BOOK REVIEW: Black Sabbath: Symptom Of The Universe by Mick Wall

Shane | 4 January 2014

Black Sabbath: Symptom Of The Universe by Mick Wall
Orion, rrp $32.99
7 November 2013
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
6/10

The normally excellent Mick Wall adds to his growing library of rock bios with a Black Sabbath volume which relies too much on his personal experiences working with and interviewing the band over the years, at the expense of his normal meticulous research.

For a large portion of the book Wall bashes everything about the people, the music they make, the decisions they stumble through their drugged up life making and whilst it may be accurate to a point, it strikes as a biased view of a messy situation.

By the time Tony Iommi is described as cocaine addled, Ozzy Osbourne as being out of control, and Sharon Osbourne as being ruthless for the twentieth time each, Symptom Of The Universe drags from page to page with little hope for redemption.

There are interesting revelations herein, most notably as to the ownership of the name Black Sabbath changing hands in the Nineties, resulting in the reformed Ronnie James Dio line-up flying under the Heaven & Hell banner thereafter, but overall it’s a lot of bluster and repetition with little new to say.