10 Greatest Drummers In Hard Rock

10. Bill Ward - Black Sabbath

It's hard to really play in a band like Black Sabbath and not find yourself getting overshadowed. After all, when you have a guitar god like Tony Iommi at your disposal and Ozzy Osbourne out front, the magic is just supposed to work itself out, right? On the other hand, there's a lot more going on behind the backbeat than just the mammoth riffs.

Aside from Geezer Butler's amazing lyrics and bass skills, Bill Ward is really the unsung hero of Black Sabbath in the early days. For all of the more basic stuff he was able to play, Ward's way of sitting in the song helped give each track its signature darkness. Take something like the song Black Sabbath for instance. Whereas the verses might just be light percussion here and there, it takes a real professional to be able to build it up for the breakdowns like Ward is able to do.

Being a descendent of jazz greats like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, you can hear that attention to detail in his playing, balancing both the powerful strikes with the subtle moments that lead you into the rest of the madness. Compared to the more technical drummers later down the line, this dark way of approaching the kit is what forged the foundation for metal music.