10 Best Metal Albums For Non-Metal Heads

The idea of Black Sabbath being on a metal list pretty much feels mandatory at this point. Seeing how they created the genre as we know it today, the dark riffs of Tony Iommi inspired legions of kids to pick up guitars and come up with scary licks of their own. Even with the darkness surrounding it though, Sabbath's debut remains a prime gateway drug into the world of metal.

Make no mistake, this album is still as heavy as any other metal band could hope to be, with the title track alone being enough to scare you to death. On the other hand, there's a bit of a different story happening in the rest of the tracks. Although Tony's guitar is firmly maxed out, the rest of the album is a nice slice of blues rock with a bit of a sinister edge to it. As opposed to doom and gloom across every track, songs like the Wizard even show Ozzy Osbourne breaking out the harmonica for a traditional bluesy romp.

That's before you get to the lyrics though, which would become the foundation for metal, with Geezer Butler penning tales of the occult, wizardry, and a not so subtle love affair with Satan. While this may look off-putting from the first few notes, there's a lot more going on than you might realize on first listen.