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Label: Yunque Records
First Tribute To Black Sabbath documents an extraordinary and little-known chapter in the birth of heavy metal: Scottish band Iron Claw performing Black Sabbath songs at the very moment Sabbath's revolutionary sound was first emerging.
The story began on November 16, 1969, when Iron Claw bassist Alex Wilson recorded Black Sabbath performing at Rugman's Youth Club in Dumfries, Scotland. Deeply impressed by what they heard, the young musicians began adding Sabbath material to their own live set, learning songs directly from concerts and tapes at a time when some of the material had not yet even appeared on record.
The results preserved here are remarkable. Iron Claw's versions of Evil Woman, Wicked World and Sleeping Village / Warning date from around the period of Black Sabbath's debut, while their performances of Fairies Wear Boots and Walpurgis – the early version of War Pigs – were recorded on July 16, 1970, more than two months before Paranoid was released.
Far from polished modern tribute versions, these are raw recordings of teenagers in Scotland absorbing the new language of heavy rock almost as it was being invented. Crushing riffs, primitive amplification and the rough live atmosphere give the performances genuine historical weight as well as enormous appeal to fans of early heavy rock, proto-metal and doom.
Iron Claw would soon develop their own formidable heavy sound, but these recordings capture the group at its very beginning and make a convincing case for them as one of the earliest – perhaps the earliest – bands to build a repertoire around Black Sabbath material.
Track Listing:
Side A
A1. War Pigs (Walpurgis)
A2. Fairies Wear Boots
A3. Wicked World
Side B
B1. Evil Woman
B2. Sleeping Village / Warning
B3. Black Sabbath
