Black Sabbath: 10 Most Underrated Songs

Most fans were taken aback when Sabbath reemerged with Heaven and Hell after the departure of Ozzy Osbourne. Since Ozzy was such a commanding presence as the band's resident maniac, the arrival of Ronnie James Dio was a sight to behold, as he took on the older material while giving the new songs a kick in the ass. However, it was the most un-Sabbath song that actually got everything started.

As opposed to the doomy title track, Children of the Sea is one of the most melancholy songs that this iteration of Sabbath would write, as Ronnie details the lives of those who are set adrift. Even though most people would like to call this one of the more experimental tracks on the record, this was actually the first riff that Dio wrote lyrics to from Iommi's song ideas, with the rolling guitar arpeggios catching his ear first.

At a time when Sabbath had seemed burned out on themselves, this is one of the first instances of a gentler electric rocker, whose central chord progression and subject matter feels like the older brother of Iron Maiden's Children of the Damned. While Dio was able to leave his mark on this version Sabbath, this is the perfect amalgamation of his lofty lyrical ideas with Iommi's inherent darkness.