This 8 rating comes with a huge warning that this is very archival stuff: the recording quality varies from crap to crappier to crappiest, but for doom fans, or those looking to explore the early history of metal in general, this album is tons of fun. This isn't the first time Child of Darkness has been issued, but if you missed out before, grab this Relapse version for the grim lyricism and Iommi riffing of tunes like "Touch the Sky" and stick around for the complete Sabbath worship of cuts like "Frozen Fear," which apes an Ozzy vocal line so hard you'll find yourself doing a double-check on what year this stuff was originally recorded in.
It's shocking that this band originally did their thing between 1973 and 1979; hence the occasional boogie part or Cream reference, even a nod to sleazy proto-punk in "Time Bomb." More often than not, though, it's heavy-as-nails doom rock, the Pentagram connections in Bedemon (including notorious rock casualty Bobby Liebling behind the mic) making perfect sense. So, despite the recording quality making this almost more of an academic exercise than something to really, fully rock out to, this one has the capability to give you goosebumps, especially given the history, the trailblazing and the tragedy involved. This is completely mind-warping stuff for the era; how does no one ever mention this band?
(Relapse)It's shocking that this band originally did their thing between 1973 and 1979; hence the occasional boogie part or Cream reference, even a nod to sleazy proto-punk in "Time Bomb." More often than not, though, it's heavy-as-nails doom rock, the Pentagram connections in Bedemon (including notorious rock casualty Bobby Liebling behind the mic) making perfect sense. So, despite the recording quality making this almost more of an academic exercise than something to really, fully rock out to, this one has the capability to give you goosebumps, especially given the history, the trailblazing and the tragedy involved. This is completely mind-warping stuff for the era; how does no one ever mention this band?