Comments

1. JAMES BRUJO says

   January 30, 2012 at 10:48 am

   I WAS 17 YEARS OLD WHEN I LISTEN BLACK SABBATH VOL 4 FOR THE FIRST TIME. IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE. I WAS A BIG BLACK SABBATH FAN, SINCE THE HOMONIMOUS FIRST ALBUM, BUT THIS ALBUM WAS DIFFERENT FROM THE 3 PREVIOUS. THE SOUND WAS HEAVIEST AND THE BAND START EXPERIMENTING WITH MORE SOUNDS AND EFFECTS, (LIKE PIANO AND MELLOTRONS) THIS ALBUM WAS THE BLACK SABBATH’S EQUIVALENT TO THE SARGENT PEPPERS OF THE BEATLES. TO MY HUMBLE OPINION, IT IS THE FINEST WORK FROM SABBATH.
   IN CERTAIN OCASSION ONE FRIEND OF MINE SAYS: “IF ALL THE HEAVY ROCK ALBUMS MADE IN PLANET EARTH DISSAPEAR, BUT WE KEEP ONLY THE BLACK SABBATH VOL 4, WE CAN RE-CREATE ALL THE HEAVY ROCK SOUND FROM THIS ALBUM”

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   • FRANK says

     April 27, 2012 at 4:24 am

     GOOD FOR YOU, JAMES. I HAD 42 YEARS OLD AND I THINK THAT THE FIRSTS BLACK SABBATH ALBUMS ARE THE BEST OF ALL TIMES. SPECIALLY VOL. 4 !!!

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2. vito monteiro says

   June 18, 2012 at 11:35 pm

   fantastic album! i think this is sabbath at their best. love it!1!

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3. Ben Gonzales says

   July 25, 2012 at 9:37 am

   St Vitus Dance, the closest Sabbath got to the early Beatles.
   Vol. 4 is my favorite Black Sabbath Album………………..This week!

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4. Bryan the moped geek says

   July 29, 2012 at 8:44 pm

   In the mid to late 1990s Vol.4 was packaged in my part of the US as “Children of The Grave” credited to NEMS/ Dorchester Holdings. The cover art was rather uninspired consisting of a photograph of a child’s doll lying on a tombstone. The other distinguishable feature was a live version of COTG tacked onto the end. It appeared to be of some legitimacy as it was carried in local chain record shops (remember those? )

   I had a cassette copy myself and the audio was virtually the same, if a tad compressed

   Anyhow, was a bit surprised to see no mention of it here. Otherwise I enjoy the site layout

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5. Khristofferson Silveira says

   September 25, 2012 at 4:03 pm

   Happy birthday, old friend.

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6. HUK says

   September 30, 2012 at 2:15 am

   “Under The Sun” is my favorite Sabbath-tune. In my opinion it is the best example for the doomy and cloomy side of the Sabbath-coin.

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   • Impala Farmer says

     February 12, 2014 at 11:24 pm

     Ah yes, but the correct lyric is “People HIDING their real face”, not “riding”.

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7. Mason says

   September 9, 2013 at 7:18 pm

   Not on par with master of Reality, but it’s still amazing. Snowblind, Cornucopia, Under the Sun, St. Vitus Dance, Changes, and any other track (except FX) are all amazing. This album is Tony Iommi at his best. Not much else to say, but go out and buy Vol. 4 if you haven’t already.

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8. Dave says

   November 19, 2013 at 5:32 pm

   I just bought Volume 4 yesterday (warner,2602-2; paid like 6.7 USD). I must say I didn ‘t like it very much -all I had was the album on cheesy mp3s somebody passed me on- but now I’ve just listened to the real thing and oh man, I just love it-even ‘fx’- my favorite is under the sun.

