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The return to Dream Theater of drummer Mike Portnoy after a 15-year absence has been acclaimed by some fans as akin to the Second Coming.
Although his stand-in Mike Mangini, never really departed from the template that had already been laid down, there’s a rejuvenated feel to this reunion album of the ‘dream team’, which is themed around the impact of sleep disruption from sleepwalking to nightmares.
Dream Theater – Night Terror (Official Video) – YouTube
There’s a sharper-edged heaviness to the sound, clearly evident on Night Terror, which follows the ominous instrumental introduction, with an onslaught of maddening riffs and thunderous bass, and singer James LaBrie is in fine form.
A similar barrage opens A Broken Man, which describes the battle traumas that leave soldiers with nightmares and insomnia, and is heightened by their traumatised voices. In contrast, Midnight Messiah is more intricate and multi-layered, while the 20-minute heavy, proggy The Shadow Man Incident is an epic finale.
Hugh Fielder has been writing about music for 50 years. Actually 61 if you include the essay he wrote about the Rolling Stones in exchange for taking time off school to see them at the Ipswich Gaumont in 1964. He was news editor of Sounds magazine from 1975 to 1992 and editor of Tower Records Top magazine from 1992 to 2001. Since then he has been freelance. He has interviewed the great, the good and the not so good and written books about some of them. His favourite possession is a piece of columnar basalt he brought back from Iceland.
You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
Poor old Mike Mangini. The supremely gifted drummer provided the engine in the Dream Theater chassis for 13 years, powering through a string of never less-than-interesting albums and one Grammy award.
Yet all it took was the announcement in 2023 that Mike Portnoy was returning to the fold for the fanbase to lose their collective mind – and Mangini found himself bundled hastily out the door. For his part, he’s said all the right things, his departure free of public rancour. It seems that even he knows some bands have a definitive line-up that every fan wants to see; and for Dream Theater this is it.
In some ways it could be seen as a step backwards. The band tried some new moves on the four albums released in Portnoy’s absence, particularly on the orchestral sprawl of 2016’s sci-fi rock opera The Astonishing. By contrast, Parasomnia picks up pretty much where Black Clouds & Silver Linings left off in 2009.
Portnoy is not just one of the most inventive and skilled drummers working in any genre. As the beating heart of the band, he also contributes to everything from big-picture concepts to composition, lyrics and even distinctive backing vocals. With the reunification of the classic line-up they’ve returned to a classic Dream Theater sound – and with a 40th anniversary tour now underway, perhaps that’s exactly what was needed.
Dream Theater – A Broken Man (Official Visualizer) – YouTube
Most of this will be more than familiar to long-term fans. The big power ballad? Check. The comparatively metal song? That’s here. A 20-minute multifaceted epic to close out the album? Oh, yes. There are few real surprises, but the songs are expertly designed and flawlessly executed.
Dream Theater bring together a collection of supremely talented musicians who all get multiple chances to shine individually. But they also click as a unit, and there’s a sense of excitement and reinvigoration that comes from having this particular chemistry back in place.
Nightmare fuel is the perfect backdrop for exploring their darker and heavier sides
It starts with In The Arms Of Morpheus, an extended instrumental intro that introduces the theme of the album as well as some musical motifs that reoccur during its 71-minute running time. The track begins with ambient siren and traffic sounds before slowly building ominous keys, bringing in an off-kilter bass riff, and the first of many Portnoy drum fills, to usher the listener into a darkened dreamland.
Morpheus is the god of sleep, and the parasomnia of the album title refers to a set of sleep disorders involving abnormal movements, behaviours and dreams. It’s nightmare fuel, in other words – and while there are plenty of bright moments, it gives the band the perfect backdrop for exploring their darker and heavier sides.
Dream Theater – Night Terror (Official Video) – YouTube
Night Terror follows in a welter of speeding drums, choppy riffs and soaring melodic hooks. There’s a beautifully-meshed instrumental section, with John Myung’s bubbling bass underpinning successive solos from guitarist John Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. In many ways it’s Dream Theater-by-numbers; but it’s also the sort of thing they do supremely well.
Petrucci shows that sometimes less can be more with an emotive solo played with restraint
A Broken Man is a suitably disquieting follow-up, with jarring rhythms and radio chatter evoking the disturbed sleep of a combat veteran suffering from PTSD. Dead Asleep keeps things lyrically dark, based as it is on the real-life case of a man who killed his wife as he dreamed he was fending off robbers. Musically it combines a tight groove with big harmonies and note-cramming solos, with spooky keyboard and choral effects for added atmosphere.
Midnight Messiah marks Portnoy’s first lyrical foray on the record, and has vocalist JamesLaBrie screaming ‘Midnight messiah, darkness descends / Eternally wired, the dream never ends.’ It serves the music’s metallic approach, which lands somewhere between a more technically-minded Metallica and Judas Priest. It’s the most straightforward metal song in the set – but even here there are big proggy solos and slick transitions.
It also precedes a downward gear change, with the whispering voices of interlude Are We Dreaming and the breathy balladry of Bend The Clock. Here, Petrucci shows that sometimes less can be more with an emotive solo played with restraint that serves the song – although he still can’t resist a final flourish as he races to the fade-out.
The Shadow Man Incident is the epic closer, passing through multiple moods as it explores the phenomenon of sleep paralysis through sinuous rhythms, dazzling melodies, jarring riffs and a spoken-word nod to HP Lovecraft.
