I'm on my third time watching it in a row and it's pretty unbelievable to me that they existed when they did... All the peace & love music going on and Sabbath was spawning what would become heavy metal. Love it. One of the simpler songs they ever wrote but it's still my favorite. So doomy... So evil... So awesome.
that was their first metal song. the one that started it all. they were otherwise a blues band until they wrote this song. people went nuts. the rest is history.
How metal was Black Sabbath? To me, that's like asking how football was Joe Montana. Or how Vegas was Liberace. Granted, I'm a lot older than many TBers, but to me, Sabbath is still the band that defines heaviness.
There are a lot of us young 'uns (or at least, those of us who discovered music in the 90s) who would agree.
I don't think it's that surprising, really. I remember someone saying this: 'Heavy Metal (more specifically, the Doom genre) was born when the hippies' idealism turned into pessimism'. True dat, IMO.
You might not guess from the music, but they were actually a cheerful bunch of guys here in Birmingham at that time! Very jolly. My old pal Tony Martin (and ex-singer in a band that I played in) joined Sabbath some time after Ozzy left and they went through a few different vocalists in the 80s. He obviously thought they were a fun bunch of guys to be with.
That's funny. That's all they considered themselves for a while. A downtuned band playing blues and singing about god/satan. That's all metal is. edit: Why is it that all you people who passively know about metal feel the need to chime in your opinion? Is it for the post count?
"Passively know about metal"? What ARE you talking about? Are you suggesting that the people posting here somehow have no right to an opinion on this? Think carefully before you answer.
Sabbath created Metal as we know it. No question. Just listen to "Under the Sun" or "Cornucopia", then tell me it isn't Metal.
Sabbath = Death and Doom and say what you will about Ozzy, imo he was / is The Dark Prince. just listen to that vocal. EVIL.
Back when things were merely rock'n'rollem Sabbath comes along with tunes that made one say, "WOW man, that's heavy~!" Hence the beginning . . . but I didn't think they were the only ones that were heavy. One could also say that King Crimson was on an equal footing in the "heavy" arena with "21st Century Schitzoid Man" or others, but because Sabbath went "black", they were given the count as the first ones in the heavy metal lineup. But, in my opinion, many bands at the time were beyond mere rock . . . another example . . . Iron Butterfly, or other bands that were beyond the Beatles, Turtles and other slower movers and shakers.
I find it kind of odd how the term heavy metal has changed its meaning over the years. I have read that Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple were considered heavy metal back in the day, and now we just call them hard rock. Black Sabbath started heavy metal as we know it. Some people say that Helter Skelter is the first heavy metal song, but I think that it is just too much of an effort to make the Beatles more awesome than they already are. They have started a lot of things, but heavy metal is not one of them.
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