Just how metal was Black Sabbath?

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.

 

They were the first to do it. They are the epitome of the genre

 

Their best song

 

so dark ,so heavy. love this song and hand of doom along with sabbath bloody sabbath.

 

There are a lot of us young 'uns (or at least, those of us who discovered music in the 90s) who would agree.

 

+1
And Geezer rules!

 

i would love to have that p bass. wonder what year it is...............

 

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.

 

They're so metal, they're like iron.....

 

Sabbath created Metal as we know it. No question. Just listen to "Under the Sun" or "Cornucopia", then tell me it isn't Metal.

 

Settle down with the personal stuff or thread closure/warnings etc.

 

So this is on a scale from one to 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.