It’s a strong ending to an album that largely lives up to the hype. There might not be any radical departures here, but Dream Theater long ago earned their crown as the kings of prog metal. And, as Parasomnia proves, absolutely no one does it better.
Paul Travers has spent the best part of three decades writing about punk rock, heavy metal, and every associated sub-genre for the UK’s biggest rock magazines, including Kerrang! and Metal Hammer.
To near-universal delight, it’s been announced that Black Sabbath will play one final show with their original lineup. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward will join a stellar cast at Villa Park later this year as Metallica, Slayer, Gojira, Alice In Chains and others pay tribute to the band who invented it all.
“This will be the greatest heavy metal show ever,” says the show’s musical director, Tom Morello. And he’s probably right.
Before Black Sabbath, there were plenty of rock groups that played heavy: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin. But the music that Sabbath created in the early 70s was heavier and darker than anything that had come before, and it would prove seminal.
“Black Sabbath are the forefathers of heavy metal,” says Rick Rubin, the producer of the band’s final album 13. “They may well be the heaviest band of all time. And I don’t know of a more influential band other than The Beatles.”
It was in 1969, in Birmingham, that Black Sabbath was formed. The four band members – guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – had been playing together for a year previously, first as Polka Tulk, later as Earth. “When we started out,” Iommi says, “we were a blues rock band.” But one day in ’69, they wrote a song changed everything.
This song, titled Black Sabbath after a horror movie starring Boris Karloff, was based on an Iommi riff that incorporated an inversion of the tritone, known as ‘The Devil’s Interval’, made up of three tones once rumoured to be banned from churches. The lyrics warned that “Satan’s coming round the bend.” And with this as their calling card, the band – renamed Black Sabbath – would open up a new frontier for rock music.
Much of Sabbath’s legendary reputation rests on the first six albums recorded by the original and classic line-up. “It was a completely original sound,” Rick Rubin says. “Riffs as powerful as they come, Ozzy’s one-of-a-kind vocal delivery, cool words, great rhythmic interplay.”
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But in a recording career that spanned more than four decades, a total of 23 Black Sabbath albums were released – some of them great, some of them average, and some downright embarrassing.
The best Sabbath albums made during Ozzy Osbourne’s long absence featured the man who replaced Ozzy after he was fired in 1979 – Ronnie James Dio. And every Sabbath album, from 1970 to 2013, has been shaped by Tony Iommi – the band’s sole ever-present, and the undisputed master of the heavy metal riff.
23. Forbidden (1995)
When Tony Iommi calls Forbidden “a total shambles” (it’s why he remixed it in 2024), he’s being too kind. This is by far the worst album Sabbath ever made. It was recorded with the same line-up that had made Tyr: Iommi, Martin, Murray and Powell. But this time there were two new faces on the team. And their influence would prove disastrous.
The album’s producer was Ernie C, guitarist for rap-metal band Body Count. His tin-pot production made Sabbath sound like a pub band. And when Body Count’s leader Ice-T rapped on Illusion Of Power, the whiff of desperation hung heavy in the air. Forbidden was Sabbath’s nadir. But just two years later, the reunion with Ozzy restored the band’s legendary status.
When Ian Gillan, the legendary voice of Deep Purple, was announced as Sabbath’s new singer, the music press jokingly dubbed them ‘Deep Sabbath’, or ‘Black Purple’. And the comedy didn’t end there.
Bill Ward’s return added a third original member to the line-up, but Gillan was simply too big a personality for Sabbath to accommodate. Square peg, round hole. Born Again was a mess. Iommi conjured up a mighty riff on Zero The Hero, stolen by Guns N’ Roses for Paradise City. But throughout, Gillan sounded like was singing in a different band. And he soon was. After a Sabbath tour famed for an oversized Stonehenge stage-set – later parodied in This Is Spinal Tap – Gillan rejoined Purple. Iommi hasn’t remixed it yet, but he surely will.
In the latter half of the 80s, Sabbath had become increasingly marginalized. Misconceived albums such as Born Again and Seventh Star had damaged their credibility. So too had a series of baffling personnel changes. And as Sabbath declined, younger and more dynamic metal bands had risen: Metallica and Slayer among them.
Sabbath’s 15th studio album Tyr – loosely based on Norse mythology – made little impression in 1990. It deserved better. With former Whitesnake bassist Neil Murray on board, the band served up robust old-school metal on Anno Mundi and The Law Maker, the latter reminiscent of Rainbow’s Kill The King, although Feels Good To Me was an undignified attempt at a power ballad. But when Tyr sold poorly, three little words entered Tony Iommi’s head: Ronnie. James. Dio.
Originally planned as a Tony Iommi solo album, Seventh Star wasn’t so much bad as badly marketed. “I certainly didn’t want to release it as a Black Sabbath album,” Iommi said. But with a record company keen to exploit the Sabbath name, the album was credited to ‘Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi’.
The guitarist’s chief collaborator on Seventh Star was former Deep Purple bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes – at the time, a raging drug addict. “He did ten times more coke than me,” Iommi said. “But he had a God-given voice.” What resulted was a polished hard rock album that sounded nothing like Black Sabbath, and a tour on which Hughes was deemed a liability, and was duly sacked.
Tony Iommi describes the making of The Eternal Idol – during which he had to find a new singer, bassist and producer – as “ridiculous.” Yet he still managed to create, amid this chaos, a credible album. Recording began with American singer Ray Gillen. But when producer Jeff Glixman said he didn’t rate Gillen, Iommi replaced Glixman with Chris Tsangarides – only for Gillen to quit, joining ex-Whitesnake guitarist John Sykes in Blue Murder.
