Black Sabbath (A Debut Album)

Black Sabbath are a Birmingham Hard Rock and Roll band that formed in 1969. They are credited as one of the fathers and pioneers of the music genre "Heavy Metal".

Black Sabbath's original line up fits Tony Iommi on lead guitar, Bill Ward Shredding on drums, Geezer Butler on bass and the "Prince of Darkness" Ozzy Osbourne as their front man.

The war-scared, factory consumed, Birmingham England was a perfect birthplace for dark and gloomy heavy metal music. In 1968, Bill Ward and Tony Iommi were seeking members to form a heavy style blues band out of Aston, Birmingham. These two musicians enlisted Ozzy as well as bass player geezer butler to preform with them under the name "Polka Tulk" (Which they later changed to the name "Earth"). While they were playing shows around England they realized that there was already a band preforming under the name "Earth" and that they would need a different, unique name to call their own and to be able to draw a fan base from it. Across the street from the bands rehearsal room was a cinema. This movie theater was playing a film titled "Black Sabbath", one of the many horror films that was being screened at the time. This gave the band the idea, If people will pay money to be scared by horror films, why wouldn't they pay to be scared by music? Inspired by the film and an evil silhouette in a nightmare that Bill Ward had, Ozzy and Bill wrote the lyrics to the song "Black Sabbath". The band paired the lyrics of evil figures with the demonic sound of the musical tritone or Devils interval, creating the horror sound they were seeking out. The band took great inspiration in th dark roots they were creating. In August of 1969 they changed their band name to Black Sabbath and aimed all of their material in a dark, horror inspired direction.

In November of 1969, Black Sabbath were signed to Philips record, who helped them release their single, "Evil Woman". This was a cover version of a song by the band "Crow" and was released in January of 1970.

Philips Records soon placed Sabbath under one of their sub-labels, Vertigo Records. They were Given two days to produce and album. One day for recording and another for mixing. Given the short time window, the band made the decision to play live, with Ozzy singing in a separate booth and they finished most of the tracks in one take.

1. Black Sabbath (6:20)

2. The wizard (4:24)

3. Behind the wall of sleep (3:37)

4. N.I.B (6:08)

5. Evil Woman (3:25)

6. Sleeping Village (3:46)

7. Warning (10:28)

The album "Black Sabbath" was released on February 13, 1970. The artwork on the album cover features the Mapledurham watermill with a "figure in black" standing in front, ultimately complimenting off the bands dark and disturbing atmosphere.

Despite the albums widely panned criticism, "Black Sabbath" reached number 8 on the UK album chart. This album has gone on to be the mainframe or foundation for the next generations of heavy music, giving influence to Metal, Hard rock and Gothic musicians.

Guitarist Tony Iommi's two middle finger tips on his right hand were cut off in a steel factory accident. Tony was a left handed guitar player, meaning he needs his right hand fingers to be able to finger the frets of the guitar. This accident threatened to never allow him to play properly again. Determined to keep playing, Tony crafted fingertips out of rubber, a sort of home maid prosthetic, to allow him the use of his hand once again. Tony also tuned down his guitar so the strings wouldn't put as much strain on his finger tips. Geezer butler tuned his bass to match Tony's. Having the lower sound coming from the guitars helped to define Black Sabbath's deep, heavy sound.