Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in 1968 when guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward sought to form a band in Aston, Birmingham. The two enlisted bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne ( Osbourne having placed an advertisement in a local music shop: "Ozzy Zig Needs Gig – has own PA".) Originally a heavy blues rock band, the band began incorporating occult themes with horror-inspired lyrics and tuned-down guitars. In addition to occult and horror themes, Black Sabbath also composed songs dealing with social instability, political corruption, the dangers of drug abuse and apocalyptic prophecies of the horrors of war. The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. In 1968, Iommi briefly left to join Jethro Tull. Iommi made an appearance with Jethro Tull on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV show but was unsatisfied with the band's direction. Iommi returned to Black Sabbath where he still plays today.
Originally called Earth, the band soon changed its name to Black Sabbath when a cinema across the street from the band's rehearsal room started showing the 1963 Mario Bava horror film Black Sabbath starring Boris Karloff. Osbourne and Butler wrote the lyrics for the song called "Black Sabbath", which was inspired by the work of horror and adventure-story writer Dennis Wheatley, along with a vision that Butler had of a black silhouetted figure standing at the foot of his bed. Making use of the musical tritone, also known as "The Devil's Interval", the song's ominous sound and dark lyrics pushed the band in a darker direction, a stark contrast to the popular music of the late 1960s, which was dominated by flower power, folk music, and hippie culture.
After spending two days in a recording studio to record their debut album with producer Rodger Bain, Black Sabbath was released on Friday the 13th, February 1970. The album was a commercial success, giving the band their first mainstream exposure.
To capitalise on their chart success in the US, the band returned to the studio in June 1970, The album's lead-off single "Paranoid" was written in the studio at the last minute because the band didn't have enough songs for the album. Paranoid, like Black Sabbath, was panned by rock critics of the era, but modern-day reviewers call Paranoid one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. In addition to the title track, Paranoid also contains "War Pigs" and "Iron Man", two songs that are cornerstones of the Black Sabbath song catelog.
When Black Sabbath returned to the studio to begin work on their third album, they were afforded more studio time, along with a briefcase full of cash to buy drugs. Master of Reality contained Black Sabbath's first acoustic songs, alongside fan favourites such as "Children of the Grave" and "Sweet Leaf". Critical response of the era was generally unfavourable.
Following the Master of Reality world tour in 1972, Black Sabbath took its first break in three years. In June, the band reconvened in Los Angeles to begin work on their next album at the Record Plant. The recording process was plagued with problems, many as a result of the band sitting in the middle of the room, just doing drugs. Black Sabbath's Volume 4 was released in September 1972, and while critics, as usual, were dismissive of the album upon release, it achieved gold status in less than a month. With more time in the studio, Volume 4 saw the band starting to experiment with new textures, such as strings, piano, orchestration and multi-part songs.
Following the Volume 4 world tour, the band rented a house in Bel Air and began writing in the summer of 1973, but in part because of substance issues and fatigue, they were unable to complete any songs. The band opted to return to England, where they rented a castle. While working in the dungeon, Iommi stumbled onto the main riff of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," which set the tone for the new material. In November 1973, Black Sabbath released the critically acclaimed Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. For the first time in their career, the band began to receive favourable reviews in the mainstream press, The album marked the band's fifth consecutive platinum selling album in the US. The band began a world tour in January 1974, which culminated at the California Jam festival in Ontario, California on 6 April 1974. Attracting over 200,000 fans, Black Sabbath appeared alongside 1970s rock and pop giants Deep Purple, Eagles, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Rare Earth, Seals & Crofts, Black Oak Arkansas, and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Black Sabbath began work on their sixth album in February 1975. Produced by Black Sabbath and Mike Butcher, Sabotage was released in July 1975. As with its precursor, the album initially saw favourable reviews and reached the top 20 in both the US and the UK, but was the band's first release not to achieve Platinum status in the US. Black Sabbath toured in support of Sabotage with openers Kiss, but were forced to cut the tour short when Osbourne ruptured a muscle in his back following a motorcycle accident.
In December 1975, the band's record companies released a Greatest hits album without input from the band, titled We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll. The album charted throughout 1976, eventually selling two million copies in the US.