After this, bassist Dave Spitz also walked. But the album was completed with ex-Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley alongside Iommi, keyboard player Geoff Nicholls, drummer Eric Singer and new vocalist Tony Martin. And the best tracks – The Shining, Ancient Warrior – had a power that vindicated Iommi.
In December 1997, the original Black Sabbath reunited for two homecoming shows at Birmingham NEC. There had been previous reunions: at Live Aid in 1985, and at two Ozzy shows in California in 1992. Ozzy had also performed with Sabbath in the summer of ’97, albeit without Bill Ward. But the drummer’s return for the Birmingham gigs made them, as Ozzy says, “momentous”.
The resulting live album confirmed it. It features all of the band’s most famous songs – plus cult classics such as Electric Funeral – played as only the original band can. But the album ended on a bum note with two new studio-recorded tracks, Selling My Soul and Psycho Man, both of them plainly uninspired.
The early 90s reunion of the Dio-era line-up lasted for just one album, before Ronnie took umbrage at the idea of Sabbath playing on the same bill as Ozzy and quit for a second time. Re-enter singer Tony Martin, a mainstay of the band’s late 80s line-up, who joined Iommi and Butler, for an album that landed just as grunge peaked.
Sure, the crawling Virtual Death nodded towards the granite-booted heaviness of Alice In Chains – a band they’d inspired in the first place – but Sabbath largely avoided jumping on that particular bandwagon unlike certain of their peers. Instead, the likes of Back To Eden, Cross Of Thorns and Cardinal Sin wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Dio-era album, which is as much a compliment to the under-appreciated Martin as it is to Iommi. It’s just a shame that the world at large didn’t give a damn about Black Sabbath in 1994.
In a period when Black Sabbath’s membership changed like the weather, Iommi had a reliable foil in singer and fellow Brummie Tony ‘The Cat’ Martin. Between 1987 and 1995, Martin appeared on five Sabbath studio albums. His debut, The Eternal Idol, was written before he joined the band and recorded first with Ray Gillen. But on the follow-up, Headless Cross, Martin had grown into his role, was a co-writer, and sang with genuine authority.
Featuring a new drummer, the legendary Cozy Powell, and session bassist Larry Cottle, Headless Cross included some punishingly heavy and darkly atmospheric songs, such as Nightwing and When Death Calls. The best album Sabbath ever made without Ozzy or Dio.
The palindromic title of this double-live album suggested business as usual for Black Sabbath. But in controversial circumstances, Live Evil would mark the end of Sabbath’s first era with Ronnie James Dio. Using recordings from the Mob Rules tour, the band were mixing the album when their studio engineer informed Iommi and Butler that Dio had been altering the mix in secret, pushing his vocals to the fore.
Although Dio pleaded innocence, Iommi barred him from the studio. The singer promptly quit, taking Vinny Appice with him and forming a new band, which of course he named Dio. After all the drama, Live Evil turned out okay. But it came at a heavy price.
In 1992, Dio and Sabbath needed each other. Dio had been successful with his own band in the decade since he resigned from Sabbath in protest over Live Evil. But in 1990, Dio’s album Lock Up The Wolves had bombed, as had Sabbath’s Tyr. So, inevitably, Ronnie rejoined Sabbath. Geezer Butler already had.
And after Cozy Powell was injured in a bizarre horse-riding accident, Vinny Appice completed the old early-80s line-up. If Dehumanizer wasn’t quite the glorious comeback fans had hoped for, some of the old magic was evident on Time Machine and the haunting I. But Dio resigned again in November ’92 when Ozzy, his nemesis, invited Sabbath to participate in his ‘farewell’ shows. C’est la vie.
With this retrospective two-disc live set, a part of Sabbath’s legacy was reclaimed. In 1980, Live At Last – a concert recording from 1973 – was released without the band’s consent by their former label NEMS. For Sabbath and new singer Ronnie James Dio, the arrival of a live album featuring Ozzy was the last thing they needed.
Adding insult to injury, it sounded like a shoddy bootleg. 22 years later, the matter was finally resolved when a remixed, officially sanctioned version of Live At Last was reissued as Past Lives, with a second disc of recordings from 1970 and 1975. And after all that aggro, it’s Sabbath’s best live album: capturing a great band in its ascendancy, blowing minds.
It was the last album that Ronnie James Dio would ever make – the triumphant final act in a brilliant career. Dio had reunited with Iommi, Butler and Appice in 2006 – the latter again replacing Bill Ward, who bailed out during the early stages of the project.
They called themselves Heaven & Hell to avoid confusion with the Ozzy-led Black Sabbath, which had only recently finished touring. But of course, Heaven & Hell was Sabbath in all but name. The Devil You Know, their only album, had a sound that was unmistakable. Inspired by Iommi’s monolithic riffs, Dio’s performance was his best since the 80s. He went out on a high. “That,” Iommi says, “was wonderful.”
After six great albums in as many years, Sabbath faltered on Technical Ecstasy. “I liked it,” Iommi says. “But with this one, the decline really started.” In a surprise left turn, Sabbath gave a prominent role on this album to guest keyboard player Gerald Woodroffe. Melody Maker praised the band’s ability to “break the mould and still provide exciting music”. Many diehard fans thought the album sucked.
The truth lies somewhere in between. Some songs, notably Back Street Kids, sound hokey. But there are great songs too, including the sleazy Dirty Women, and a ballad sung by Bill Ward and later played live by Guns N’ Roses, with a title that sums up the album: It’s Alright.
