7. Sabotage (1975)

Sabotage was the last great record from the original Sabbath lineup before drugs, squabbles, and petty feuds sent them into a tailspin and ended with the eventual dismissal of Osbourne.The abiding vibe on Sabotage is the feeling of unraveling. The means might be mental illness, delusions of grandeur, or enemies posing as friends. There are abundant references to schizophrenia, madness, and insanity.

On their sixth record, Sabbath perfectly captured a sense of dissolution, of a fragmented self. Sabotage is perhaps their most autobiographical record, a musical documentary of a time when the band beginning to unravel due to substance abuse, financial pressures, and frayed relationships.

The cover is almost as inexplicable as the sword and shield bearing nut on Paranoid; Ward is wearing his wife’s pajamas; Ozzy looks like he rolled out of an opium den and Iommi appears to be a car salesman. The contents, however, are vintage Sabbath. “Symptom Of The Universe” is one of the gems of the catalog and contains a classic Iommi riff. “Am I Going Insane” sounds like easy listening based on earlier Sabbath material but ends with screams you might hear in a nuthouse. It’s a deceptive lull.The centerpiece of the album is “The Writ.” It’s not about the occult, drugs, or Satan, but rather about getting fucked over by greedy producers and lawyers. The angry missive was an appropriate exclamation point;Sabotage was the last time the band captured magic untilDio joined their ranks five years later.