Vol 4 Vinyl

Black Sabbath hit a strange, fascinating crossroads with Vol. 4, an album where excess, ambition, and experimentation collide in a thick cloud of distortion and disorientation.
It is messy by design, pushing the band beyond their early doom blueprint into something riskier and less predictable.

Originally released in 1972 and reissued here as a 2015 UK repress from Sanctuary Records, Vol. 4 reflects a period where altered states began shaping not just the lyrics but the music itself. Reality blurs with illusion as the band stretches their sound, sometimes confidently, sometimes recklessly. The result is less cohesive than its predecessors, yet far more revealing, capturing Sabbath at their most human and unfiltered.

The album swings wildly between crushing heaviness and unexpected accessibility. Wheels Of Confusion opens with prog-leaning ambition and shifting textures, while Tomorrow’s Dream flirts with radio-ready hooks only to pull them away just as quickly. Snowblind stands as the album’s core, a midtempo ode steeped in narcotic haze, originally intended as the record’s title. Supernaut delivers some of Tony Iommi’s heaviest riffing, bizarrely interrupted by a funky acoustic breakdown that somehow works.

Elsewhere, Changes slows everything down into a fragile piano ballad, while Cornucopia and Under The Sun let riffs overwhelm words entirely. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl, this edition emphasizes the album’s dense low end and murky atmosphere. Vol. 4 may be uneven, but its contradictions are exactly what make it essential, especially for listeners drawn to Sabbath at their most excessive and adventurous.