10 Guitarists Who Inspired The Sound Of Modern Rock & Metal Music

As Black Sabbath’s founder, legendary guitar player and songwriter, many consider Tony Iommi to be the godfather of metal. No one had heard anything quite like the music that Black Sabbath released in the early '70s, nor had they experienced the accompanying dark imagery which would later become synonymous with the heavy metal scene.

Sabbath's insanely prolific period from 1970-1973 - when they released their first five albums, Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970), Masters Of Reality (1971), Vol.4 (1972) and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) - unquestionably laid the blueprint for the genre, with nothing else comparing to the influence the music would have. And it is the riffs of Tony Iommi that have stood the test of the time as the singular most legendary aspect of the band’s music.

Black Sabbath were truly ground breaking, minimally simplistic compared to music nowadays, but Iommi wrote so many great hooks on songs such as Paranoid, Iron Man, Sweet Leaf and War Pigs, that as a rhythm guitar player and songwriter, there was just no one else like him from the era. His style as a guitarist was also impacted by the fact that he lost the tips to his middle and ring fingers on his fretboard hand in a factory accident at the age of 17. But Tommy was inspired to continuing playing after hearing recordings of legendary Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who played only using two fingers after he had damaged his hand in a fire.