During the recording of Technical Ecstasy, Osbourne began to consider the possibility of working with other musicians. Recording of Technical Ecstasy was difficult, and by the time the album was completed Osbourne was admitted to Stafford County Asylum in Britain. The album featured less of the doomy, ominous sound of previous efforts, and incorporated more synthesisers and uptempo rock songs. Technical Ecstasy failed to reach the top 50 in the US, and was the band's second consecutive release not to achieve platinum status. Touring began in November 1976, with openers Boston and Ted Nugent in the US, and completed in Europe with AC/DC in April 1977.
In late 1977, while in rehearsal for their next album, and just days before the band was set to enter the studio, Osbourne abruptly quit the band. Osbourne initially set out to form a solo project, but he had a change of heart and rejoined Black Sabbath. The band spent five months writing and recording what would become Never Say Die!. Press response was unfavourable and unfocused songs perfectly reflected the band's tense personnel problems and drug abuse. Touring in support of Never Say Die! began in May 1978 with openers Van Halen. Reviewers called Black Sabbath's performance tired and uninspired, a stark contrast to the youthful performance of Van Halen, who were touring the world for the first time.
Following the tour, Black Sabbath returned to Los Angeles and spent nearly a year working on new material for the next album. The entire band were abusing drugs and alcohol, but Osbourne was on a totally different level altogether. With pressure from the record label, and frustrations with Osbourne's lack of input coming to a head, Iommi believed the only options available were to fire Osbourne or break the band up completely. Drummer Ward, who was close with Osbourne, was chosen by Tony to break the news to the singer on April 27, 1979.
Sharon Arden (later Sharon Osbourne), daughter of Black Sabbath manager Don Arden, suggested former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio to replace Ozzy. With a notably different vocal style from Osbourne's, Dio's addition to the band marked a change in Black Sabbath's sound. Geezer Butler temporarily left the band in September 1979, but he returned to the band in January 1980. Heaven and Hell was released on 25 April 1980, to critical acclaim. The album eventually sold a million copies in the US, and the band embarked on an extensive world tour, making their first live appearance with Dio in Germany on 17 April 1980. Black Sabbath toured the US throughout 1980 with Blue Öyster Cult on the "Black and Blue" tour, and they also played shows with Journey, Cheap Trick, and Molly Hatchet . On 18 August 1980, after a show , Ward quit the band. The group brought in drummer Vinny Appice to replace Ward.
Black Sabbath's second album featuring Ronnie James Dio as vocalist, Mob Rules (released in October 1981), was well received by fans, but less so by the critics. The album's title track "The Mob Rules" was featured in the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal.
The band recorded a live album—titled Live Evil—during the Mob Rules world tour. During the mixing process for the album, Iommi and Butler had a falling out with Dio. Iommi and Butler accused Dio of sneaking into the studio at night to raise the volume of his vocals. In addition, Dio was not satisfied with the pictures of him in the artwork. Dio left Black Sabbath and took drummer Vinny Appice with him. Live Evil was released in January 1983, but was overshadowed by Ozzy Osbourne's Speak of the Devil.
Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, began auditioning new singers for the band's next release. The band settled on former Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan. While the project was not initially set to be called Black Sabbath, pressures from the record label forced the group to use the name. Born Again was panned upon release by critics. Gillan's bluesy style and humorous lyrics were completely incompatible with the lords of doom and gloom, Although he performed on the album, drummer Ward was unable to tour because of the pressures of the road, and quit the band after the commencement of the Born Again album. Ward was replaced by former Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan for the tour.
In March 1984,Bevan and Gillan left Black Sabbath. The band recruited an unknown Los Angeles vocalist named David Donato. The new line-up wrote and rehearsed throughout 1984, and eventually recorded a demo in October. Unhappy with the results, the band parted ways with Donato shortly after. Disillusioned with the band's revolving line-up, bassist Geezer Butler quit Black Sabbath in November. Following Butler's exit, sole remaining original member Tony Iommi put Black Sabbath on hiatus, and began work on a solo album.
While working on new material, the original Black Sabbath line-up were offered a spot at Live Aid benefit concert. The band agreed, performing at the Philadelphia show, on 13 July 1985. The event marked the first time the original line-up appeared on stage since 1978, and also featured reunions of The Who and Led Zeppelin.
