The Fathers of Metal? A Black Sabbath Story

1968 was the year that lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, bass Geezer Butler, lead guitar Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward formed the blues/rock inspired band Earth Blues Company, which was soon shortened to Earth. These four talented people were inspired by early rock and blues bands in the British scene such as Cream, Led Zeppelin and so on. All four members of the band were totally in to horror films and the darker side of things. Geezer Butler, the bass player, than came up with their first dark song that was filled with heavy tones from the hands of Tony. Ozzy worked on the lyrics with Geezer and they came up with the song "Black Sabbath" inspired by a 1963 horror film playing down the street in Birmingham England.

 This struck audiences and fans of the band and they knew that what they had created was unique to anything else during the 70's rock scene. Black Sabbath's music was inspired by themes such as war, the conflict between good and evil, world problems and the afterlife. This gave their music a very powerful message behind some of the most well known riffs created by Tony Iommi. This band wasn't about worshiping satin or devilish thoughts, it was more about the hardships and dark gloomy times during their time. The Finished album "Black Sabbath" was put together in one recording session in November of 1969. Although the band had taken a more heavier tone, a lot of their blues influences were still recognizable especially in tracks such as "N.I.B", "Warning" and "Black Sabbath". It was only 7 months later when they released their next album "Paranoid". Songs such as "War Pigs" painted a gloomy picture and focused on the Vietnam war. This Album featuring classics such as "Iron Man", "Paranoid" and "Fairies Wear Boots" pointed rock into a more heavy direction. Many heavier bands such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Guns 'n' Roses and Judas Priest have said they grew up with the music of Black Sabbath and were inspired. These two albums were insanely successful With "Black Sabbath" charting in the U.S for 65 weeks and "Paranoid" charting number one in the U.K for 70 weeks.

 Their next two albums were shaped from playing on the road and improving their style. In 1971 they released "Master of Reality" which had classics such as "Children of The Grave" which also had an anti-war message lyrically, "Into The Void" and "After Forever". A year later they released the album "Vol. 4" which also had many classics. in 1975 they released another hugely successful Album, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". In 1978 Ozzy quit for good. There were also many other line up changes, Tony Iommi was the only constant member of the band. Many other successful albums such as "Heaven and Hell" and Headless Cross" will go down in Black Sabbath history but the original line up can never be beat. The album "13" was released in June of 2013 with most of the original line up, Bill Ward did not come back to play the drums. The single "God Is Dead" top the charts in the U.S during it's release. Black Sabbath was the biggest influence for our metal bands today when they first introduced heavier tones, powerful messages of war and the conflict between good and evil. Black Sabbath are the fathers of metal.