032).Ī significant ingredient in the dark vibe of Iommi’s solos is the incorporation of minor modes. His soloing style is earmarked by blazingly fast hammer-ons and pull-offs, as well as wide string bends, executed on his custom set of super-light strings (.008. Iommi mirrored his rhythm parts with double tracking, but at 3:45 there are suddenly three soloing guitars, each venturing in a different direction.

The track begins at a dirge-like tempo, with overdubbed police sirens foretelling the terror to follow.Īt 0:54, the song shifts to a faster tempo, with unison guitar/bass figures played in call-and-response fashion with Ozzy’s vocals.

The opening track from the band’s 1970 sophomore release, “War Pigs” evokes all of the dark and dramatic elements that define Sabbath’s greatest work.Īt this early stage, Tony Iommi was not yet detuning his guitar, but even at standard tuning, his mammoth tone is truly demonic. It’s interesting to compare the first section of the Sabbath track with the Dunbar original, as Iommi plays many of the guitar riffs virtually note for note. “Warning,” the A-side of Retaliation’s debut single, could easily be mistaken for an outtake from Cream’s debut, Fresh Cream, as it displays all of the signature elements of classic late-Sixties blues rock.īlack Sabbath build the original three-plus-minute single into a 10-and-a-half-minute excursion, slowing it down to a heavy, grinding tempo and incorporating an adventurous “free” middle section devoid of strict time, followed by a hard-rocking shuffle.īetween 6:20 and 9:03, Iommi performs an adventurous unaccompanied guitar solo that demonstrates his aggressive signature style. The last section of “A Bit of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning” is actually a cover of a song originally released in 1967 by the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, formed by legendary British drummer Dunbar following his departure from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

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