If ever an album title was proved false, it was this one. Following the sacking of Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Never Say Die! ended up being the last studio album made by the original Black Sabbath. And so it remains, given Bill Ward’s absence from the band’s comeback album 13.
Having briefly quit Sabbath in 1977, Ozzy was by his own admission “fucked up” during the recording of Never Say Die! But even when carrying their singer, Sabbath still produced flashes of brilliance on the album’s explosive title track, slow-rolling boogie A Hard Road, and the beautiful, jazz-influenced Air Dance, featuring Don Airey (Rainbow/Deep Purple) on piano. Alongside Technical Ecstasy, this is Sabbath’s most underrated album.
It arrived as a major landmark: the first Sabbath album with Ozzy since 1978. And now, it has even greater significance, as the last Black Sabbath album, period.
13, produced by Rick Rubin, did not deliver all that Sabs diehards had dreamed of. Bill Ward was absent due to a contractual dispute. His replacement, Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk, while powerful, lacked Ward’s groove and feel. But in the bigger picture, 13 was a triumph, with echoes of the band’s classic early albums in key tracks such as The End Of The Beginning and God Is Dead?.
When 13 was released, Geezer Butler called it “a perfect way to finish”. He’s been proven right.
Sabbath’s second album with Ronnie James Dio was almost as good as Heaven And Hell. Mob Rules was also the first album the band recorded without Bill Ward, who quit during their 1980 tour. But his replacement, Vinny Appice, was solid enough, if lacking some of Ward’s flair.
The album’s centerpiece is Sign Of The Southern Cross, a seven-minute epic in which the power of Iommi’s funereal riff is matched by the mystique of Dio’s lyrics. Four other songs are genuine classics: Voodoo, Turn Up The Night, the belligerent title track, and the thundering, apocalyptic Falling Off The Edge Of The World. But never again would Black Sabbath and Ronnie James Dio reach such heights together.
Master Of Reality was Sabbath’s stoner album. On the follow-up, cocaine was king. Recording Vol.4 in LA, the band did so much coke that it was delivered to them in soap powder boxes. And on Snowblind, this album’s Sweet Leaf, they eulogized their new favourite drug. “This is where I feel I belong,” Ozzy sang.
But if cocaine would hasten Sabbath’s descent into personal chaos, it also emboldened them to further expand their musical remit. Supernaut, the hardest hitting track on Vol.4, turned funky halfway through. Wheels Of Confusion has the complexity of progressive rock. And on piano ballad Changes, Ozzy wailed like a wounded Elton John. More than just a great album, Vol.4 is a monument to excess.
There was black humour in the title of Sabbath’s fifth album, made while they were in litigation with their former manager Patrick Meehan. But in a time of crisis, the band created another classic. Sabotage was conceived as a back-to-basics album, a return to what Bill Ward called “the iron-clad sound of Black Sabbath”.
This much was evident in the bludgeoning riffs of Symptom Of The Universe and The Writ, the latter a stinging riposte to Meehan. But as a whole, Sabotage was as expansive as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – its most leftfield track, Supertzar, featuring a choir, and described by Ward as “a demonic chant”. It was the last great album from Sabbath’s golden age with Ozzy.
Sabbath had a blast making Vol.4 in LA and returned to start the next album. But Iommi was burned out and suffering writer’s block. Only when the band relocated to Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire – where they believed they saw ghosts – did Iommi rediscover his mojo. The castle’s creepy aura inspired the first song he wrote for the album: its title track, featuring not one but two of his greatest riffs.
And the finished album was even more adventurous than Vol.4. The mesmeric Spiral Architect utilized a string section, and Sabbra Cadabra – later covered by Metallica – had Rick Wakeman playing piano, for which he was paid in beer. “For me,” Iommi says, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was the pinnacle.”
Following the huge success of the Paranoid album and single, Sabbath didn’t screw up by trying to write another hit. Instead, they delivered what is arguably the heaviest of all Sabbath albums. “Master Of Reality was an experiment,” Iommi says. “On songs like Children Of The Grave and Into The Void, we tuned down three semitones for a bigger sound, with more depth.”
The result was an album that set the template for stoner rock, sludge and doom metal. Sweet Leaf is the quintessential pothead anthem, introduced by the sound of Iommi choking on a joint. And in contrast is the quiet beauty of Solitude, cited by the guitarist as “the first love song we ever did.”
For many purists, Sabbath isn’t Sabbath without Ozzy. But for Geezer Butler, Heaven And Hell – the band’s first album with former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio – is as good as the first five they made with Ozzy. And he’s right. Undaunted by the task of replacing the seemingly irreplaceable, Dio rejuvenated a band that had been in decline for five years.
His powerful, richly melodic voice and poetic lyrics added a new dimension to Sabbath’s music, an epic scale illustrated by the album’s colossal title track and the eerily atmospheric Children Of The Sea. And on Neon Knights, one of the heaviest songs Sabbath ever recorded, Dio proved himself the greatest metal singer of them all.
Famously recorded in one day, Sabbath’s debut was released on Friday February 13, 1970 – a symbolic date. The title track and N.I.B. were the most potent examples of Sabbath’s elemental power. But elsewhere are traces of blues and psychedelia. As Rick Rubin says: “Sabbath was always a groovy, soulful band.”
