10 Hard Rock Albums That Were A Nightmare To Make

During the mid 70's, Black Sabbath had become the undisputed kings of heavy metal. They may not have set out to create a new genre, but the riffs across records like Paranoid and Master of Reality signaled something much darker for the hard rock bands that would follow. Though it is a standout of the Ozzy era, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath had more than a few literal horror stories behind it.

For the first few sessions, the band's riffmaster Tony Iommi was suffering from severe writer's block, with nothing more than a few guitar noodlings getting finished. To give them a change of scenery, the band went to Clearwell Castle, whose lush surroundings had been used by bands like Genesis and Led Zeppelin. Once they arrived on the forest grounds, the band kept getting visited by spirits that resided on the estate.

Iommi in particular recalls one instance where he, Ozzy, and Geezer Butler were taking a walk around the castle when they spotted a cloaked figure off in the distance, only to be told by the staff that it was the castle's ghost. Once the band got back on more sacred terrain, Iommi poured all of the band's horrific memories into the greatest riffs of the metal genre.