Returning to his solo work, Iommi enlisted bassist Dave Spitz and drummer Eric Singer, and initially intended to use multiple singers, including Rob Halford of Judas Priest, ex-Deep Purple and vocalist Glenn Hughes, and ex-Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio, but this plan didn't work out. The band spent the remainder of the year in the studio, recording what would become Seventh Star. Warner Bros. refused to release the album as a Tony Iommi solo release, insisting on using the name Black Sabbath. Pressured by the band's manager, Don Arden, the two compromised and released the album as "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi" in January 1986. Seventh Star, which sounded little like a Black Sabbath album, incorporated more hard rock elements popularised by the 1980s Sunset Strip hard rock scene, and was panned by the critics. The new line-up rehearsed for six weeks, preparing for a full world tour, Just four days before the start of the tour, vocalist Glenn Hughes got into a bar fight with the band's production manager John Downing which splintered the singer's orbital bone. The injury interfered with Hughes' ability to sing, and the band brought in vocalist Ray Gillen to continue the tour. Nearly half of the US dates would eventually be cancelled because of poor ticket sales.
Black Sabbath began work on new material in October 1986. The recording was fraught with problems from the beginning. Bassist Dave Spitz quit over personal issues, and ex-Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley was brought in to re-recorded the bass tracks, and write the album's lyrics. But before the album was complete, he left to join Gary Moore's backing band, taking drummer Eric Singer with him. Vocalist Ray Gillen left abruptly to form Blue Murder with John Sykes. The band enlisted vocalist Tony Martin to re-record Gillen's tracks, and former Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan to complete a few percussion overdubs. Before the release of the new album, Black Sabbath accepted an offer to play six shows at Sun City, South Africa during the apartheid era. Drummer Bev Bevan refused to play the shows, and was replaced by Terry Chimes. After nearly a year in production, The Eternal Idol was released on 8 December 1987. Martin's powerful voice added new fire to the band, but unfortunately, in part because of a backlash from promoters over the South Africa incident, most of their tour was cancelled.
The band took time off in 1988, returning in August to begin work on their next album. Tony Iommi opted to produce the band's next album himself. Iommi enlisted ex-Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell, long-time keyboardist Geoff Nicholls and session bassist Laurence Cottle. Black Sabbath released Headless Cross in April 1989 Following the album's release, the band added touring bassist Neil Murray, formerly of Whitesnake. The ill-fated Headless Cross U.S. tour began in May 1989, but because of poor ticket sales, the tour was cancelled after just eight shows.
The band returned to the studio in February 1990 to record Tyr, the follow-up to Headless Cross. While not technically a concept album, some of the album's lyrical themes are loosely based on Norse mythology. Tyr was released on 6 August 1990. The band toured in support of Tyr in Europe, but the final seven UK dates were cancelled because of poor ticket sales. For the first time in their career, the band's touring cycle did not include US dates.
While on his own Lock Up The Wolves US tour in August 1990, former Black Sabbath vocalist Ronnie James Dio was joined on stage by former Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler to perform "Neon Knights". Following the show, the two expressed interest in rejoining Black Sabbath. Butler convinced Iommi, who in turn broke up the current line-up, dismissing vocalist Tony Martin and bassist Neil Murray. Ronnie James Dio and Geezer Butler joined Tony Iommi and Cozy Powell in the fall of 1990 to begin working on the next Black Sabbath release. While rehearsing in November, Powell suffered a broken hip when his horse died, falling on the drummer's legs. Unable to complete work on the album, Powell was replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice, reuniting the Mob Rules era line-up. The year-long recording process was plagued with problems, primarily stemming from writing tension between Iommi and Dio, and some songs were re-written multiple times. The resulting album, Dehumanizer was released on 22 June 1992. While the album received mixed reviews, it was the band's biggest commercial success in a decade. The album also featured the song "Time Machine", a version of which had been recorded for the 1992 film Wayne's World. Additionally, the perception by many fans of a return of some semblance of the "real" Black Sabbath provided the band with some much needed momentum. Black Sabbath began touring in support of Dehumanizer in July 1992 with Testament, Danzig, Prong, and Exodus. While on tour, former vocalist Ozzy Osbourne announced his first retirement, and invited Black Sabbath to open for his solo band at the final two shows of his No More Tours tour. The band agreed, but Dio didn't. Dio quit Black Sabbath, one night before the band were set to appear at Osbourne's retirement show. Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford stepped in at the last minute, performing two nights with the band. Iommi and Butler also joined Osbourne and former drummer Ward, performing a brief set of Black Sabbath songs.Drummer Vinny Appice left the band following the reunion show to join Ronnie James Dio's solo band.
