In the pre-release press materials for ‘Broke Sabbath’, Canadian sludge metallers Dopethrone referred to the album’s material as having gone “full on ‘Volume 4’…”, and although the band aren’t working in a pure doom genre, in terms of intensity, it’s possible to see what they mean. Sort of, at least. Back in ’72, Sabbath’s fourth album was their most uncompromising to date, and by association, one of the heaviest albums to date from metal’s first wave. Although far sludgier, the best material here certainly has the same relentless quality that tracks like ‘Wheels of Confusion’ would have conveyed decades earlier. Without quibbling too much over a difference in style, whichever way you slice it, this is an album that takes its art to the absolute extreme.

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