Discovering Metal: Black Sabbath

the original line up from left to right: Gezzer Butler, Toni Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne

In rock and pop music culture there are Kings and Queens. In metal culture there are Gods and Godfathers. I think metalheads watched one to many Scorsese films and read about one to many different pantheons. Black Sabbath is arguably the most important band in the history of metal music. From the great albums from their Ozzy and Dio eras to the lesser known albums such as Born Again, they have created a legacy that has made an impact on the entire Heavy Metal music genre.

For me, I wasn’t introduced to Sabbath through their classic Ozzy Osbourne period, but through the albums they did with vocalist Ronnie James Dio. I remember discovering it because I had gotten into Bruce Dickinson’s solo album Accident of Birth, which is one of my favorite albums of all time. I remember that on iTunes where I buy most of my music, that they only had the Dio era music as well as some more obscured Sabbath albums. I had bought the box set, The Rules of Hell, which was a compilation containing the entire 3 studio albums that Dio was on as well as the live album Live Evil and the three songs from the compilation Black Sabbath: The Dio Years.

At the time I had only heard the live version of “War Pigs” from an Ozzy Osbourne live album. I didn’t know the lyrics because of the nearly inaudible crowd singing of the song, so when I listened to the compilation album, The Rules of Hell, I was blown away. Because at that point I only heard very little of Black Sabbath’s music, so when I heard songs like Children of the Sea and Heaven and Hell, that to me was Sabbath.

Later, my friend gifted me Black Sabbath’s second album Paranoid on CD. After discovering this side of the band, I went and listened to their other albums like Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Of course iTunes at this time still did not have these albums yet so CD was my only option.

I remember when their album 13 was announced, the album itself was more reminiscent of classic Sabbath music. I had the pleasure of seeing them live on that tour for the album in 2014 in Hamilton, Ontario. They were great which is not something you normally can say for a band of their age. Black Sabbath is a band that continues to be as influential in Heavy Metal culture just as much today as they were in the 70’s.

Top Favorite Albums:

1) Heaven and Hell

2) Paranoid

3) Master of Reality

4) Black Sabbath

5) 13

“Figure in Black which points at me…”

Follow Black Sabbath on Twitter and Facebook. Make an effort to go out and see them live for this will be the last time you'll ever have the change to do so. See if they're coming to a city near you here