10 Greatest Debut Albums In Metal

You knew it was going to be this didn't you?

Granted, metal music (like all other genres) doesn't really exist in a vacuum. It's not like the sounds of heaviness just appeared out of nowhere, with the harsher sides of rock going back to the mid-'60s with the Doors and the heavier side of the Rolling Stones. However, if there's one album that justifiably gave birth to metal, it's Black Sabbath's debut.

From the word go, Tony Iommi's riffs are still some of the heaviest the world has ever heard, with the title track's tritone acting as the clarion call for the rest of the metal faithful. Whereas most of the tracks tend to follow the traditional blues rock format of acts like the Yardbirds, there's a bit of a demented twist laced throughout every single cut, from the sorcery at play on something like the Wizard to the demonic love song taking place on NIB.

Looking at every single element, each of the members could be considered a virtuoso of metal, with Iommi's riffs being accompanied by heavy lyrics and low ending from Geezer Butler, the perfect balance of space and power from Bill Ward, and the practical banshee cries coming from Ozzy Osbourne. You can nitpick all day as to where the true start of metal was, but if you're talking the start of all things heavy, this is the unholy bible that thousands have drawn from over the years.