The reviews were, in Tony Iommi’s recollection, “awful”. Rolling Stone mocked both the music and the occult imagery, declaring the album “a shuck… like Vanilla Fudge playing doggerel tribute to Aleister Crowley.” But in America, Black Sabbath sold a million. In the UK, it made the Top 10. And over time it would be acknowledged as a landmark album in the evolution of heavy metal.
Released just seven months after their debut, Sabbath’s second album is their masterpiece.
Three of the eight tracks are deathless heavy metal classics: War Pigs, a cataclysmic protest song that resonated powerfully in the Vietnam era; Iron Man, a sci-fi fantasy driven by an earthshaking Iommi riff; and of course Paranoid itself, which was thrown together in 25 minutes and went on to become Sabbath’s most famous song, hitting the UK Top 5 and helping send the album to number one. From the definitive metal band, this is the definitive metal album.
Here are Black Sabbath’s studio albums, listed in chronological order:
Black Sabbath (1970) Paranoid (1970) Master of Reality (1971) Vol. 4 (1972) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) Sabotage (1975) Technical Ecstasy (1976) Never Say Die! (1978) Heaven and Hell (1980) Mob Rules (1981) Born Again (1983) Seventh Star (1986) The Eternal Idol (1987) Headless Cross (1989) Tyr (1990) Dehumanizer (1992) Cross Purposes (1994) Forbidden (1995) 13 (2013)
What is considered the best Black Sabbath album?
Boasting a tracklist that boasted War Pigs, Paranoid, Planet Caravan and Iron Man – and that was just side one, if you bought the record – Paranoid arguablyremains Black Sabbath’s greatest – or at least certainly most notable – album. It was written and recorded just four months after their self-titled debut was released. According to drummer Bill Ward, the title track was written quickly, due to the band not having enough material to fill a whole album. This was a band at the height of their powers and five decades on, Paranoid may well remain their greatest moment.
Who was the best Black Sabbath singer?
Over the course of their career, Black Sabbath have had 10 vocalists: Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Walker, Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Ron Keel, David Donato, Jeff Fenholt, Ray Gillen, and Tony Martin. Only five of these singers have appeared on a Black Sabbath release: Ozzy, Dio, Gillan, Hughes and Martin.
But who holds the mantle of best Sabbath vocalist? That’s something of fierce debate between diehard fans, but falls between Ozzy and Dio. Some prefer Ozzy’s characterful, effortless singing style, while others believe that Dio’s powerful metal vocal delivery was the perfect match for Tony Iommi’s riffs.
Which Black Sabbath album sold the most?
Paranoid is Black Sabbath’s biggest-selling album and has shifted an estimated 12 million copies worldwide (as of March 2022). It provided the band with their first Number One album in the UK (their second being 2013’s 13).
Over on Spotify, the top three most popular Sabbath songs are taken from this release: Paranoid, Iron Man and War Pigs. The title track itself has been streamed over 1.2 billion times (February 2025).
Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2005, Paul Elliott has worked for leading music titles since 1985, including Sounds, Kerrang!, MOJO and Q. He is the author of several books including the first biography of Guns N’ Roses and the autobiography of bodyguard-to-the-stars Danny Francis. He has written liner notes for classic album reissues by artists such as Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy and Kiss, and currently works as content editor for Total Guitar. He lives in Bath – of which David Coverdale recently said: “How very Roman of you!”
In 1966, Daevid Allen asked postmodern author William Burroughs for permission to use the title of his novel The Soft Machine for his new band. In 2009 the Gong mastermind (who died in 2015) told Prog why it was such a good match with the Canterbury pioneers’ music.
Surrealist, satirist and beat generation figure William Burroughs has been an inspirational source of ideas for musicians over the years. But the first time his work was used as a wellspring by a band came in 1966, when his novel The Soft Machine – published five years earlier – became the name for a group of young Canterbury-based talents.
When Robert Wyatt (drums/vocals), Kevin Ayers (guitar/bass/vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Mike Ratledge (organ) united to create challenging music, an important question was what to call themselves. It was Allen who solved the dilemma.
“We had a number of names to choose from, and that one seemed to suggest that the human body and brain was a soft machine,” he says, matching the theme of the book. “And the internal textural contrast between the two words appealed to us as a group.”
Melbourne-born Allen had briefly worked with Burroughs while in Paris, prior to landing in Canterbury; and he’d performed theatrical pieces based on Burroughs’ celebrated novel The Naked Lunch. Given the connection, it was inevitable that Allen would seek out the author to ask him about using The Soft Machine as a name.
Borroughs’ reaction still makes Allen laugh: “He said, ‘I can’t see why not!’ Then he looked hard at me and added, ‘If I were you I would get a haircut and disappear!’”
He still doesn’t recall many of the alternative suggestions the musicians had considered. “There were many quite good ones, but I can only remember two, neither of which appealed to me particularly. They were Mister Head, and Dingo Virgin And The Four Skins.
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“To be honest, I don’t think anything we came up with got the full backing of everyone. Like most names, in the end it was a case of going with something that didn’t offend anyone. I’m glad we went the way we did, because I think that name still represents the type of music we made in those early days.”
They were known as The Soft Machine until 1969, before dropping the definite article. Why did they become simply Soft Machine? “I’d left the band by then; so had Kevin,” Allen says. “I think they did it in order to reaffirm that they were now a very different group.”
