10 Perfect Metal Albums Everyone Tried To Copy

Any band that has ever grown up wanting to scare their audience with the power of their music owes a debt to Black Sabbath. Whether they wanted to be known for it or not, the sounds of Tony Iommi's guitar across every one of the band's early albums set the template for what metal would sound like in the next few years, from the different evil guitar licks to Ozzy's bellowing voice. When they went experimental though, they also ended up making new genres without even trying.

After the tour for Paranoid, Tony Iommi started to use lower guitar tunings to ease tension on his fingers, creating a much thicker sound when they went in to create the next album. As the rest of the band stuck to their bluesy roots, the songs this time around had a lot more hair on them, from talking about the fall of Flower Power on Children of the Grave or the end of the world on Into the Void.

It certainly sounded big, but the subject matter of one song really set the tone for the rest of the record. The minute that most people heard the song Sweet Leaf, stoner rock was born, with bands picking up this record and trying to match the kind of dank production and meaty guitar riffs. Sabbath may have just been looking to get that much heavier this time around, but there's also a good chance that Sleep took half of their playing style from this album as well.