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9. Linus M says

   February 25, 2014 at 4:48 am

   I’ve Always cathegorize the Ozzy Era in 4 different “sub-eras” when it comes to the Music style and their progression.
   Era 1 (68-70): The early demos.
   Era 2: Black Sabbath. Paranoid & Master of reality
   Era 3: Vol 4, SBS & Sabotage
   Era 4: technical Exstacy & NSD

   Vol 4 is, in my opinion the start of maby the Sabs most talanted Era. Their progression from the more “simple” three first albums to a more progressive sound. Ozzys voice are more “tuned up” and solid, to evolve even more on SBS. The use of more symphonies etc are more common here. It is a really interesting piece of work. It is probably my “most played” record, (though my favourite album is Master of reality). It’s hard to give negative credit to a holy album in my ears, but they took a step from the “dark and evil” into a more straight on Heavy rock sound. Some like it, and some disagree. In my opinion, I think it was the natural way to go for them musically at the time, and felt that they needed this change to their sound. It’s wonderful though that the last track of the album “Under the sun” takes you back to their brilliant original sound and heaviness. (Even cornucopia flirts with their original sound). “Under the sun” is undoubtely my favourite track of the album, next to Snowblind and Supernaut. It’s brilliant… really brilliant.

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   • Darryl says

     July 30, 2014 at 9:41 am

     Spot on. Those 3 albums (Vol 4, SBS and Sabotage) are the high water mark of the Sabbath catalogue.

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10. Jon nells says

    June 22, 2014 at 11:14 am

    Black Sabbath didn’t really have a trademark sound until they brought Dio in as a vocalist, basically the albums from 1980 and beyond had a ‘typical’ Sabbath tone whereas every one of the first 4 albums sounded completely different from the other, this wasn’t by design but probably due to having better financial resources, different studios, different moods, input from others etc. On tbe first album they were in the midst of the typical poor bands tour where you’re scraping by from one dive club to another, ironically enough the end result of this simple two day effort ended up being their ‘cleanest’ recording ever…Osbournes vocals were by far the most unique they’d ever be in that they frequently dipped into baritone range, had a very obvious nasal edge ‘accent’ yet had a hiss like ‘rasp’ surrounding everything he said (reminds me of a teen who’s voice is changing or someone with a heavy English accent singing while having the flu)…Butlers tone had lots of sustain, was extremely thick yet had a very nasty edge to it -other well established bassists of that time had far weaker tones in comparison -seems that by Butler using a beat up, partially working 4×12 cab he ended up having tonal characteristics you’d never get from an expensive ‘brand new’ item, this tone combined with bass lines that jumped back and forth between ‘drum-like’ and ‘guitar-like’ made for an amazing foundation…Iommi’s tone on this first album was difficult to describe since it simply wasn’t heard before, of course by 69′ heavy guitar tones were somewhat common however not like his, blatantly superior to anything that came before it, even his use of the common ‘wah’ effect went far beyond that of others (if you doubt this listen to the song Black Sabbath, at around 5:13 turn off the speaker carrying the guitar solo so you can better hear this insane rhythm)…as far as Ward he not only had a very funky use of off beats but was blessed to have a super clean recording of his kit (the highs comming off the cymbals fried the high frequency drivers of our pa system too many times)…..Now to compare this to the next album I’d say the vocals were similar with regards to being like an additional instrument however didn’t have that high frequency rasp, the guitar had a more controlled tone (less lows) however still had a better tone then anyone else, same could be said for Butler’s tone however both the guitar and bass parts and song construction were some of their best, Wards playing on this album was really great however wouldn’t have been as admired if the studio engineers didn’t eq his kick drum to sound so freakin amazing, very few people understand that THIS was the first modern sounding bass drum tone ever, none of the established bands of the time had this modern sound which may explain a part of the reason why this album doesn’t sound dated (as much of the other music recorded in 70′ does)….M.O.R. seemed far less progressive then it’s predecessors and seemed to rely on over the top simple yet heavy guitar riffs, at times it seems as though this album was made on the spot in the studio however amongst the stoner rock crowd this album must be considered ‘a first’. Aside from this album having less of a orchestrated feel I’d say my biggest issue is the drastic change in Osbournes vocal tone, it went from an edgy 3rd instrument to a high, almost whiney afterthought…It kind of seemed the band was straying from the progressive direction they initially had and heading for ultra deep doom and gloom stuff however their next album “Vol. 4” must have caught everyone by surprise since it was so different sounding then anything the band did previous, basically Vol. 4 was a work of beauty meets heavy, the layered guitar parts jump between shimmering to heavy while the riffs themselves are easily some of Iommi’s best work, sadly the bass is too muddy to be clearly heard along with the missing punch of the kick drum while the vocals never went back to their earlier tone, still though this (to me) was Black Sabbath’s last great album -the original album artwork/photos were pretty freakin awesome as well

