12 Most Brutally Heavy Metal Albums EVER

Whenever you trace the lineage of metal, it all comes down the beginnings of Black Sabbath. Coming out of Birmingham in the late 60's, these guys created some of the most ominous hard rock ever put to tape which would lay the foundation for modern metal as we know it. Though any of their first records are worth consideration as an all-time great, Master of Reality was where their heavy sound became gargantuan.

From the start, this album has a different kind of mindset than records like Paranoid, with songs like "Sweet Leaf" and "Into the Void" sounding like the sonic equivalent of global destruction. This marked the first time that guitarist Tony Iommi began to tune down his guitar, which gave each song a greater sonic weight than anyone had expected. Given the hazy atmosphere of each track, this album also marked the early stages of stoner metal with its emphasis on groove and dense sonic layers.

With Geezer Butler and Bill Ward providing a tremendous low end to the sound, Master of Reality is Black Sabbath at their most sonically thick, which they would start to tinker with on future releases. There may have been better tunes both before and after this, but nothing near as forceful.