Top 10 Black Sabbath Songs

Welcome back, and today you are in for a treat with this long awaited list! My top 10 fave Black Sabbath songs!

Black Sabbath were an English metal band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with releases such as Black Sabbath, Paranoid and Master of Reality.

10: Black Sabbath

Let's start by going self-titled from their debut album of course and a good list opener with the dread this song starts with. It's difficult to overstate the importance of this song to both Black Sabbath and heavy metal in general. The band was inspired to write the song when they saw a cinema playing the 1963 Boris Karloff film Black Sabbath. Bassist Geezer Butler observed that people loved seeing scary movies, but there wasn't much scary music out there. This was also the peak of the hippie era and the four working-class kids from Birmingham, England were sick of songs about peace and love. The group wrote a song called "Black Sabbath" and changed their name from Earth to the same. The track is an absolute masterpiece and does feel like a mini audio-horror film. There was nothing like it on the charts, and the group quickly began writing similar songs. Five decades later, "Black Sabbath" remains a high point of their live show.

9: Sweet Leaf

MMmf I love a good chunky sound and da guitars are chonky boi's in this. Before the group spent their days getting snowblind, they liked to smoke a little "Sweet Leaf." They really, really liked it. "My life was empty, forever on a down," Ozzy sings. "Until you took me, showed me around/ My life is free now, my life is clear/ I love you sweet leaf, though you can't hear." Right before they recorded it, Tony Iommi took a bit hit of weed. "It bloody choked me," he wrote in his book. "I coughed my head off, they taped that, and we used it on the beginning of 'Sweet Leaf.' How appropriate: coughing your way into a song about marijuana. . . And the finest vocal performance of my entire career!"

8: Symptom Of The Universe

Anyone else gets immediately taken back to Brutal Legend game whenever they hear the starting riff? The song was an influence on the development of thrash metal and was composed largely by guitarist Tony Iommi, with lyrics by Geezer Butler. Its closing passage, very unlike the rest of the song, evolved from an in-studio jam, created spontaneously in a single day.

7: God Is Dead?

I was so excited to hear OG Sabbath was returning and this was the first song I heard of the new stuff, and I was so hyped this has classic and iconic Sabbath written all over it. Both the song title and figure on the single's cover, by Heather Cassils, are a reference to Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher who is famous for saying that "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?".

6: Die Young

Ok so this was Dio's era in Sabbath and this is one I have always liked from his time with the band. "Die Young" is the sixth track on the Heaven and Hell album, credited like all the songs to Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler. The lyrics, written of course by Dio, appear to be about the futility of life in the face of its ephemeral nature. Like all of Dio's lyrics, they take some poetic turnings, so it's up to the listener. Check out the sudden softening of Dio's vocals, now singing in the high register, on the middle section. The song is also notable for its live performances; it's been a staple of Dio's, Gillan's, and Martin's sets, and typically features some lengthy instrumental work.

5: Changes

Quite a heartbreaking song from Sabbath, it's made me cry many times as I relate it to myself and my life experiences. Ozzy & Kelly's version is also powerful. The song's piano melody was composed by guitarist Tony Iommi, who was experimenting with the instrument in the studio. The lyrics were by bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne has referred to the song as "heartbreaking". Quite different from Sabbath's previous work, the song was described as a "forlornly pretty" ballad by critic Barney Hoskyns. It was inspired mainly by drummer Bill Ward's breakup with his first wife.

4: Children Of The Grave

Oh, fuck yeah! Another diabolical tune which reminds me of Brutal Legend and also Guitar Hero! I love this one! This is another anti-war tune and the threat of a nuclear war and that the youth needs to stand against the corrupt politicians and just spread peace and love, or the wars will put an end to the human race.

3: War Pigs

God-damn, where to start on this iconic anti-war song? It's fucking sick as fuck mate! The four members of Black Sabbath may have had little use for hippie music, but they certainly agreed with the movement's anti-war stance. "War Pigs" is their most famous political song, but it began its life as a satanic number called "Walpurgis." The label didn't love the lyrics, so they simply changed it to an anti-war song called "War Pigs." It was the height of the Vietnam War, and Geezer Butler had little trouble pouring all his anger and frustration onto the page. It's nearly eight minutes long and was never a single, but audiences latched onto the track, and it became a crucial part of their live show. It remains their opening number to this day.

2: Iron Man

I am Iron Maaan such a fucking iconic song dudes! When hearing the guitar riff for the first time, Ozzy Osbourne said that it sounded "like a big iron bloke walking about". The original title was "Iron Bloke" before Geezer settled on "Iron Man" and he started to write lyrics around that title. Butler wrote the lyrics about a man who travelled into the future and saw the apocalypse. In the process of returning to the present, he's turned into steel by a magnetic field. He's rendered mute and isn't able to warn people of his time in the future and of the impending doom. His attempts at communicating with them are ignored and mocked. This causes Iron Man to become angry and drives his revenge to man-kind by causing the same destruction seen in his vision. Obviously as time has gone on Marvel have adopted it for their number 1 Avenger as his unofficial theme, yes that is right it's Iron Man. One of the most metal as fuck solo's and bass riffs ever.

1: Paranoid

An absolute iconic belter! Black Sabbath were almost done with their second album when producer Rodger Bain told them it was a little short. He asked for one more quick song, and when the rest of the group stepped out for lunch, Tony Iommi began composing a new riff. The group loved what they heard, and Geezer Butler started writing lyrics. "I don't think we even know what the word 'Paranoid' meant at the time," Iommi wrote in his book. "That's why we left it to Geezer, because we considered him to be the intelligent one." They never thought the song would become a huge hit. "It probably took four minutes to write," said Iommi. "It's that basic, simple thing, that catchy theme, that seems to appeal to people." The label loved the song and insisted it be the first single, even changing the name of the album from War Pigs to Paranoid. It was their first hit in America and changed their lives forever.

Alright and that is my list, come back in a few days to see my next top ten songs list!

Ozzy list is coming soon!

Stay Shiny!