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Black Sabbath's Influence on Metal: A Look at Heavy Metal, Doom Metal, and Stoner Metal
"When I started writing Sabbath stuff it was just something that sounded right. I didn't think I was going to make it Devil music." - Tony Iommi
The year was 1969, and guitarist Tony Iommi unknowingly set out to make history.
A year earlier, Iommi — along with Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and John "Ozzy" Osbourne — had formed a blues-rock group called Earth, but aside from a couple of short-lived demos, the group didn't make any traction. After leaving the band and returning in 1969, the 21 year old guitarist decided to make their music heavier, eventually changing the band's name to Black Sabbath, after the 1963 film Black Sabbath. Together, all four band members worked to produce what they thought was the "horror film" equivalent of music, giving birth to their debut album in 1970. In an era where freedom and peace crusaders ruled, Black Sabbath did the unthinkable — they thrived on doom and hit number 8 on the UK Albums Chart, giving birth to what would be known as metal.
Unbeknownst to Iommi, his musical direction gave birth — and inspiration — to other bands that would be the founders of other metal genres, including doom metal, stoner metal and heavy metal. In fact, Black Sabbath is considered the pioneer of heavy metal — Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin are also credited, although they have not received as much recognition.
Let's take a look at how Black Sabbath inspired these metal genres.
Heavy Metal
Black Sabbath's influence on heavy metal is well known. Not only has Iommi's playing style become the signature for heavy metal riffs, many sub-genre metal legends have also credited him for inspiring them to play.
"Tony Iommi is very different to a lot of guitar players, his phrasing is very different…his riffs and his rhythm playing is the **** on that album [Paranoid]," said Creed founding member Mark Tremonti. James Hetfield, who helped popularize American thrash metal in the 1980s, notes that "Tony Iommi is the king of the heavy riff", echoing the same sentiments felt by Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford, who also commented that the Black Sabbath guitarist invented the heavy metal riff. (Source: Blabbermouth.net)
The actual playing style that created the heavy metal riff was the result of several influences early in Iommi's life. As a teenager, he was inspired by the sound of blues music — music that originated an ocean away in the southern United States. More specifically, the Black Sabbath founder mentions Hank Marvin as one of his inspirations, a popular guitarist in the UK during the 1960s. From these influences, Iommi also took the pentatonic scale, a scale often used in American blues music. He also made use of the tritone — a musical interval better know as the Devil's note. From there, he made his solos faster and more unpredictable while adding more distortion to his riffs, giving birth to heavy metal. As the 1970s headed into the 1980s, Black Sabbath continued to "stay heavy", paving the way for countless other bands to become heavier and more sinister with their music.
Doom Metal
Black Sabbath's biggest influence is often seen in another genre, however — doom metal. Although they weren't the only band to capitalize on the overpowering riffs that characterized doom metal in the 1970s, they were perhaps the most popular band to do so. Surprisingly enough, Iommi accidentally created this sound as a way to make it easier to play the guitar, as the fingertips on his ring and middle finger were cut off during a factory accident. To compensate for his missing fingertips, he created plastic tips to extend both fingers, downtuning the guitar strings to make it easier to pick. The down tuning created an eerier, darker sound on his guitar, which eventually became a signature sound of the doom metal movement.
The greatest example of this sound can be seen in the song Black Sabbath — a gloomy, droning tune featuring only three notes during most of the song. Despite its relative simplicity, the aura it created is now arguably considered the founding stone for what is considered the “doom metal sound”. This genre did not truly become popular until the late 1980s, however, when the doom metal band Candlemass released the album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus.
Since the late 1980s, doom metal has become progressively popular, thanks to the down tuning of Iommi's guitar — and to the horror film influences that turned his band from Earth to Black Sabbath.
Stoner Rock/Metal
As well as influencing doom metal, Black Sabbath also helped influence stoner rock and metal — genres characterized by melodic, bass-heavy guitar riffs reminiscent of a psychedelic experience. The genre's heavy and purposefully slow tempos were directly influenced by the songs Iommi penned in the 1960s and 1970s, the best example of this being Sweet Leaf. The song, which was about the band's love for marijuana, has been cited as an inspiration for stoner metal, along with classic songs by metal greats such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Rolling Stone even commented that "Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were the first to make a monolith of it".
Moreover, Black Sabbath helped popularize the blues sound that also became a signature of true stoner metal, which can be heard in such songs such as Gardenia (Kyuss), Spoonman (Soundgarden) and Powertrip (Monster Magnet). However, some critics believe that Black Sabbath only played a minor role in stoner rock and metal — the blues-rock band Blue Cheer is sometimes credited as pioneers for this genre.
Black Sabbath Today
Despite being the pioneers of metal, the founders of Black Sabbath are still going strong today — there are even talks of a reunion by ex-singer Ozzy Osbourne. Bassist Geezer Butler disputes these claims, however, saying to Blabbermouth.net "It's not going to happen next year. Ozzy's on tour with his own band for the next year or whatever...I'm sure Ozzy will say 'yes' and 'no' every week for the next year while he's on tour." It appears only the passage of time will decide Black Sabbath's fate.
As for Iommi, he's now involved with the supergroup WhoCares, a band that also contains metal greats such as Ian Gillan, Nicko McBrain, Jason Newstead, Linde Lindström and Jon Lord. Unlike his past several decades in the music business, his reason for joining the band was not to create darker, heavier music — it was to help give funds to a music school in Armenia, a school that is still suffering from the aftermath of a earthquake that occurred over 20 years ago.
"Some twenty years ago when the call came, I thought, well at least I’ve helped, but it was going to Armenia and seeing the actual devastation caused by the earthquake that really made me realize that funds were still needed," Iommi told Ear-Music.net. "After the warmth and honor bestowed upon us during our visit, we just had to help make a difference and get the school re-built. And what better way than to hook up with some of rock’s greatest players and my old mate Ian, both an honor and a pleasure."
WhoCares is set to release two songs on May 11th, with the proceeds going to the music school that is still devastated by the 1988 earthquake.
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