Certif1ed

So, firstly, the defining characteristics of the music;

Iron Maiden are cited over and over again as the spearleaders of the NWoBHM, but it's also widely acknowledged that Judas Priest and Black Sabbath are key innovators in the genre. Yes, there are lots of other bands who made important contributions (Motorhead, etc) - but this is about getting a definition, not making a boring laundry list. More bands can be added to the mix if these three don't produce a useful and working definition of the music.


Black Sabbath are the earliest of these 3, so let's pick 3 tracks that typify their sound and style;








Yeah, there are loads more Sabbath tracks I could have used - but there are some important bits and pieces here;

This is NOT the blues. Despite the proliferation of pentatonic scales in the solos, the music is not rooted in I-IV-V progressions. This is only a clue - plenty of bands had moved away from blues-based rock and roll by 1970.

Natable Characteristics

1. The music is riff based - the riffs are even more prominent than the vocal melodies.

2. These riffs are almost entirely played with a very distorted guitar tone that is given high importance in the mix. The type of distortion goes way beyond mere "fuzz", this is the peculiar high gain sound produced by valve amps - notably Marshalls that Hendrix was very keen on.

3. The intros, verses and choruses seem like preludes to the guitar solos.


So far we've desribed "Hard Rock" - so what are the REAL differences?

1. The riffs are styled to sound as "dark" and aggressive as possible. This is something fairly new, compared to "standard" hard rock.

Much of this is due to the incorporation of the tritone, or diabolus in musica - again, not new, as Hendrix did this, as did Gustav Holst in Classical music, decades before, and composers before him - it's simply that this interval occurs so frequently in Sabbath's music that it is a defining feature of it.

2. The lyrics are dark and nihilistic, with references to "underground", "(oc)cult" and even anti-social activities, apparent agonised pleas for help and other material clearly intended to be emotionally disturbing.

3. The album art work is also part of the package - and here the words "dark" and "disturbing" and everything else ties in with the whole image that the bands' music portrays.

4. The music, as in Classical Sonata Form, depends on a climax point towards which the whole piece builds.

In the case of simple songs, such as "Paranoid", this is not the case - the guitar solo becomes a simple interlude or bridge, as is the case with other rock/pop songs (which "Paranoid" indisputably is).

In "Black Sabbath", however, there are several "climax points" (don't be confused by my use of the term "Sonata Form" - people always think that this is about developing themes, although themes do not always develop, especially in early sonatas. The main feature of the old form to me is the climax and resolution brought about in the development and recapitulation sections - and this we see in the track "Black Sabbath".

Tension is continually built and torn down - not by the predictable technique of ever-increasing aggression, but by the more experimental technique of pulling the "exciting" distorted guitar sound right back for the vocal sections, then unleashing it at the moment the vocal sections end, only to strip everything back again for the next vocal section, unleash, strip down and rebuild towards the faster instrumental section, which builds towards the climatic ending.