Black Sabbath Vol. 4
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Black Sabbath Vol. 4
Studio album by
Black Sabbath Released 25 September 1972
Recorded May 1972 at
Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles, Snowblind/Tomorrow's Dream backing tracks recorded Jan/Feb/March 1972 at Marquee Studios, over-rdubs, mixing, mastering, at Olympic/Trident Studios, UK, June 1972)
Genre Heavy metal Length 42:38
Label Vertigo Producer Patrick Meehan,
Black Sabbath Black Sabbath chronology
Master of Reality (1971) Black Sabbath Vol. 4
(1972)
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
Black Sabbath Vol. 4 is the fourth studio album by the British
heavy metal band
Black Sabbath, released in September 1972.
Contents
1 Recording2 Music and lyrics3 Artwork4 Release and reception5 Track listing6 Cover versions 6.1 "Changes"6.2 "Cornucopia"6.3 "Snowblind"6.4 "Supernaut"6.5 "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes"6.6 "Wheels of Confusion"6.7 "Tomorrow's Dream" 7 Personnel8 Sales accomplishments9 See also10 Notes11 References Recording
In June 1972, Black Sabbath reconvened in Los Angeles to begin work on their fourth album at the
Record Plant Studios. The recording process was plagued with problems, many due to
substance abuse issues. In the studio, the band regularly had large
speaker boxes full of
cocaine delivered.
[1] While struggling to record the song "Cornucopia" after "sitting in the middle of the room, just doing drugs",
[2] Bill Ward feared that he was about to be fired from the band. "I hated the song, there were some patterns that were just horrible", Ward said. "I nailed it in the end, but the reaction I got was the cold shoulder from everybody. It was like 'Well, just go home, you're not being of any use right now.' I felt like I'd blown it, I was about to get fired".
[3] However, the seeds were planted for what would eventually be the demise of the classic Sabbath line-up. As Butler told
Guitar World in 2001: "Yeah, the cocaine had set in. We went out to L.A. and got into a totally different lifestyle. Half the budget went on the coke and the other half went to seeing how long we could stay in the studio... We rented a house in
Bel-Air and the debauchery up there was just unbelievable." In the same interview, Ward said: "Yes, Vol. 4 is a great album, but listening to it now, I can see it as a turning point for me, where the alcohol and drugs stopped being fun."
Patrick Meehan, the band's then-manager, was listed as co-producer, though his actual involvement in the album's production was minimal at best. Guitarist
Tony Iommi handled the majority of the production himself.
[1] The track "FX" came about unexpectedly in the studio. After smoking
hashish, the
crucifix hanging from Iommi's neck accidentally struck the strings of his guitar and the band took an interest in the odd sound produced.
[1] An echo effect was added and the rest of the band proceeded to hit the guitar with various objects to generate odd sound effects. Iommi calls the song "a total joke".
[1] The acoustic guitar instrumental "Laguna Sunrise" is aptly titled. After being up all night and watching the sunrise at
Laguna Beach, Iommi composed the track.
[1] In the studio, an orchestra was brought in to accompany Iommi's guitar, although the orchestra refused to perform until their parts were
properly written out.
[1] The same orchestra also performed on the track "Snowblind".
[1] Music and lyrics
Vol. 4 sees Black Sabbath beginning to experiment with the heavy sound they had become known for. Although most of the album's songs are in the band's trademark heavy style, others demonstrate a more sensitive approach which the band had never attempted before. Perhaps the best example of this experimentation can be heard in the song "
Changes". Written by
Tony Iommi with lyrics composed by Butler, it is entirely in the form of a piano
ballad with
mellotron. Guitarist Iommi taught himself to play the piano after finding one in the ballroom of the Bel-Air mansion they were renting. It was on this piano that the song "Changes" was composed.
[1] The album, Tony Iommi told
Circus's sister magazine Circus Raves, "was such a complete change, we felt we had jumped an album, really… We had tried to go too far."
[4] Black Sabbath have been quite candid about their heavy use of
cocaine during the making of Vol. 4.
[5][1] Musically, the song "Snowblind" is perhaps the band's most blatant ode to the drug. "Snowblind" was also the album's
working title, but
Vertigo Records executives were quite reluctant to release an album with such an obvious drug reference as its title.
[1] The album's liner notes also thank "the great COKE-cola", another blatant ode to the band's cocaine use.
[1] Artwork

Cover art
The album cover features a
monochrome photograph of
Ozzy Osbourne with hands raised, taken during a Black Sabbath concert. The album's original release (on Vertigo in the UK, on Warner Bros. in the US and on Nippon Phonogram in Japan) features a
gatefold sleeve with a page glued into the middle. Each band member is given his own photo page, with the band on-stage (and photographed from behind) at the very centre.
The album's original cover art has proved iconic, and has been imitated and parodied on numerous occasions, such as on the 1992
Peaceville Volume 4 compilation album, the 1992
Volume Two EP by the band
Sleep, and the 1994
Planet Caravan EP by
Pantera.
Release and reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 



