History Music / BlackSabbath

* FilkSong: "The Wizard" is about [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gandalf]].

Their first two albums, ''Music/{{Black Sabbath|Album}}'' and ''Music/{{Paranoid}}'' (both released in 1970), brought them great popularity with songs like "Black Sabbath," "War Pigs," "Paranoid," and "Iron Man." Due to their darker style, they initially received no radio play, and Creator/VertigoRecords had to bribe radio stations to play "Iron Man," which scraped the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates US]] charts. Their next albums, ''Music/MasterOfReality'' and ''Volume 4'', spawned a new batch of classics, such as "Sweet Leaf," "Children of the Grave," "Into the Void," "Supernaut," and "Snowblind." It wasn't until their fifth album, ''Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'', that they finally got positive reviews from the mainstream media (although critics have reversed themselves and [[VindicatedByHistory retroactively praised]] the other four albums).

* 1970 - ''Music/{{Paranoid}}''

* AlbumFiller: "Paranoid" subverts this. Originally it was a quick filler Tony Iommi threw together for the album they wanted to call ''War Pigs''. Then the company made them change the title. It ended as one of the band's (and, by extension, HeavyMetal's) anthems.
* TheArtifact: As mentioned in the AlbumFiller entry above, the title of ''Paranoid'' was supposed to be ''War Pigs'', but got changed at the last minute due to the popularity of "Paranoid." The rest of the artwork remained unchanged, though, and the war pig on the cover makes very little sense.
* AscendedExtra: "Paranoid". It progressed from [[AlbumFiller a quick filler track to round out the album]] to a popular single to becoming the TitleTrack due to Executive Meddling (''{{Music/Paranoid}}'' was going to be called ''War Pigs'' until their record company, Vertigo, balked at possible backlash due to the then-ongoing [[{{UsefulNotes/The Vietnam War}} Vietnam War]]).

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Existed since 1968. Since then, they've gone through a veritable menagerie of singers, bassists, and drummers, as well as a keyboardist, not counting touring members. Tony Iommi is the only constant member. They've gone through so many members, they have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Sabbath_band_members their own Wikipedia page dedicated to chronicling their gazillion and a half band members.]]

* FanNickname: Tony Iommi has recently picked up the nickname "Iron Man," especially prominent after his cancer diagnosis.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally range from 5-7. They were ''the'' 10 for their day however, and have on occasion hit a low 8 by today's standards ("Black Sabbath" and "Symptom of the Universe" both come to mind). They also have 2s in the ballads "Changes" and "It's Alright" and the [[LyricalDissonance not-quite-ballad]] "Zeitgeist".
* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Usually ranking from 6-8, as the band downright described their work as "horror movies set to music", and so the lyrics are frequently spooky and somber.

* TheSouthpaw: A case that was actually integral to the development of music as a whole. Being a southpaw, Tony's right-hand was in charge of fretting. His factory accident to his right-hand forced him to find a whole new way to play, hence the down-tuning that was so critical to creating heavy metal. Had Tony been a typical right-handed player, or switched to playing right-handed, his damaged hand would have been the strumming hand, which at worst probably would have forced him to slightly change the way he held a guitar pick.

* EpicRocking: Over the 8 minutes mark: "Warning," (10:32) "Wheels of Confusion," (8:00) "Megalomania," (9:40) and "The Writ," (8:10). Taken UpToEleven on ''13'', with five of the eight tracks being over the seven minute mark.

* UrExample or TropeMakers: Although bands like Music/LedZeppelin, Music/DeepPurple, and Music/BlueCheer paved the way, many people consider Black Sabbath to be the world's first true HeavyMetal band. They are also considered the UrExample for DoomMetal, which basically takes the characteristics of Sabbath's music (slow, heavy, sludgy riffs) and turns them UpToEleven.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Existed since 1968. Since then, they've gone through a veritable menagerie of singers, bassists, and drummers, not counting touring members. Tony Iommi is the only constant member. They've gone through so many members, they have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Sabbath_band_members their own Wikipedia page dedicated to chronicling their gazillion and a half band members.]]

[[folder: Misc Tropes]]

* ThoseTwoGuys: Geezer and Bill tend to get overshadowed by Tony's guitar mastery [[HandicappedBadass despite his handicap]] and Ozzy's... [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Every]][[CrazyAwesome thing.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The song "Iron Man" tells a story of someone who traveled time to save mankind but, when he returned, he was turned to steel, leading to everyone ignoring him or rejecting him outright, which causes the titular character to become vengeful and kill the people he once saved.

