Pour les curieux, voici un extrait du bouquin "Black Sabbath FAQ", concernant les chansons du groupe qui ressemblent à d'autres chansons
At Cross Purposes
Black Sabbath Songs That Sound Like
Other Black Sabbath Songs
Really, after so many years, albums and incarnations, when you've come to be a writer who starts with a riff first and then works his way up to song, as Tony has become and as many metal bands are (notably Metallica), you're bound to write something with strong whiffs of reminiscence of earlier glories. Here are a few of those pairings of new with old, although to Iommi's credit, he manages to not repeat himself very often. I suppose if I started comparing all the slow doomy things to one another and, God forbid, leaping over to the man's solo material, I would find more, but my eyes glaze over at such a task. By the way, one would think The Devil You Know would be rife and riddled with revisitations but that's inspiringly not the case.
The earliest that I'm really feeling this idea is actually commendably well into the catalogue, namely the Born Again album, with the song "Trashed." Popped in pole position, fast, rollicking, and hummable, this one bears many similarities to "Neon Knights" and, to a lesser extent, "The Mob Rules." Both "Trashed" and "Neon Knights" are built on aggressive chugs sweetened or lightened by a melodic lick, a release valve to the heads-down nature of the chug. Same album, "Stonehenge" bears much resemblance to "E5150," the similarity underscored given that the latter came one record before the former. In any event, both make use of modern keyboard gizmo technology, as opposed to other soft instrumental bits from Sabbath, which more often than not play up Tony's less heralded acoustic guitar skills.
Move forward to The Eternal Idol, and the title track's verse meanders and creaks very much like that of the dirgy parts in "Megalomania." With "Glory Ride," the opening riff is a nice reminder of the rootsy rock 'n' roll melody of the "Shock Wave" riff. On Headless Cross, "Black Moon" has got a hooky riff rife with pregnant pauses set over a gallop, the structure reminding one of "Evil Woman" and, even more so, Deep Purple's "Black Night," ironically enough! As well, the moment I heard this album's title track, I was annoyed at how the structure unimaginatively mimicked the structure of "The Shining," first track on the album one record back, namely come verse time, big Geronimo chords giving way to gothic keyboards over a pert drum beat, Tony Martin throwing cliché Ronnie vocal melodies o'er top.
Look deep into the Tyr album and hints of repetition rattle around "Anno Mundi" and "The Law Maker." On the former, the opening mellow electric picking rides the same mournful melody as the intro to "Children of the Sea." Come "The Law Maker," this energetic, quickpaced rock 'n' rollsy number sounds an awful lot like "Turn to Stone" from Seventh Star. As well, one might put forth the argument that "Feels Good to Me" feels like a makeover of "No Stranger to Love."
Up into Ronnie James Dio's return to the band, "Master of Insanity" isn't so much a nick from older Sabbath, evoking more so Led Zeppelin's "The Wanton Song," and, with more of a connection, "Lady of the Lake" from Ronnie's last album with Rainbow.
With Tony Martin's return, Tony Iommi finds himself treading old ground once again. As with "Anno Mundi," Cross Purposes' "Cross of Thorns" starts dark and mellow and then Tony strikes a "progressing" or "advancing" chord structure that sounds quite similar to that of the former. Into the Forbidden album, "Can't Get Close Enough" hangs its hat on a stiff, lethargic version of the triumphant and swinging verse riff of "Megalomania" all those light-years ago, and "Guilty as Hell" recalls "Voodoo." The circular riff of "Get a Grip" seems to be a borrowed bit from the more repetitive and hypnotic "Zero the Hero," which Tracii Guns has also told me was the inspiration for the riff on Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City." Additionally, "Sick and Tired" lives and dies on the same big, bluesy stripper-pole metal beat as "Heart Like a Wheel," both tracks examples of Sabbath doing anything remotely close to anything in the blues or boogie realm. Finally there's "Shaking Off the Chains," this clumsy, geometric rocker echoing the same three-legged feel of "Psychophobia," disconcertingly only one record ago.