10 Best Metal Ballads Of All Time

Over their years of dominating the metal landscape, Black Sabbath never really struck anyone as the type for making monster ballads. I mean, what could the heavy overlords behind songs like Iron Man and Into the Void do with a song that revolves around toning things down? As time goes on though, you're bound to want to start exploring the other sonic avenues that are out there.

Though Vol. 4 was seen as a bit of a departure for Sabbath, Changes is where things start to really turn a corner, with a full blown pop-sounding melody sung by Ozzy Osbourne. Whereas songs like Planet Caravan and Solitude on previous albums had alluded to something like this, Changes was the first real dive into something much more radio-friendly, with pummeling riffs kept to a minimum. What's even more shocking is how well it actually paid off.

Though the core heavy metal audience may have felt burned, the actual execution of this song is damn near flawless, with Ozzy crooning while never venturing to far into his upper register and cracking. Hell, even the duet that the Prince of Darkness would do later down the line with his daughter Kelly still managed to be solid after all these years. When you've done something so letter-perfect that even your discount vanity project version is pretty good, you know you're doing something right.