The album that started it all. Heavy Metal was officially born.
Even if you never own this album, the least you can do is to know by heart, some of the tunes in the album. Then you can call yourself a Heavy Metal fan.
The title track still leaves a cold chill in the spine, just like when you watch The Exorcist. Imagine listening to the track in 1970 when it was first released. No wonder it created such connundrum to the music fans. Critics such as the respected Lester Bangs find it to be a shmuck release. While the fundamentalist finds it the dawn of the devil’s music. In the end, it find it’s way to be the most unique on the musical genre pathing to the darker side.
Other than the title track and N.I.B., Black Sabbath also wrote on wide range of subjects although all of them leaned more to the darker side. Well, that was what they were trying to achieve at the time when music was all about love and happy life. This and the fact that they had the heaviest sound at that time landed this album on the chart.
Ozzy once said that they never wanted to be the devil band. Not intentionally. But the effect of this album to the masses cannot be denied. It turned some of them to be fans and undoubtedly unleashed a new legion of musicians with the darker imagery.
