February 13, 1970 – Friday the 13th. In the fog-choked streets of Birmingham, Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut on Vertigo Records. Recorded in just two days at Regent Sound Studios, this album didn’t arrive with fanfare or radio play. It cracked open like a thunderclap in the musical earth: doom-laden riffs, occult shadows, rainstorms in the intro, tritones that evoked ancient dread, and a sound so slow, heavy, and ominous that nothing like it had ever reached mainstream ears before. This wasn’t rock anymore. This was the birth cry of heavy metal.
Black Sabbath (1970): Birth of Heavy Metal – Debut Album Review & Analysis
8 Comments
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 211d
100%. One of the many reasons to hate on any shoehorning of Led Zep or the Beatles or some generic psych band as the first heavy metal band.
Sabbath was the first, because it had everything. heaviness, aesthetics, the tone of the mood.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 211d
I mean, I'm still gonna consider The Beatles' ‘I Want You (She's So Heavy)’ and Iron Butterfly's ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ precursors to stoner-rock, and to some extent doom. It's just that someone was inevitably gonna pick up on that sound and run with it.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 210d
Ok, but stumbling onto something once by accident and leaving it after is different to intentionally creating an atmosphere that continues to be appreciated to this day. Sabbath did it on purpose and pretty much everything they did has sustained in different metal genres to this day. The beatles' "number eight *belch*" doesn't seem to be as important to heavy metal.
Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 208d
NachBarcelona@piefed.social · 0 pts · 210d
Also, the Beatles sucked limp whale cock.
irmadlad@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 211d
Uriah Heep? I mean, Black Sabbath did have a distinct sound no doubt. Tony Lommi brought a lot to the table with down tuned guitars and very plodding drones and riffs. It's interesting to me that Led Zep at the time was considered Heavy Metal, but really those boys were playing a lot of Blues Rock.
snoons@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 211d
I honestly don't know how I haven't listened to this before. ;-;
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 211d
Grats on being one of today's lucky 10,000.
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 211d
What is this, that stands before me?
🤘