Definitive Poll: Black Sabbath - Heavy Metal or Not?

There is definitely blues influence in Black Sabbath, it's just that their particular combination of musical influence and innovation quickly went so thoroughly in its own direction that it doesn't fit into the British blues rock "boom" of the late 60's.

One thing which I feel is important to understand about Sabbath is that they don't really reveal a whole lot about their compositional "tricks" and concepts. They let the music speak for itself and downplay things. That's the school they are from. A lot of humility. We know that Butler dug Frank Zappa and Art (pre-Spooky Tooth), Ozzy dug The Beatles, Iommi dug Bluesbreakers but then went nuts for Joe Pass, Django Rheinhardt, Wes Montgomery and so forth. Ward was listening to Gene Krupa and jazz drummers. They all were impressed by the first Led Zeppelin album because that gave them added confidence that their idea of doing heavy, powerful music could have some appeal.

One thing which Iommi has revealed in some recent interviews is how much Classical music influenced their approach to dynamics. And I found the inner lyrics sleeve on 13 to be fascinating, because they revealed a bit about their unique approach to composition. The whole "Verse 1, Chorus 1, Verse 2, Bridge A, Bridge B, Chorus 2, Swing Riff, etc." thing was a real insight into how they construct music.

Sabbath is really an amalgamation of many diverse musical influences but most importantly, their sound was quickly driven by a desire to be totally original. One thing I find interesting is how quickly they felt no need to really tie themselves to any particular musical tradition. They had the confidence to build this specific brand of music and then say; "this is who we are." As dkmonroe points out, they don't throw in the requisite "You Shook Me." And, live, they would pretty much pummel you with non-stop original material. No out and out "crowd pleasers." No boogie woogie, no rock and roll covers, no Beatles covers... nope. Nothing but epics.

 

FTR, there is no slide guitar on "The Wizard."

 

I'm pretty sure there is. It's not as elaborate as anything Duane Allman did, but it's there (in the right channel).

 

No slide.

He slides around the neck on those bar chords with precision and control which might lead some to think you'd a slide for that, but there isn't one. And if you mean the little lead bits he is throwing in, that is ridiculous vibrato technique, not slide work.

 

Heavy metal is a subgenre, so yes, bands like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath are heavy metal.

 

A demonstration of his mastery. I stand corrected.


And I wasn't referring to the vibrato, FWIW. How on earth would you do that with a slide guitar?

 

Sums it up perfectly. WTF does "heavy metal" mean anyway? A very broad category.

 

OK, you got me there. I guess metal broadly defined does have some signature aspects of musical and lyrical content.

 

No. I'm not into heavy metal but I'm into Black Sabbath.

 

Isn't it more the birth of stoner rock (which isn't strictly heavy metal is it)?

 

Black Sabbath in the early days were heavy/hard rock but progressed into metal over the years/decades to follow. They still retained their blues influence on the early albums which is not pure heavy metal IMO. I would call it stoner/doom in the early years. But their influence and being the kings of the metal genre cannot be underestimated.

 

Most certainly. The first and the best.

 

Blues influences, blues touches. Here's some of their contemporaries:

 

Now listen to "Wicked World" again. See the diff?

 

Yes.
Black Sabbath (and Led Zeppelin) are Heavy Metal.
They are indisputably the blueprint of Heavy Metal, and are considered "first-wave" British Heavy Metal acts.
The use of power chords and the Satanic lyrics are just 2 of the key factors of the genre.

 

Well, not in my opinion.

 

If Black Sabbath isn't heavy metal then WHO IN THE HELL IS?!??!?!?

 

Trying to retrofit contemporary categories doesn't work. Stoner and doom are the natural evolution of the original, but there are other children as well.

 

Yes. One reason I am not much of a fan of theirs.

 

What do I know.. I'm no expert but I put on Black Sabbath, lower the needle into the first groove and out comes Black Sabbath and my brain tells me, via my ears, that I'm listening to stoner rock.

 

I can hear why you'd say that. But my problem with that is that too often the stoner bands of the last 20 years emphasize one aspect of Sabbath and make microvariations on a theme. None of them cover the same wide ground as Sabbath did.

 

Undoubtedly Sabbath is considered heavy metal, so I had to vote yes.

But to some of us old gits the term 'heavy metal' is a late-70s term synonymous really with the NWOBHM. At the time, by which I mean 1970 or thereabouts, Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin and so forth were termed 'heavy rock' or sometimes 'underground'.

To this day I wouldn't call Purple or Zeppelin 'metal'. Sabbath? Much closer........

 

That, my friend, we can agree upon.