1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GgBx7Y0aso From the album: Black Sabbath (1970) On the opening, self-titled track, from Black Sabbath's eponymous debut, the band created a whole new genre within the first 60 seconds. "Black Sabbath" greets the listener with the eerie, ungodly sound of the heaven's opening as unrelenting and torrential rain and ominous crashing thunder batter the senses before Tony Iommi's unleashes his devilish tritone riff (simultaneously inventing Heavy Metal and Doom Metal in one slow, torturous harmonic progression); atmospherics designed to instantly create unease and trepidation. Has any band in Heavy Metal ever conjured a song to equal this? When Ozzy Osbourne's howls of fear and despair (barely in tune but so utterly perfect for Sabbath's sound) erupt from your speakers the listener is left with no doubt that the end of days are upon us. Ozzy's iconic delivery of bassist Geezer Butler's lines 'figure in black which points at me' remain chilling to this day, the Brummie boys tapping into something truly sinister, truly disturbing and utterly unique. Practically defining themselves within the first 6 minutes of their recorded career, Ozzy era Black Sabbath would arguably go on to record greater songs ("Symptom of the Universe", "War Pigs", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath") but "Black Sabbath" was the one that completely blew us away.
Christopher Jennings
Contributor
I love Heavy Metal, and generally anything that involves a guitar and loud noises, so I figured it was about time I put all the useless information in my head to good use and start writing a few things. Most of the time I'll be writing nonsense but occasionally I may surprise myself and appear half-way knowledgable.....but you can be the judge of that. Thanks for your fleeting attention!
See more from
Christopher