1973's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the fifth studio album from British heavy metal icons Black Sabbath, and follow-up to Vol. 4 which was released the year prior. Produced by the band and Tom Allom and recorded at Morgan Studios in London in September 1973, the adventurous 8-song set finds the group expanding upon their slow, crunching signature style and implementing synthesizers, keyboards, and strings to go along with more complex orchestral arrangements. It ultimately results in unprecedented and emboldened material like the masterpieces "A National Acrobat" and "Killing Yourself to Live." For the first time in their career, the band began to receive favorable reviews in the mainstream press, with Rolling Stone calling the album "an extraordinarily gripping affair," and "nothing less than a complete success." It marked the band's fifth consecutive platinum selling album in the United States.