10 Most Underrated Metal Albums

At the start of the '80s, it seemed like Black Sabbath were on their last legs. As Ozzy Osbourne moved onto a solo career and new vocalist Ronnie James Dio being virtually out the door, all that was left was Tony Iommi to continue banging out some of the heaviest riffs he could. Though it may not have started life as a Sabbath outing, Seventh Star turned into an impressive entry in their catalog.

Instead of an actual Sabbath project, these sessions were originally done by Iommi for a solo album before the record executives insisted that it go under the Sabbath name. Then again, it's not like you can really separate Iommi from Sabbath, complete with riffs that still sound demonic all these years later. Drafting in Glenn Hughes on vocals, the Deep Purple co-frontman adds a lot of swagger on top of everything, bringing in a soulful element that wasn't there in Sabbath's early days on tracks like No Stranger to Love.

It wasn't meant to last that long though, with Glenn's drug abuse running rampant while on tour and eventually leading to Sabbath being fronted by Tony Martin in later years. While it might feel wrong calling this a true Black Sabbath album, the music on display here still feels like its bubbling up from the underworld all the same.