10 Darkest Hard Rock Albums Ever Made

Since its inception, rock and roll has always been known as a darker genre of music. Aside from being an outlet for teenagers at the start of the '50s, some of the greatest albums to come out of the modern rock genre have benefited from delving into the darker side of the spectrum. Still, there are some artists who's vision is a bit more pitch-black than others.

There's no real set pattern to what makes an album dark to begin with. Instead of the usual pummeling drums or detuned guitars, some of these albums manage to leave their mark just through the atmosphere they create, making the audience feel disoriented every time they listen to it. It's also not a bad idea to touch on something a bit more disturbed in the lyrical department, as most of these albums pull heavily from the hedonistic side of the rock star lifestyle.

While these albums might not be the greatest to listen to every single day, there's something about that twisted nature that have made fans come back again and again. Much like a car crash, you just can't take your eyes off of everything grotesque on display here. These albums are certainly a trip...but you might have the scars to show for it by the end.

No one can really put a number on when metal truly got started. As far back as the early '60s, bands like the Kinks and The Who were already pushing what the heavier side of the genre could do, exploring feedback while also pushing the distortion of electric guitars to their very limits. If there is one album that actually announced the arrival of something darker, it would have to be Black Sabbath's debut.

Playing the same type of bluesy licks coming from the British Invasion around the same time, something truly demonic happened once placed in the hands of Tony Iommi. Despite having some great phrases cribbed from blues, songs like the title track and The Wizard have an added layer of menace to them, almost as if the guitar is screaming in agony as Iommi chokes the life out of it.

This also marked a new turn for rock from a lyrical perspective, with Geezer Butler penning tales centered around occultist behaviors like the dark figure on the title track or namechecking Satan as the object of affection in the song NIB. Although metal would go through many different iterations past 1970, there are still thousands of black metal acts that still aren't able to crack the code that Sabbath birthed nearly half a century ago.