10 Greatest Hard Rock Album Openers
2. War Pigs - Black Sabbath
Out of all the great hard rock bands coming out of England in the early 70's, Black Sabbath's approach to songs seemed to be the most disturbed. Starting with their first record, the band delivered some of the most feral riffs ever created while offering a demented twist on the hard rock genre. Though the band's debut may have been terrifying, the start of "War Pigs" was where metal was truly born.
With the sound of an emergency siren, the track kicks off Paranoid as if you've been given front row seats to the fore coming apocalypse. The band actually manages to live up to that accolade as well, with the riff from Tony Iommi feeling like a sonic pistol ready to shoot you down.
While the initial lyrics of the band's first record were meant to shock, this song takes aim at the all-too-real war crimes that people have brought upon the world in the Vietnam War era.
Black Sabbath may have scratched the itch for hard rock fans before, but this was something much more evil than anyone could have imagined. By showing the rock world the evil that lies within every human, heavy metal music was given its first true artists.