* TheSouthpaw: A case that was actually integral to the development of music as a whole. Being a southpaw, Tony's right-hand was in charge of fretting. His factory accident to his right-hand forced him to find a whole new way to play, hence the down-tuning that was so critical to creating heavy metal. Had Tony been a typical right-handed player, or switched to playing right-handed, his damaged hand would have been the strumming hand, which at worst probably would have forced him to slightly change the way he
held a guitar pick.

-> ''"What is this that stands before me?''
-> ''Figure in black which points at me''
-> ''Turn around quick and start to run''
-> ''Find out I'm the chosen one''
-> ''Oh noooooo!"''

They started out in 1968 as a blues band called ''Earth'' until changing their style to a darker tone. Apocryphally, this was the result of one of the band members seeing a queue for a horror film at a cinema and commenting on how people pay to be scared. Their name did actually come from a 1963 horror movie named ''Film/BlackSabbath,'' starring Creator/BorisKarloff. Their sound has naturally changed over the decades. Their two most celebrated eras, the "classic" years (1969-1975) and the early Dio years (1980-1982), are marked by massive changes to the sound. For the classic era, they dabbled extensively with BluesRock, Jazz Rock, PsychedelicRock, early DoomMetal, and, of course, HeavyMetal. For the Dio era, they took up a more PowerMetal and traditional metal stance with some instances of SpeedMetal and vestiges of blues metal.

Their first two albums: ''Music/{{Black Sabbath|Album}}'' and ''Music/{{Paranoid}}'' (both released in 1970) brought them great popularity with songs like "Black Sabbath," "War Pigs," "Paranoid," and "Iron Man." Due to their darker style, they initially received no radio play, and Creator/VertigoRecords had to bribe radio stations to play "Iron Man," which scraped the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates US]] charts. Their next albums: ''Music/MasterOfReality'' and ''Volume 4'' spawned a new batch of classics, such as "Sweet Leaf," "Children of the Grave," "Into the Void," "Supernaut," and "Snowblind." It wasn't until their fifth album: ''Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'', that they finally got positive reviews from the mainstream media (although critics have reversed themselves and [[VindicatedByHistory retroactively praised]] the other four albums).

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* FutureSelfReveal: "Iron Man" features a man who travels back in time to stop some iron monster from causing a calamity. When no one believes him and instead they distrust him due to his being made of iron after his time-traveling methods had unforeseen side-effects, it's revealed that he decided ThenLetMeBeEvil and [[SelfFulfillingProphecy became the monster he was supposed to destroy]].

* {{Mondegreen}}: Ozzy misheard the lyrics in the original version of "Warning" and sings "I was ''born without you''" rather than "warned about you".

* TheSouthpaw: A case that was actually integral to the development of music as a whole. Being a southpaw, Tony's right-hand was in charge of fretting. His factory accident to his right-hand forced him to find a whole new way to play, hence the down-tuning that was so critical to creating heavy metal. Had Tony been a typical right-handed player, or switched to playing right-handed, his damaged hand would have been the strumming hand, which at worst probably would have forced him to slightly change the way he held a guitar pick.

* TheSouthpaw: A case that was actually integral to the development of music as a whole. Being a southpaw, Tommy's right-hand was in charge of fretting. His factory accident to his right-hand forced him to find a whole new way to play, hence the down-tuning that was so critical to creating heavy metal. Had Tommy been a typical right-handed player, or switched to playing right-handed, his damaged hand would have been the strumming hand, which at worst probably would have forced him to slightly change the way he held a guitar pick.

** Music/RickWakeman went into the studio around the time of ''Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'' when he stopped caring about the ''[[Music/{{Yes}} Tales from Topographic Oceans]]'' sessions, and provided the keyboard parts in "Sabbra Cadabra". His son Adam would eventually be a touring member for the group and Ozzy Osbourne.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally range from 5-7. They were ''the'' 10 for their day however, and have on occasion hit a low 8 by today's standards ("Black Sabbath" and "Symptom of the Universe" come to mind). They also have 2s in the ballads "Changes" and "It's Alright" and the [[LyricalDissonance not-quite-ballad]] "Zeitgeist".