10 Rock Music Debuts That Changed The Game
6. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
As much as the '60s are called one of the greatest eras of rock and roll ever seen, the end of the decade was in a very dark place. The Beatles had decided to call it quits, and now we had to worry about the fallout of the Vietnam War becoming frighteningly real, with the war raging on and the Altamont Festival by the Rolling Stones turning fatal. That peace and love dream everyone talked about was dead, and it took a group of misfits from Birmingham to give us a wake up call.
Though Black Sabbath would have told you that they were just trying their hand at writing some of the best bluesy tunes that they could, the sinister bent to Tony Iommi's riffs was on the verge of something a lot darker than he could imagine. Combined with Ozzy Osbourne's eerie vocals, songs like the title track and NIB were the first instances of pure metal music the world had ever seen, with the riffs sending a chill down your spine when you listened to them.
While some of the bluesier acts of the '60s had some bite behind them, Sabbath was the first ones to have the complete package under one roof, taking a fascination with the occult and pairing it with music that made every song feel like the end of the world going on between your speakers. The Flower Power generation had had their time, and the age of darkness was coming on.