10 Classic Rock Albums That Were AHEAD OF THEIR TIME

10. Master of Reality - Black Sabbath

In the way back years of 1971, there was no such thing as heavy metal. There were some heavy sounding bands like Led Zeppelin and the Doors to be sure, but there was never anything that tied them together into one genre other than their heaviness. And if you were to ask the members of Black Sabbath themselves, they were no exception to this either.

When Tony Iommi and co. were first coming up, most of them were just following in the footsteps of Cream, until Master of Reality started to take things in a different direction. Along with a more menacing tone in the lyrics, this is also one of the first times when Iommi decided to tune his guitar down to previously unheard of levels, making for a growling tone that sounded like an army of guitars that were about to stampede across the Earth.

To this day, songs like Into the Void and Children of the Grave can still compete with modern metal guitar tones, almost grabbing you by the throat from the minute you hear them. This isn't just the fast metal stuff though. These are the kind of slow and menacing tracks that take you on a journey during their runtime. With just one album, Master of Reality practically invented metal and stoner rock all in one go.