Very few bands can claim to have been as influential as the Birmingham giants. The group formed in the UK’s second city when guitarist, Tony Iommi, and drummer, Bill Ward, decided to form a blues band. The band recruited two local musicians, Terence ...more
Very few bands can claim to have been as influential as the Birmingham giants. The group formed in the UK’s second city when guitarist, Tony Iommi, and drummer, Bill Ward, decided to form a blues band. The band recruited two local musicians, Terence Michael “Geezer” Butler and John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne, from the band Rare Breed, to round out their lineup. The band chose the name Earth, and after a brief stint in Jethro Tull, Iommi returned to Birmingham with a new sense of purpose for his young group. Around that time, the group changed their name to Black Sabbath (because of the existence of another British group called Earth), a reference to Boris Karloff’s horror film that was showing across the street from their rehearsal room. The quartet released their dark debut, Black Sabbath (Vertigo/Warner Brothers, 1970), which many consider to be the first heavy metal album. While the record is openly blues-inspired, it was heavier than anything else before it, and though it was a decidedly dark record, it achieved commercial success, selling over a million copies. They followed it up with the staggering Paranoid (Vertigo/ Warner Brothers, 1970). Paranoid set the standard for all heavy metal to come, featuring some of rock’s most essential, transcendent tracks (“Paranoid,” “War Pigs,” “Iron Man”). Though Iommi’s menacing riffs drive the record, Butler and Ward form a rock-solid rhythm section that perfectly compliments Osbourne’s frenzied, impassioned vocals. While the band went on to craft some of rock ‘n’ roll’s finest compositions (“Sweet Leaf,” “Symptom of the Universe,” “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”), their greatest gift is their undeniable influence on hard rock and heavy metal. Their raw, down-tuned sound coupled with ominous lyrics and imagery created the template for what heavy metal would become. They were a direct influence on metal’s most influential bands, such as Slayer, Metallica, and Celtic Frost, and are rightfully known as the “Godfathers of Metal.”...less
