10 Darkest Hard Rock Songs Of All Time

In the early '70s, the whole idea of metal didn't really have a name. Although you had acts like Led Zeppelin and King Crimson breaking down the barriers of what constituted dark material, they were still under the label of hard rock bands more often than not. Black Sabbath were no big exception to the rule, but sometimes you hit on something so primal that it makes a whole new genre anyway.

After slogging through different blues jams when crafting their first album, Tony Iommi hit upon something truly demented when he came across the riff to Black Sabbath. Being inspired by the classical music staple the Planets Suite, the tritone lick is the star of the show, sounding like it's trying to conjure up demons from the depths of Hell.

That assessment isn't too far off in the lyrical department either, with Ozzy Osbourne singing about a dark figure in black that tries to call him down to the underworld. Turns out this is a real story as well, with Geezer Butler getting the inspiration after seeing an actual cloaked figure at the foot of his bed after reading through books regarding the occult. With it becoming one of the foundational songs in metal music and inspiring legions of bands across the world, I don't think even Sabbath were aware of the dark magic they were handling with a song like this.