Feature Photo: Nicolas Padovani, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
(A)
“6 Inch”Lemonade (April 23, 2016) “A Lesser Man”The Idol Episode 3 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (June 19, 2023) “A Lie”Jungle Rules (July 14, 2017) “A Lonely Night”Starboy (November 25, 2016) “A Tale By Quincy”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Acquainted”Beauty Behind the Madness (August 28, 2015) “Adaptation”Kiss Land (September 10, 2013) “After Hours”After Hours (February 19, 2020) “All I Know”Starboy (November 25, 2016) “All To Myself”We Still Don’t Trust You (April 12, 2024) “Alone Again”After Hours (March 20, 2020) “Always Be My Fault”We Still Don’t Trust You (April 12, 2024) “Angel”Beauty Behind the Madness (August 28, 2015) “Another One of Me”The Love Album: Off the Grid (September 15, 2023) “As You Are”Beauty Behind the Madness (August 28, 2015) “Attention”Starboy (November 25, 2016)
(B)
“Bedtime Stories”SR3MM (May 4, 2018) “Belong to the World”Kiss Land (July 16, 2013) “Best Friends”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Better Believe”See You Next Wednesday (July 22, 2021) “Blinding Lights”After Hours (November 29, 2019)
(C)
“Call Out My Name”My Dear Melancholy, (March 30, 2018) “Can’t Feel My Face”Beauty Behind the Madness (June 8, 2015) “Christmas Blues”Christmas Blues (November 27, 2020) “Circus Maximus”Utopia (July 28, 2023) “Come Thru”Edgewood (March 23, 2018) “Comin Out Strong”Hndrxx (February 24, 2017) “Coming Down”House of Balloons and Trilogy (March 21, 2011) “Creepin’”Heroes & Villains (December 2, 2022) “Crew Love”Take Care (November 15, 2011) “Curve”Mr. Davis (September 13, 2017)
(D)
“D.D.”Echoes of Silence and Trilogy (December 21, 2011) “Dancing In The Flames”Hurry Up Tomorrow (September 13, 2024) “Dark Times”Beauty Behind the Madness (August 28, 2015) “Dawn FM”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Devil May Cry”The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (November 15, 2013) “Die for It”See You Next Wednesday (August 27, 2021) “Die for You”Starboy (November 25, 2016) “Dollhouse”The Idol Episode 5 Part 2 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (July 3, 2023) “Don’t Break My Heart”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Double Fantasy”The Idol Episode 2 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (April 21, 2023) “Drinks On Us”(Single) (January 31, 2015)
(E)
“Earned It”Fifty Shades of Grey (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) and Beauty Behind the Madness (December 23, 2014) “Echoes of Silence”Echoes of Silence and Trilogy (December 21, 2011) “Elastic Heart”The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (October 1, 2013) “Escape from LA”After Hours (March 20, 2020) “Every Angel Is Terrifying”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Exodus”Matangi (November 1, 2013)
(F)
“Faith”After Hours (March 20, 2020) “False Alarm”Starboy (September 29, 2016) “False Idols”The Idol Episode 5 Part 1 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (June 29, 2023) “Family”The Idol Episode 2 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (June 12, 2023) “Fill the Void”The Idol Episode 4 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (June 23, 2023) “Final Lullaby”After Hours (Deluxe edition) (March 30, 2020)
(G)
“Gasoline”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Gifted”Excuse My French (May 21, 2013) “Gone”Thursday and Trilogy (August 18, 2011)
(H)
“Hardest to Love”After Hours (March 20, 2020) “Hawái” (Remix)(Single) (November 5, 2020) “Heartless”After Hours (November 27, 2019) “Heaven or Las Vegas”Thursday and Trilogy (August 18, 2011) “Here We Go… Again”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “High for This”House of Balloons and Trilogy (March 21, 2011) “House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls”House of Balloons and Trilogy (March 21, 2011) “How Do I Make You Love Me?”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Hurricane”Donda (August 29, 2021) “Hurt You”My Dear Melancholy, (March 30, 2018)
(I)
“I Feel It Coming”Starboy (November 24, 2016) “I Heard You’re Married”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “I Was Never There”My Dear Melancholy, (March 30, 2018) “I’m Good”Dedication 5 (September 1, 2013) “In the Night”Beauty Behind the Madness (August 28, 2015) “In Vein”Mastermind (March 3, 2014) “In Your Eyes”After Hours (March 20, 2020) “Initiation”Echoes of Silence and Trilogy (December 21, 2011) “Intro” (Live)Live at SoFi Stadium (March 3, 2023) “Is There Someone Else?”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022)
(J)
“Jealous Guy”The Idol Episode 4 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (June 23, 2023)
(K)
“King of the Fall”(Single) (July 20, 2014) “Kiss Land”Kiss Land (May 17, 2013) “K-pop”Utopia (July 21, 2023)
(L)
“La Fama”Motomami (November 11, 2021) “Less than Zero”Dawn FM (January 7, 2022) “Life of the Party”Thursday and Trilogy (August 18, 2011) “Like A God”The Idol Episode 5 Part 1 (Music from the HBO Original Series) (June 29, 2023) “Live For”Kiss Land (August 20, 2013) “Loft Music”House of Balloons and Trilogy (March 21, 2011) “Lonely Star”Thursday and Trilogy (August 18, 2011) “Losers”Beauty Behind the Madness (August 28, 2015) “Lost in the Fire”Hyperion (January 11, 2019) “Love in the Sky”Kiss Land (July 30, 2013) “Love Me Harder”My Everything (August 22, 2014) “Love to Lay”Starboy (November 25, 2016) “Low Life”Evol (February 6, 2016) “Lust for Life”Lust for Life (April 19, 2017)
The show will take place at Aston Villa Park on July 5 and feature the last-ever live performances from The Prince Of Darkness and Black Sabbath’s original lineup: Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward.