Iommi and Butler enlisted former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli, and reinstated former vocalist Tony Martin. The band returned to the studio to work on new material, although the project was not originally intended to be released under the Black Sabbath name. Under pressure from their record label, the band released their seventeenth studio album, Cross Purposes, under the Black Sabbath name.
Following the touring cycle for Cross Purposes, bassist Geezer Butler quit the band for the second time. Following Butler's departure, newly returned drummer Ward once again left the band. Iommi reinstated former members Neil Murray on bass and Cozy Powell on drums, effectively reuniting theTyr line-up. Produced by Body Count guitarist Ernie C ,and featuring a guest vocal on by Body Count vocalist Ice T, the resulting Forbidden was released on 8 June 1995, but failed to chart in the US or the UK.
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In the summer of 1997, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne officially reunited to co-headline the Ozzfest festival tour alongside Osbourne's solo band. The line-up featured Osbourne's drummer Mike Bordin filling in for Ward, who was unable to participate because of previous commitments. In December 1997, the group was joined by Ward, marking the first reunion of the original four members since Osbourne's 1992 "retirement show". The original line-up recorded two shows which were released as the double live album Reunion . Shortly before the band embarked on a European tour in the summer of 1998, Ward suffered a heart attack and was temporarily replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice. Ward returned in time for the US tour with openers Pantera, which began in January 1999 and continued through the summer, headlining the annual Ozzfest tour. Black Sabbath returned to the studio to work on new material with all four original members in the spring of 2001, but the sessions were halted when Osbourne was called away to finish tracks for his solo album. The band remained on hiatus until the summer of 2004 when they returned to headline Ozzfest 2004 and 2005.
While Ozzy Osbourne was working on new solo album material in 2006, Rhino Records released Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, a compilation of songs culled from the four Black Sabbath releases featuring Ronnie James Dio. For the release, Iommi, Butler, Dio and Appice reunited to write and record three new songs Pleased with the results, Iommi and Dio decided to reunite the Heaven and Hell era line-up for a world tour. While the line-up of Osbourne, Butler, Iommi and Ward were still officially called Black Sabbath, the new line-up opted to call themselves Heaven & Hell, after the album of the same name, to avoid confusion. Ward was initially set to participate, but dropped out before the tour began due to musical differences He was replaced by former drummer Vinny Appice, effectively reuniting the line-up that had featured on the Mob Rules and Dehumanizer albums. Heaven & Hell toured the US with openers and recorded a live album and DVD titled Live from Radio City Music Hall. In November 2007, Dio confirmed that the band had plans to record a new studio album, which was recorded in the following year. In 2009, the band announced the name of their debut studio album, The Devil You Know, released on 28 April.
Ronnie James Dio died on 16 May 2010 from stomach cancer.
On 11 November 2011, Iommi, Butler, Osbourne, and Ward announced that they were reuniting to record a new album with a full tour in support beginning in 2012. Guitarist Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma on 9 January 2012, which forced the band to cancel all but two shows of a previously booked European tour. In February 2012, drummer Ward announced that he would not participate further in the band's reunion until he was offered a "signable contract". Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine was chosen as the drummer. On 13 January 2013, the band announced that the album would be released in June under the title 13. The standard version of the album features eight new tracks, and the deluxe version features three bonus tracks. The band's first single from 13, "God Is Dead?", was released on 19 April 2013. On 20 April 2013, Black Sabbath commenced their first Australia/New Zealand tour in 40 years, to be followed by a major U.S. tour in July and August 2013.
Black Sabbath has been so influential in the development of heavy metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. The group took the blues-rock sound of late '60s acts like Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge to its logical conclusion, slowing the tempo, accentuating the bass, and emphasising screaming guitar solos and howled vocals full of lyrics expressing mental anguish and macabre fantasies. If their predecessors clearly came out of an electrified blues tradition, Black Sabbath took that tradition in a new direction, and in so doing helped give birth to a musical style that continued to attract millions of fans decades later.
Here's the video for "God Is Dead?" from 13
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