Experiencing Black Sabbath - (Listener's Companion) by Nolan Stolz (Hardcover)

About the Book

Stolz explores Black Sabbath's nineteen studio albums, several live albums, and additional studio tracks, urging readers to reassess the work of this seminal act in American rock music history. The book uncovers how Black Sabbath's song catalog explored and defined the musical...

Book Synopsis

Black Sabbath has often been credited with inventing heavy metal with their first album released in 1970. Their new style of music was loud, brutal, scary, innovative, and it has greatly influenced heavy metal bands since then. Their five decades of music cross generations of fans, and they remain relevant to this day, with their 2013 album charting #1 in the United States and at least five other countries.

In Experiencing Black Sabbath: A Listener's Companion, musician and scholar Nolan Stolz leads the reader through Sabbath's twenty studio albums and additional songs, closely examining their music and the storied history of the band. Along the way, Stolz highlights often-overlooked key moments that defined Sabbath's unique musical style and legacy. Band members' own words illuminate certain aspects of the music, and Stolz makes connections from song to song, album to album, and sometimes across decades to create an intricate narrative of the band's entire catalog.

Experiencing Black Sabbath reveals the underappreciated genius of these heavy metal progenitors to all rock music lovers and gives even the most fervent Sabbath fans a new perspective on the music.

Review Quotes

"In this informative academic look at the music of Black Sabbath, composer and music professor Stolz undertakes a song-by-song analysis of many of the band's recordings, from its 1970 self-titled debut to its The End tour in 2016. Stolz meticulously explores what made Sabbath's music so heavy: the 'frightening' sound of the band's reliance on the tritone (the interval between two notes long known by classical composers as the 'devil in music'), which was heavily used in the blues-influenced music of early Sabbath. He also explains how the 'dreadfully slow' tempos made many songs feel 'doomy.' Stolz expertly shows how, in their later albums, Sabbath pursued a progressive sound by incorporating tempo changes, dissonance, and variety of rhythms.... Stolz's analysis is insightful.... This is a volume for die-hard Sabbath fans." --Publishers Weekly

"A fascinating read covering the complete history of the band. The depth of analysis is astonishing, dealing with every riff and nuance. This is the definitive work, encompassing the music and a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the legendary group. Amazing work!" --Laurence Cottle, former bassist, Black Sabbath

"Nolan Stolz has impressively found a way to add to the current writings on Black Sabbath, most notably with his detailed deconstruction of each song. The beauty of this approach lies in the novice and deep Sabbath fan alike inevitably and without choice scurrying back to the compositions to follow along with the author's professional postmortem." --Martin Popoff, author of seventy music books

A fascinating read covering the complete history of the band. The depth of analysis is astonishing, dealing with every riff and nuance. This is the definitive work, encompassing the music and a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the legendary group. Amazing work!

In this informative academic look at the music of Black Sabbath, composer and music professor Stolz undertakes a song-by-song analysis of many of the band's recordings, from its 1970 self-titled debut to its The End tour in 2016. Stolz meticulously explores what made Sabbath's music so heavy: the 'frightening' sound of the band's reliance on the tritone (the interval between two notes long known by classical composers as the 'devil in music'), which was heavily used in the blues-influenced music of early Sabbath. He also explains how the 'dreadfully slow' tempos made many songs feel 'doomy.' Stolz expertly shows how, in their later albums, Sabbath pursued a progressive sound by incorporating tempo changes, dissonance, and variety of rhythms.... Stolz's analysis is insightful.... This is a volume for die-hard Sabbath fans.

Nolan Stolz has impressively found a way to add to the current writings on Black Sabbath, most notably with his detailed deconstruction of each song. The beauty of this approach lies in the novice and deep Sabbath fan alike inevitably and without choice scurrying back to the compositions to follow along with the author's professional postmortem.

About the Author

Nolan Stolz is a composer, scholar, and drummer with a background in classical, jazz, and rock music. He is assistant professor and coordinator of music at University of South Carolina Upstate, where he teaches composition, theory, popular music studies, and drum set. Visit his website at www.nolanstolz.com and follow him on Twitter @nolanstolz.