10 Most Important Rock Albums Of All Time

Once the '60s revolution started to get underway, rock started to go in every conceivable direction. With the old guard of rock music steering the way towards new and interesting ideas, many people were flocking to the hippie idealism of everyone being able to live in harmony through the power of rock. While flower power may have been a good idea at the time, sometimes you need acts like Black Sabbath to snap you back into reality.

Though the Sabbath members wouldn't tell you this, the songs on display on this first record were the sowing seeds for what would become heavy metal. For as much as Tony Iommi may have been indebted to other blues acts like Cream and Humble Pie, he's already proving himself to be a freak a nature all to himself on this outing, with songs like the title track and Behind the Wall of Sleep setting the benchmark for what metal would become.

This was only the start of the darkness though, with every fan listening to this starting bands of their own, from Rainbow to Motorhead to Iron Maiden later down the line. Sure, Sabbath may not have set out to become the greatest metal band in the world, but being the godfathers doesn't happen right then and there. It happens when people start to walk in your footsteps.