 Black Sabbath: John "Ozzy" Osbourne (right down) had success in the Eighties as leader of the Blizzards of Oz. |
A 1968 residency in Hamburg's Star-Club, Germany, invested this Midlands outfit's "progressive" blues style with a bleak but atmospheric intensity. Donning Satanic fetishist adornments, they delivered self-composed pieces that reflected occult interests. Some items appeared on an eponymous debut album that visited the UK Top 10, as did a single, 'Paranoid'. From the 1970 album of the same name stemmed the group's international success - particularly in the USA - which continued throughout the Seventies with further output of similar doom-laden stamp, the principal points of which were guitarist Tony Iommi's blistering solos and singer Ozzy Osbourne's straining attack. Eventually discord in the studio with the punctilious guitarist caused Osbourne's exit in 1978 to lead the Blizzards Of Oz as a significant rival attraction.
His replacement was Ronnie James Dio, an American, as was Vincent Appice who superseded drummer Bill Ward the following year. A slightly more subtle outlook marked the albums that preceded more personnel changes and the group's apparent disbandment in 1983. However, the original line-up reunited for Live Aid. Later, a "Black Sabbath With Tony Iommi" issued three albums but, though all sold moderately, most fans preferred the old monster.
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