Black Sabbath

United Kingdom, 1968–2017

Birmingham band formed in 1968 by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne. Their first two albums, Black Sabbath and Paranoid (both 1970), set the slow tempos, detuned riffing and minor-key harmony that defined heavy metal.

MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Black Sabbath and 35 artists Black Sabbath influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Black Sabbath?

• Cream — Early Sabbath took off from Cream's heavy blues rock.
• Django Reinhardt — Iommi lost two fingertips in a sheet metal press at 17 and had been told he would not play again; his foreman played him Reinhardt, who had rebuilt his own technique after a fire. Iommi carried on with home-made thimbles and slackened strings, and Sabbath's riffs follow from that.

Which artists did Black Sabbath influence?

• Diamond Head — NWOBHM band Diamond Head grew up on Black Sabbath riffs.
• Metallica — Black Sabbath's heaviness is the foundation of Metallica's sound.
• Danzig — The weight. Samhain was already going that way and the Danzig records finished the job — Rubin produced the debut as blues-based heavy rock rather than punk.
• W.A.S.P. — Black Sabbath's heavy riffing was part of the metal bedrock beneath W.A.S.P.'s horror show.
• Nirvana — Nirvana's heavy riffs inherit from Black Sabbath.
• Rage Against the Machine — Sabbath's riff weight is the other half of Morello's stated formula for the band's sound.
• Iron Maiden — Steve Harris has named Sabbath among the foundations Maiden built on — the Birmingham riff tradition underpins the NWOBHM.
• Judas Priest — Priest rose from the same Birmingham streets as Sabbath — Halford and Tipton have named them the foundation the band built upon.
• Pantera — Pantera's cover of 'Planet Caravan' (Far Beyond Driven) is an official act of Sabbath homage; the band cited Sabbath as heaviness itself.
• System of a Down — Malakian has named Sabbath the band's heaviness root — 'Sabbath is where the riff comes from'.
• Joan Jett & the Blackhearts — Black Sabbath was among Jett's first rock concerts, feeding the heavy edge of her rock'n'roll.
• Soundgarden — Guitarist Kim Thayil described Soundgarden's sound as 'Sabbath-influenced punk'; Black Sabbath shaped the band's heavy riffs and drop tunings.
• Disturbed — Black Sabbath sits among the classic heavy-metal acts Disturbed name as formative.
• Wolfmother — Stockdale cites Black Sabbath as a major inspiration — Tony Iommi's heavy riffing and Bill Ward's jazzy drumming feed Wolfmother's proto-metal.
• Alice in Chains — Alice in Chains built their doomy, down-tuned heaviness on Black Sabbath — Jerry Cantrell's crushing riffs are Sabbath filtered through grunge.
• Faith No More — Black Sabbath's heavy riffing anchors Faith No More's genre-blending alt-metal, one pole of their eclectic sound.
• Mastodon — Black Sabbath's heavy, doom-laden riffing is foundational to Mastodon's sludge-metal weight.
• The Smashing Pumpkins — Billy Corgan built the Smashing Pumpkins' massive, layered guitar sound on Black Sabbath's heavy metal riffing.
• Silverchair — Black Sabbath's heavy riffing underlies the sludgier, harder moments of Silverchair's early records.
• The Cardigans — The Cardigans' core members came from heavy metal — they paid tribute with a lounge-pop cover of Black Sabbath's 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'.
• L7 — Black Sabbath's heavy riffing gives L7's punk its sludgy, metallic low end.
• Venom — Black Sabbath's dark, heavy riffing is the doom foundation beneath Venom's satanic speed-metal.
• Bathory — Black Sabbath's heaviness is part of the metal bedrock beneath Bathory's raw black and Viking metal.
• Celtic Frost — Black Sabbath's crushing doom is a cornerstone of Celtic Frost's heavy, dissonant riffing.
• Type O Negative — Peter Steele named Black Sabbath one of Type O Negative's two main influences — their crushing doom is the band's heavy foundation.
• Kyuss — Black Sabbath's downtuned doom is the bedrock of Kyuss's fuzzed, heavy desert rock.
• Fu Manchu — Black Sabbath's heavy riffing is the foundation of Fu Manchu's good-time stoner rock.
• Monster Magnet — Black Sabbath's foreboding doom is a huge helping of Monster Magnet's heavy space-rock.
• Helmet — Black Sabbath's heavy riffing underlies Helmet's downtuned, staccato metal crunch.
• Ghost — Black Sabbath's occult heavy-metal riffing is the doom foundation of Ghost's satanic hard rock.
• Queens of the Stone Age — Black Sabbath's heavy, down-tuned riffing is the doom-rock bedrock of QOTSA's groove-driven hard rock.
• Mercyful Fate — Black Sabbath's occult heavy-metal riffing is a core foundation of Mercyful Fate's dark, theatrical metal.
• Blue Öyster Cult — Black Sabbath's heavy metal was part of the mould Blue Öyster Cult's early hard rock was cast in.
• Michael Monroe — Credited by Monroe as a major influence, and the heavy end of a singer usually filed under glam.
• Beastie Boys — Sampled on 'Rhymin & Stealin', with Led Zeppelin and the Clash.