10 Greatest Hard Rock Guitarists Of The '70s

If you were into any type of hard rock in the late '60s, most of the time it just came back to the blues. While some acts like the Doors were trying to incorporate the more psychedelic tendencies into the mix, the hard rock of something like Jimi Hendrix always had one foot trailing back into that traditional bluesy structure. In the beginning, Black Sabbath fit comfortably in that category, but things turned a corner once they got a taste of the dark magic.

Whereas a lot of people like to focus on Ozzy Osbourne in the first incarnation of this band, Tony Iommi remains the beating heart of Sabbath to this very day. From one album to the next, Iommi practically weaponized the practice of creating guitar riffs, as each passing musical phrase seemed to be scarier than the last. Being equal parts melodious and almost Neanderthalic, the guitar tones coming off of a Sabbath album felt like the sound of Armageddon wreaking havoc upon the land.

Even when Osbourne jumped ship for a solo career, every one of Sabbath's incarnations with Dio and Tony Martin have each held up surprisingly well thanks to Iommi's fantastic guitar lines. As opposed to the fun beginnings of the rock genre, the sound of Tony Iommi's guitar marked the end of innocence and the beginning of the metallic horror that was to follow.