Support will come from a host of legendary bands the heavy metal pioneers have inspired: Metallica, Lamb Of God, Slayer, Gojira, Alice In Chains, Mastodon, Halestorm and Anthrax.
Rounding out the extravaganza will be an all-star group featuring Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Wolfgang Van Halen and many others. Morello will also serve as the musical director for the event.
Tickets will go on sale on Friday, February 14, at 10am UK time.
See the full list of performers in the poster below.
All proceeds from the show will go to Birmingham charities, namely Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice
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Osbourne comments: “It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning… time for me to give back to the place where I was born. How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”
Morello adds that the one-day extravaganza will be “the greatest heavy metal show ever”.
In January 2024, Sharon Osbourne told an audience at London’s Fortune Theatre that Osbourne was planning a show at Villa Park this year. During a Q&A with Loose Women colleague Jane Moore, Sharon said, “He won’t tour again but we are planning on doing two more shows to say goodbye as he feels like ‘I have never said goodbye to my fans and I want to say goodbye properly’. We will do it in Aston Villa where Ozzy is from. His voice is still absolutely perfect.”
The last time Black Sabbath’s original lineup played a full show together was an Ozzfest date at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 4, 2005.
Their final live appearance onstage was at the UK Music Hall Of Fame ceremony at Alexandra Palace in London later that year, where they played just one song, Paranoid.
In 2011, the four men appeared at a press conference at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood to announce a final world tour together, but Ward’s place had been taken by Tommy Clufetos by the time the dates kicked off the following year.
In what’s shaping up to be a bumper year for old-school heavy metal in UK stadiums, Sabbath’s homecoming will take place just a week after Iron Maiden headline the London Stadium, 130 miles to the south.
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When Riverside released their eighth studio album ID.Entity in 2023, it served not just to demonstrate their ongoing ability to make their songs stride and soar, but as proof that they were survivors.
The death of guitarist Piotr Grudzinski in 2016 had naturally unsettled them. But the river has kept on flowing, with two albums released since, and Maciej Meller now a full member.
Meanwhile, vocalist/bassist Mariusz Duda has simultaneously worked through some feelings, notably concerning lockdown-compounded claustrophobia, on his electronica-based solo records and Lunatic Soul project.
Live ID makes sense as a kind of catharsis: a celebration – however dark the music’s themes – that the Polish band are hungrily active again. Recorded in Warsaw in June 2024, it’s presented as the culmination of the ID.Entity cycle, and unapologetically focuses on that latest studio offering.
Riverside – Friend Or Foe? (Live ID.) (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO) – YouTube
Duda claims this is where those songs “gain their full potential.” It’s a live album which relishes being one, complete with deafening applause breaks and the singer exuberantly tossing in the kind of whoops and exclamations their moody records don’t accommodate.
The good people of Warsaw exhibit undivided joy to hear staples of the band’s charismatic catalogue
It’s not his usual style to get carried away, but here he’s all but hectoring the crowd to look lively – an element that will please some and irritate others. The substance of ID.Entity nonetheless remains, with its worries about technology and a post-truth world.
Apart from I’m Done With You, it’s all played here, the band leaning into its currents and hitting the heavier sections with vigour. At 110 minutes, however, there’s still plenty of scope for Riverside to step away from that album and revive fan favourites.
Lost and #Addicted, from perhaps their best work, 2015’s Love, Fear And The Time Machine, gets an airing, as do the rumbling, Rush-like suite Egoist Hedonist and Left Out. Even earlier material like 2005’s Conceiving You pops up, and if the crowd noise is loud throughout, the good people of Warsaw exhibit undivided joy to hear staples of the band’s charismatic catalogue.
Duda has spoken of the “nuances and quirks” which emerge in live interpretations; and while casual followers may not perceive radical differences, full-on fans will spot charged energy levels and dramatic emphases.
Riverside are always dramatic – it’s their charm – but on this recording they’ve let go of a degree of preciousness, allowing themselves to headbang when appropriate, and to react to, and even emulate, the audience’s gusto. That elusive simpatico between band and crowd is often what makes a great gig. It makes for a very good live album here.
Chris Roberts has written about music, films, and art for innumerable outlets. His new book The Velvet Underground is out April 4. He has also published books on Lou Reed, Elton John, the Gothic arts, Talk Talk, Kate Moss, Scarlett Johansson, Abba, Tom Jones and others. Among his interviewees over the years have been David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Bryan Ferry, Al Green, Tom Waits & Lou Reed. Born in North Wales, he lives in London.
Nadine Shah, Lankum‘s Darragh Lynch, Lisa O’Neill are among the guest vocalists who will be joining The Pogues for their UK headline tour in May.
Along with John Francis Flynn and Iona Zajac, the trio will be joining Pogues members Spider Stacv, James Fearnley and and Jem Finer for the six-date tour celebrating 40 years of the London-Irish ban’d classic Rum Sodomy & the Lash album.
These will be the band’s first dates since the death of former frontman Shane MacGowan.
The Elvis Costello-produced Rum Sodomy & the Lash was released on August 5, 1985, and sold 100,000 copies in the UK, peaking at number 13 on the album chart. It contains the singles A Pair Of Brown Eyes, Sally MacLennane and Dirty Old Town alongside fan favourites such as The Old Main Drag and The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn.
