‘Hand of Doom’: The Black Sabbath song written as an ode to heroin
Black Sabbath could never be considered the clean-living type throughout their time in the spotlight. Since they had been known to include drug references on almost every one of their albums, it’s easy to picture some of the backstage antics as something ripped straight out of Scarface. Though Tony Montana may have been closer to their everyday life on tour, Geezer Butler had the idea of ditching cocaine and writing about heroin during the recording of ‘Hand of Doom’.
This is a far more languid version of what they can do compared to the other Sabbath songs from the early part of their career. Since Bill Ward spends most of the verses playing nothing but rim shots on his cymbals, the whole thing feels a little uneasy before the rest of the band comes screaming in behind Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals.
The tunes may have been subdued, but this was Sabbath, and none of their classic songs were going to be about flowers and puppies. They had already been known as one of the most macabre pop stars to have a hit album, and no one with a track that was originally intended to celebrate the Satanic version of Christmas was going to be asked to play on the same stages at Woodstock.
Even though Sabbath was still making ends meet in their native Birmingham, they also had some strong opinions about The Vietnam War, documenting the pain that soldiers were going through in the field. While Butler never admitted to taking heroin, he said that most of the song was inspired by reports he heard regarding what soldiers were doing behind the scenes while out in East Asia.
When talking to Classic Albums, Butler talked about how those dark times were the main inspiration behind his material, saying, “By the time that most soldiers got back to America, they had to be put into a halfway house. There was no one reporting on it that these soldiers, in order to get through that horrible war, were shooting up on heroin. So when I wrote ‘Hand of Doom’, that’s what I wrote it about”.
Although many people look at songs like The Beatles’ ‘Revolution’ and The Doors’ ‘The End’ as bold commentaries on the Vietnam era, ‘Hand of Doom’ should be considered their equal. From the first few bars of the song, the track practically simulates what it feels like to have a heroin high, going from the mellowed-out state in the verses to getting a cold dose of reality when Osbourne screams, “Push the needle in!”
That kind of nightmarish tone was always Sabbath’s MO from the beginning. Since there had been many songs in their catalogue talking about the dark side of religion, why not make a song that’s actually about something that most musicians were already all too familiar with?
Whereas most Sabbath songs were proud to talk about recreational drug use like ‘Sweet Leaf’, you aren’t going to find a better PSA for not doing drugs than a song like this. Many rockstars may have fallen victim to smack in the past, but the mood of ‘Hand of Doom’ tells listeners everything they need to know. This is not fun, and if you go down this dark path for too long, you’ll lose yourself.