Artist: Black Sabbath · Album: Black Sabbath · Year: 1970 · Label: Vertigo · Rank: 100 / Custom Sequence
The debut Black Sabbath is a crack in the musical earth: doom-laden riffs, occult imagery, rainstorms, tritones, and a sound so heavy it practically invented a genre overnight. Nothing this dark, slow and ominous had ever hit mainstream ears before.
Tony Iommi’s Iron Riffs
Iommi’s detuned guitar, born from a factory accident that damaged his fingers, created a deep, growling tone that would define metal for decades. The title track’s ominous three-note motif is still terrifying.
Ozzy’s Haunted Voice
Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t sing — he incants. His voice floats eerily above the band, part bluesman, part ghost, part street prophet.
Legacy
Without this album, there is no metal. No doom, no stoner rock, no sludge, no thrash lineage. It’s the primordial scream that shaped a thousand subgenres.