Costello later described his work on the record as his attempt to capture The Pogues “in their dilapidated glory before some more professional producer fucked them up.”
“He was really very good at his job,” says James Fearnliy in a new interview in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine. “It sounds brilliant and stands up to time. He really did well with Shane’s voice.
“There was a certain amount of competition between myself and Elvis because I was trying to think of things before he did,” he adds. “If he had an idea for doing a particular overdub, I got shirty with him because he’d just pick up a guitar and go into the studio and do it. I said, We’re the band, you’re the producer.”
The Pogues Rum, Sodomy & The Lash tour 2025
May 01: Leeds O2 Academy May 02: Birmingham O2 Academy May 03: London O2 Academy Brixton May 06: Glasgow Barrowland May 07: Manchester O2 Apollo May 08: Newcastle O2 City Hall
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
British filmmaker Bernard MacMahon knew getting the surviving members of Led Zeppelin to agree to a documentary about their band wouldn’t be easy.
“It was incredibly likely that once I put in a phone call, the group might say they were not interested,” MacMahon admitted during a recent conversation with The Guardian. “There was every chance we would not even get a meeting.”
Led Zeppelin famously ignored most requests for interviews and appearances. Even in the many years since the group’s demise, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have each been very selective about who they will and won’t speak to. So when MacMahon successfully landed a face-to-face meeting with Page, he knew he needed to be ready for anything.
To the filmmaker’s surprise, the guitar great arrived with shopping bags in his hands. “I wondered if he had brought sandwiches,” MacMahon admitted, before recalling how he pitched Page his concept for Becoming Led Zeppelin using a storyboard. When he got to the part of the narrative where Page and Plant first met, the guitarist quizzed MacMahon on what band he was in at that time. “Hobbstweedle,” MacMahon responded. “Very good,” Page confirmed. “Carry on.”
As MacMahon continued to prove he was well versed in all things Zeppelin, Page “opened the shopping bags to show he had brought his old diaries, dating back to the ‘60s.” The guitarist was on board for the film – but there was still to be one more test.
Jimmy Page’s Important Invitation
A few days after their meeting, Page called MacMahon and asked, “Would you like to go to Pangbourne with me?” The small village held an important place in Led Zeppelin’s history, as Page’s boathouse home there served as Led Zeppelin’s first rehearsal space. The filmmaker and his partner, Allison McGourty, accepted the invitation and visited the location with Page. “Later, (Page) revealed it had been a test,” McGourty noted to The Guardian. “‘If you had said no to Pangbourne we wouldn’t have done the film.’”
In the end, Page, Plant and Jones all agreed to be part of the documentary. John Bonham is also featured thanks to recovered radio interviews. “He acts as a narrator,” McMahon explained of the late drummer. “His interviews were recorded just after things had happened. Jimmy said in some ways he’s the star of the film because he’s in the moment.”
Becoming Led Zeppelin is due for wide release on Feb. 14.
The Best Song From Every Led Zeppelin Album
Choosing the best song isn’t easy, since many of their LPs come together as a piece – and they include so many classic tracks.
Six full years after his most recent concert, Ozzy Osbourne will make his final performance at the star-studded Back to the Beginning show on July 5 in Birmingham, UK’s Villa Park.
The show will also feature a set by the first full reunion of Black Sabbath‘s original lineup in almost 20 years.
Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Anthrax and Mastodon will also perform at the show. The all-day event will also feature a super group of musicians including Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, David Draiman of Disturmed, Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan and Slash, Anthrax’s Frank Bello and Scott Ian, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, former Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing, Lzzy Hale,, Mike Bordin of Faith No More), Rudy Sarzo, Sammy Hagar, Sleep Token ii of Sleep Token, Ghost’s Papa V Perpetua, Wolfgang Van Halen, Zakk Wylde and music director Tom Morello, who promises this will be “the greatest heavy metal show ever.”
Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 14th at LiveNation’s UK site. All profits from the show will go to charities including Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a Children’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa.
Despite enduring a wave of medical setbacks that forced him to first postpone, then cancel his No More Tours 2 farewell tour after a Dec. 31, 2018 show in Los Angeles, Osbourne has been determined to say farewell to the stage on his own terms.
Black Sabbath played what was billed as their last-ever show on Feb. 4, 2017, but it was without original drummer Bill Ward, who backed out of their final tour over a contract dispute.
It will be the first time Ward plays a concert with Black Sabbath since the Sept. 4, 2005 tour-ending date of that year’s traveling Ozzfest festival. (He also played one song with them a month later at the UK Music Hall of Fame ceremony.)
In recent months, all four members of Black Sabbath have expressed their willingness to perform together one more time. “Ozzy was talking to me about, when he does his farewell concert – which he still wants to do – He’s dying to still get out there and play,” bassist Geezer Butler noted during a December 2024 conversation with Lifeminute. “And he suggested, at his very final concert, for the four of us to get up on stage and maybe do three or four songs together. And that would be it, finished.”
Despite the public and legal battle over being replaced for the band’s farewell tour, in July of 2024, Ward made it clear he was also up for a proper goodbye : “I’m in for playing some of everyone’s old favorites. Loved playing them then, I’d love to play them one last time.” Two months earlier, guitarist Tony Iommi said he was in, too: “Because it wasn’t Black Sabbath that finished it. It’s unfinished. If they wanted to do one more gig with Bill, I would jump at the chance.”
Black Sabbath Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Together, they paint a portrait of a band that lived hard, worked hard and played hard.
