One of my favorites in my collection. It's a 71 Terra Haute pressing and the sound is absolutely beautiful on it the sleeve has seen its share of abuse, but i dont care when the record sounds that good. Obviously the album needs no introduction, and ever song on it is absolutely amazing. Busted this out while i was making Christmas cookies, because Iron Man is ky spirit animal while dealing with Christmas mayhem.
Massive really is the only way to describe the album. Iommi's riffs are larger than life, smothering and grinding you down. It's not as in your face or hard core compared to music that's out now, but it must have been absolutely revolutionary at the time when The Who and Led Zeppelin were the heaviwst guitar you had probably ever heard. It was every bit as revolutionary as Elivs Presely, opening up a whole new frontier of music for angry and disaffected men finding themselves oit of work during the brutal economic downturn of the 70's.
It wasn't until I was in my mid-30's that I discovered stoner-doom existed as a metal genre, but I've really grown to love the riff worship and songwriting of the earlier/slower metal, especially Iommi.