10 Albums That Changed Rock Music Forever

Most of the British music scene in the wake of the British Invasion always seemed to come back to the blues in some way. While the Beatles definitely had the pop world covered with their love songs and outlandish studio techniques, the language of the day always came back to the more bluesy sounds of Howlin Wolf and Buddy Guy, with acts like Cream and Jimi Hendrix getting their start in the London clubs. There was always a dark side of the blues, and Black Sabbath turned in something pitch black the first time they walked into the studio.

Recorded on the fly in between gigs they were playing, the beginnings of Black Sabbath became the blueprint for what we now consider heavy metal, with Tony Iommi creating the kind of riffs that make your hair stand on end like the dreaded tritone in the title track. There's definitely some blues still in here to be sure, but the entire aura behind Sabbath's music spoke to something a lot more primal, especially with Ozzy Osbourne's gutteral howl at the front of every single song.

For as many acts that this one record has spawned though, Sabbath were almost reluctant to embrace the metal tag, considering themselves just another heavy rock band in the sea of other bands around them. You can still hear those influences if you wanted to, but this is what happens to hard rock when it's mixed with dark magic.