Sabotage is not only Black Sabbath's best record since Paranoid, it might be their best ever. Even with the usual themes of death, destruction and mental illness running throughout this album, the unleashed frenzy and raw energy they've returned to here comes like a breath of fresh air.

"Symptom of the Universe" rambles on, an atonal riff-based crusher, then shifts for a coda of lightly paced acoustic jamming. "Megalomania" is an inversion of that, erupting into a hard rocker with a hummable chorus before it's slammed home in a quake of phasing and feedback. For diversion, there's "Supertzar," which features the English Chamber Choir chanting off an off-time splurge of guitar phrases. Black Sabbath loyalists will no doubt love this record and those who've never bothered may even want to indulge.

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."