[6] Rolling Stone favourable
[7] The Rolling Stone Album Guide 



[8] Vol. 4 was released in September 1972, and while critics of the era were dismissive of the album, it achieved gold status in less than a month, and was the band's fourth consecutive release to sell one million copies in the United States.
[9] It reached number 13 on
Billboard's pop album chart
[10] and number 8 on the
UK Albums Chart.
[11] The song "Tomorrow's Dream" was released as a single but failed to chart.
[12] Following an extensive tour of the US, the band toured Australia for the first time in 1973, and later Europe. Black Sabbath also appeared on the UK's
Top of the Pops in 1973, sharing the stage with such diverse acts as
Engelbert Humperdinck and
Diana Ross.
The album had been reissued twice under the title Children of the Grave with a live version of that song, originally released on the
Master of Reality album, included.[
citation needed]
Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No. 48 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".
[13] In June 2000,
Q magazine[14] placed Vol. 4 at number 60 in its list of The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever
[15] and described the album as "the sound of drug-taking, beer-guzzling hooligans from Britain's oft-pilloried cultural armpit let loose in LA."
Frank Zappa has identified the song "Supernaut" as one of his all time favourites.
[16] Supernaut was also one of
Led Zeppelin drummer
John Bonham's favourite songs by Sabbath.
[17] Track listing
All music written by Black Sabbath (Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward); all lyrics by Geezer Butler. Note that the song subtitles "The Straightener" and "Every Day Comes and Goes" do not appear on original North American pressings of the album and all the remastered editions. The 10th track Under the Sun contains a two minute segment – often given its own independent title as 'Every Day Comes And Goes' which transitions back to "Under the Sun" to close out the album.
[18] Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener" 8:02
2. "
Tomorrow's Dream" 3:12
3. "
Changes" 4:45
4. "FX" (instrumental) 1:44
5. "Supernaut" 4:50
Side two
No. Title Length
6. "Snowblind" 5:33
7. "Cornucopia" 3:55
8. "Laguna Sunrise" (instrumental) 2:56
9. "St. Vitus Dance" 2:30
10. "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes" 5:53
Cover versions

This section does not
cite any
references or sources. Please help improve this section by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (August 2013)
"Changes"
In 1999, thrash metal band,
Overkill for their
Coverkill album.
Sampled by rapper
Eminem on the song "Going Through Changes" for his
Recovery album.
A new version with altered lyrics appeared on
Prince of Darkness with
Kelly Osbourne and Ozzy singing a duet version.
Hell Is for Heroes covered this song as a B-side to their single "
Night Vision".
Fudge Tunnel covered this song on Earache's Masters of Misery compilation.
Japanese melodic punk band
Hi-Standard covered this song on their
Making the Road album.
Nashville garage rock duo
JEFF the Brotherhood included a cover of this song as the final track on their album Hypnotic Nights.[
citation needed]
"Cornucopia"
In 1999, thrash metal band,
Overkill for their
Coverkill album.
British
sludge metal band
Iron Monkey on the rarities album Ruined By Idiots.
New York City-based grindcore band
Brutal Truth on
In These Black Days: Vol. 2.
Brazilian thrash metal band
Sepultura on their live album
Under a Pale Grey Sky (main riff played before "Cut-Throat").
"Snowblind"
Alternative metal band
System of a Down for the Black Sabbath
tribute album Nativity in Black II. This version also appears on
The Osbourne Family Album, as a B-side of "
Aerials" vinyl and on "
Lonely Day" single.
Converge live on their EP
Y2K.
Zakk Wylde's
Black Label Society on
Alcohol Fueled Brewtality.
[19]Stoner metal band
Sleep on Masters of Misery-Black Sabbath: The Earache Tribute
[20] and later on a re-issue of their album
Sleep's Holy Mountain.
Rock band
Pigboat on their 2009 release Float.
[21] "Supernaut"
1000 Homo DJs on their Supernaut single, and for the Black Sabbath
tribute album Nativity in Black. An alternate version featuring vocals by
Trent Reznor of
Nine Inch Nails appears on the
Black Box – Wax Trax! Records: The First 13 Years compilation.
Coalesce on the 2007 reissue of their
Led Zeppelin tribute EP entitled
There is Nothing New Under the Sun and also on the
Hydra Head Records Black Sabbath tribute album
In These Black Days: Vol. 3.
Ministry on their 1992
Psalm 69 tour, and on their album
Cover Up.
O'Connor (from Argentina) for Hay un Lugar (1999).
Turisas for a cover CD issued by UK magazine
Metal Hammer.
The joint venture of Los Coronas and Arizona Baby covered the song in their 2011 live album Dos Bandas y un Destino.
[22] "Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes"
Soulfly for the Black Sabbath
tribute album Nativity in Black II.
Bongzilla for
Stash.
[23]Entombed for Family Favourites.
[24] "Wheels of Confusion"
Estonian band
Rondellus on their tribute album Sabbatum, sung by two female voices accompanied by a
frame drum. Their version has lyrics translated into Latin, and the song has been retitled "Rotae Confusionis".
[25]Doom metal band
Cathedral on the tribute album Masters of Misery – The Earache Tribute.
"Tomorrow's Dream"
Seattle band
Screaming Trees as the b-side of their 1992 single "Dollar Bill".
Canadian band
Sheavy on their Untitled 3-song 7".
[26] Personnel
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitars, piano,
mellotronGeezer Butler – bass guitar, mellotron
Bill Ward – drums, percussion
Colin Caldwell,
Vic Smith –
engineeringPatrick Meehan – production
Sales accomplishments
RIAA certification[27] (United States)
Date Designation Total Sales
6 November
1972 Gold 500,000
13 October
1986 Platinum 1,000,000
CRIA certification[28] (Canada)
Date Designation Total Sales
1 September
1977 Gold 50,000
1 September
1977 Platinum 100,000
See also