In the late 1960s, rock music was loud, fast, and wild—but no one had ever heard anything quite like what Black Sabbath was about to unleash.
In 1969, the band—then still performing under earlier names like Earth and The Polka Tulk Blues Band—spent six weeks playing nightly in Zurich. Far from home, they began experimenting with a sound that was slower, heavier, and far darker than anything on the radio. Instead of chasing psychedelic highs or blues-rock jams, Sabbath leaned into dread. They wanted to scare people, musically—and it worked.
At the heart of their sound was guitarist Tony Iommi. After losing the tips of two fingers in a factory accident, he was forced to modify his playing style. He down-tuned his guitar to reduce tension and ease the pain, which accidentally gave the music a deeper, more menacing growl. Add in Geezer Butler’s occult-inspired lyrics, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals, and Bill Ward’s thunderous drumming—and suddenly, heavy metal had a face.
When they released their debut album Black Sabbath on February 13, 1970, critics didn’t know what to make of it. But fans caught on quickly. The opening track—also called “Black Sabbath”—featured a slow, doomy riff built around the tritone, a musical interval once nicknamed “the devil’s note.” It sounded like the soundtrack to a horror film—and fans loved it.
Their second album, Paranoid, released just months later, confirmed that this wasn’t a one-time experiment. Songs like “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” and “Paranoid” were heavier and darker than anything on the charts, and they became instant anthems for a new generation of rock fans who wanted something raw and real.
Today, Black Sabbath is widely credited as the first true heavy metal band. Their down-tuned riffs, gloomy lyrics, and bleak themes laid the foundation for countless genres—doom metal, thrash, sludge, grunge, and more.
As one fan put it: “They weren’t just heavy. They changed everything.”
