Black Sabbath The Pioneers of Heavy Metal
Origins and Formation
Forged in Birmingham
In 1968, the world was swaying to the sounds of flower power. But in Birmingham, England, something different was brewing. The city was a landscape of factories, smoke, and rubble left over from World War II. It was a tough, working-class environment, and the music that came out of it would reflect that reality.
Amidst this industrial backdrop, four young men found each other. Guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward had just left a band and put up an ad in a local music shop. Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler, who had played together previously, answered it. Initially calling themselves the Polka Tulk Blues Band and then Earth, they started out playing straightforward, heavy blues rock.
The Sound of Industry
Like many bands of the era, their early sound was heavily influenced by the blues-rock thunder of bands like Cream and the raw power of American proto-metal acts like Blue Cheer. They loved the volume and the heavy riffs, but they soon felt limited by the standard blues format. They wanted to create something that sounded like where they came from.
A factory accident became a catalyst for their unique sound. Before the band formed, Tony Iommi lost the tips of two fingers on his right hand while working at a sheet metal plant. To keep playing guitar, he created makeshift prosthetic fingertips and tuned his strings down. This slackening of the strings made them easier to bend and produced a much deeper, heavier, and more menacing tone. It was a sound that would come to define their music.
The repetitive, crushing noise of the factories wasn't just background noise; it was an inspiration. The band channeled the industrial grind of their hometown into their music.
The final piece fell into place when the band changed its name. Geezer Butler, a fan of horror films, saw the Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath and noticed how people paid money to be scared. He wrote a song with the same title, built around a dark, three-note riff. The song was ominous and completely different from anything else at the time. When they saw the powerful reaction it got from audiences, they knew they were onto something. They renamed the band Black Sabbath, and with it, the blueprint for heavy metal was born.
But it was Black Sabbath, formed in Birmingham, England in 1968, that laid down the genre’s blueprint.
Time to review what you've learned about the band's origins.
Now, let's see how well you know the story of Black Sabbath's formation.
What was the band's name immediately before they became Black Sabbath?
What was the primary reason Tony Iommi started tuning his guitar down?
From the industrial heart of England, Black Sabbath took the sounds of their environment and turned them into a new, powerful form of music.