>First metal song released in 1970
>Over half a century later, still the creepiest metal song I've heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLC2qwFLbqc

It's fucking insane how fully formed metal came out with Sabbath.

Ok there was Blue Cheer, Sabbath, and Deep Purple who contributed in ways too, but with Sabbath it crystalized. Little refinements with Priest, NWOBHM, Metallica, but its fundamentals were already fully crafted

>>127135845
funny enough even though sabbath created the first full metal album, there was a six-year gap that led to the first album that imo truly kickstarted metal as a genre (sad wings of destiny), and it wasn't until a decade later we outpace the heaviness of sabbath with bands like motorhead and venom

i used to downplay black sabbath's early records, but they truly were ahead of their time (or a better way to put it, their own time)

>>127135845
>>127135899
This.
That song itself created an entire new type of music. There's bits and pieces of the elements of heavy music that were around before Sabbath but everything came together perfectly when Sabbath recorded that song.
I also think Bill Ward's drumming is a big part of the atmosphere tbqh.

>>127136018
I still think Deep Purple and the other prog rock bands played a significant role in the melodic/speedier side of metal, but Sabbath was unique as they codified the dark/bombastic riffs and imagery

>>127136334
I agree, when I hear some of deep purple I can hear the direct line to a lot of neoclassical, power metal, all that type of stuff that came later on. Sabbath was like the sludgier side of metal, for a while anyway.

>>127136334
Oh there were for sure "pre-metal" bands (for lack of a better description), but Sabbath was unquestionably the moment where it crystallized. As another poster pointed out, Sabbath were fully formed from the very beginning with no "evolution period" whatsoever. There are VERY few genres that can point to a single point of origin and metal is one of them.

>>127136334
Oh there were for sure "proto-metal" bands (for lack of a better description), but Sabbath was unquestionably the moment where it crystallized. As another poster pointed out, Sabbath were fully formed from the very beginning with no "evolution period" whatsoever. There are VERY few genres that can point to a single point of origin and metal is one of them.