great band.
Chuck Billy // Testament
Album: We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll - Gatefold Vinyl (1975)
Response: "[The] vinyl edition foldout with a girl laying in the coffin. You got a nice poster to put up on the wall. Got some good music, good quality record right there. You know what I mean?
You’re giving me the one record, one thing I got to take, I’m getting my music and my poster girl."
Patrick Mameli // Pestilence
Album: Born Again (1983)
Response: "Born Again. That's my album.
I like Ian Gillan. That guy has a fucking awesome voice, let me tell you.
And I guess that Ozzy, he put a stamp on it and there's been some other guys, but Ian Gillan, man, that guy is just fucking amazing. And that album is so evil."
Tim Lancken // Astrodeath
Album: Black Sabbath (1970)
Response: "I think it's just Black Sabbath, the first one. It's got the song 'Black Sabbath' on it. I think just because that's the first one, that's the pioneering [of heavy metal], that's where it started."
Stix Zadinia // Steel Panther
Album: Heaven and Hell (1980)
Response: "My Black Sabbath album would be Heaven and Hell. I'm a Dio/Black Sabbath guy!"
Ben Ward // Orange Goblin
Album: Sabotage (1975)
Response: “I would say Sabotage, it's always been a favourite album. I mean that one-two at the start, ‘Hole in the Sky' and ‘Symptom of the Universe’. But it's also got the diverse side of Sabbath as well, which is almost progressive.”
JJ & Cole // Vended
Album: Master of Reality (1971)
Response: JJ: "Masters of Reality or the very first one (self-titled)." Cole: "I would agree as well."
There you have it - music is universal and there's a special connection heavy musicians have with the almighty Black Sabbath... so the question remains for you - what album would you take and why? Make sure to tell us on our socials ahead of the epic concert this weekend.
Words by Duane James @duanejamestattoo
Black Sabbath's - Back to the Beginning extravaganza kicks off on July 5th at 11am local time in Birmingham // 8pm AEST. The live stream is on two hour delay, so avoid socials to avoid spoilers.
Tickets for the live stream event are here https://backtothebeginning.com/
