By the time Black Sabbath released their sixth studio album, 1975's Sabotage, their career was only just starting to slip into a temporary decline towards after an incredible run of era-defining heavy metal records; by the time their Canadian disciples, Sheavy, unleashed their sixth album, The Machine That Won the War, some 30 years later, they seemed about as plausible as Sasquatch, given the small number of stoner rock enthusiasts who were still aware of their existence.

Be that as it may, the Newfoundland-based quartet has issued some very fine albums, and even a few stupendous songs, over the years -- both because of and in spite of the group's blatant similarities to MM, Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, and Ward.

The Machine That Won the War not surprisingly continues in that oft-times criticized tradition, with Steve Hennessy sounding his usual Ozzy-like self and Dan Moore's power chord riffing and doom-laden tempos dominating track after track (e.g.

"Dawn of the Black Orchid," "Here Fall the Shadow," "One of Us Must be Dead," etc.), with help from newly added second guitarist Tommy Boland.

Conversely, Sheavy's early career flirtations with groovier stoner rock are barely in evidence this time around (see "Demon Soldiers" and "The Gunfighters" for rare glimpses), and despite basing all of its lyrics on a short story by Golden Age science fiction author, Isaac Asimov (hence the album's title), neither are there occasional space rock sound jams.

Instead, the album finds Sheavy paying undue attention to recycling the ideas of their original masters into consistently underwhelming modern doom derivations, which even their biggest supporters are bound to agree, results in arguably the band's weakest collection of songs since their debut album, Blue Sky Mind.

But there's always another chance, and whether the world at large is aware enough or not, Sheavy will probably be back for a seventh go-round, which, until the original Sabbath dusts off its cobwebs and hits either the studio or the road, will certainly serve as a pretty decent placebo.