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11. Matt Dennett says

    June 23, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    Vol4 was in my older brothers inherited vinyl collection,along with ac/dc and status quo records,i was around 12 yes old i think when i first listened to this album. That fuzz metal crunching intro to wheels of confusion scared me a lot! The groove,the rolling bass lines,the eerie high pitched nasal vocal lines,and of course the ultra heavy guitar riffing just pulled me in and i was addicted there and then. I needed more,the only other sabs material he had was a tape version of live evil – i didn’t understand the different vocalist situation but i was still blown away by the crushing guitar and bass tones on that tape,it was a different beast but i could spot that guitar anywhere. Anyway, 30 years later that album vol4 is still my top sabs disc and i still have that same vinyl lp. The songs are granite solid metal,the superb drumming,superlative solos,the rumbling bass lines – the blueprint for countless doom and stoner rock bands ever since. This lp has it all,and yes, under the sun is just the most beautifully ugly doom metal track EVER. Vol4 forever…

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12. Bobby A. Grissom says

    May 22, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    Did you notice the tracks were arrange differently on the 8 track than on the LP? The song Snowblind followed FX on it. That was totally amazing in that order. You would have the dead silence right after all the sound effects on FX and then suddenly…..Bam! Bam! Bam! Snowblind comes blasting in from the silence. The first time we heard it everyone in the car jumped when Snowblind started. Of course we were all blown away on some of the local Mexican dirt weed. We only listen to the 8 track version after that. The order of the songs seem to make more sense to us for some reason. I was 16 and just got my car when vol.4 came out. My first car and my first eight track.

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13. Bobby A. Grissom says

    May 23, 2015 at 12:15 am

    also, would you happen to have the order of the tracks from the 8 track? I would like to arrange my vol.4 mp3’s in that order for old times sake.
    I had my original 8 track stolen and 1975 along with 200 others when I got stuck in the mud in the country and had to walk for help. They stoled my 8 track player and my Stetson also-Bastards!-so if you have that track order I would really appreciate it if you would send it to me.
    Thanks!
    Sabbath Rules!

    Reply
    • Shawn G. says

      March 10, 2021 at 7:58 pm

      I found the US 8-track order over on Discogs.com.

      A1 Wheels Of Confusion
      A2 Laguna Sunrise
      B1 FX
      B2 Snowblind
      B3 Cornucopia
      C1 Changes
      C2 Under The Sun
      D1 Tomorrow’s Dream
      D2 Supernaut
      D3 St. Vitus’ Dance

      I am interested to hear it in this order.

      Interestingly enough, the South Africa version has it in this order:

      A1 Snowblind
      A2 Cornucopia
      A3 FX
      B1 Supernaut
      B2 Laguna Sunrise
      B3 Tomorrows Dream
      C1 Wheels Of Confusion
      C2 St. Vitus Dance
      D1 Changes
      D2 Under The Sun

      While the UK version in another order:

      A1 Wheels Of Confusion
      A2 St. Vitus Dance
      B1 Tomorrow’s Dream
      B2 Changes
      B3 Laguna Sunrise
      C1 FX
      C2 Supernaut
      C3 Snowblind (Part 1)
      D1 Snowblind (Part 2)
      D2 Cornucopia
      D3 Under The Sun

      Reply
14. Vince Tasciotti says

    December 1, 2017 at 11:08 pm

    Was Vol 4 ever issued in a quadraphonic mix?

    Reply