Black Sabbath

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Birmingham, England (1968 – present)

Black Sabbath is an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, originally comprising Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums). In the early ’70s they were the first to pair heavily distorted, sonically dissonant blues-rock at slow speeds with lyrics about drugs, mental pain and abominations of war (they came from Aston, a poor district of Birmingham damaged by bombing during World War II), thus giving birth to generations upon generations of metal bands that followed in their wake.

Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham, England in 1968 under the name Polka Tulk Blues Band (soon shortened to “Polka Tulk”), and later Earth. Initially a blues-rock band, Earth moved in a darker direction when their bassist, Geezer Butler, a fan of the black magic novels of Dennis Wheatley, wrote lyrics for an occult-themed song titled “Black Sabbath” (the song name was inspired by a 1963 Mario Bava film), and Tony Iommi wrote a riff based on the tritone, sometimes called “diablos in musica” (“the Devil in Music”). In their Last Supper concert film, the band stated that the song is based on an experience Geezer had one night when he saw a black object at the end of his bed and noticed the next day that an occult book Ozzy had given him was missing. When the band found themselves being confused with another local band called Earth, they adopted the song title as their new name.

1	Paranoid full track	9,102
2	Iron Man	5,853
3	War Pigs	3,964
4	Planet Caravan	2,720
5	Electric Funeral	2,693
6	Black Sabbath	2,569
7	The Wizard	2,540
8	Sweet Leaf	2,505
9	Children of the Grave	2,385
10	Sabbath Bloody Sabbath	2,107
11	N.I.B.	1,902
12	Snowblind	1,837
13	Heaven and Hell	1,782
14	Hand of Doom	1,687
15	Into the Void	1,642

Top Albums

Paranoid
Black Sabbath
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Master of Reality
Black Sabbath
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Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath
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sagm_999 wrote:
6 hours ago

hurricane_mario: Awesome!

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Sebekas wrote:
6 hours ago

Paranoid rules

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adaamm wrote:
8 hours ago

Why do my plays not show up next to the Sabbath picture on my profile?

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_Moonshield_ wrote:
8 hours ago

Do you support split-up/inactive bands? If you do, join here http://www.last.fm/group/The+Immortal+Metal+Bands

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M-Ant wrote:
yesterday evening

My opinion is that still to this day Black Sabbath, especially the early ozzy years, surpass most of modern heavy/doom/whatever metal artists by loads. All this shrieking singing and baphomet worshipping bollocks seems pretentious to me. Supernaut and Electric Funeral all the way.

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ghnf52 wrote:
yesterday evening

now,says the father to his metallica-listining son,i will tell to a time before metal.we had black sabbath,led zeppelin and deep purple!

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dortkere wrote:
yesterday afternoon

http://www.lastfm.com.tr/group/Bring+back+the+old+Last.fm

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hurricane_mario wrote:
yesterday afternoon

An hour long special about the dio years and the new box set! Scroll down a bit. http://www.bravewords.com/knuckletracks/?tid=0

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BrianBL wrote:
yesterday morning

Dio era is alright, but Dio is totally awesome.

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rdx_TP wrote:
yesterday morning

EVERYBODY VOTE YES FOR THIS: http://www.last.fm/music/Black+Sabbath/+images/5833764

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013O wrote:
Thursday morning

I hate Dio... and Dio's era. Dio changed Sabbath into 'Heaven & Hell'... Pffft~!

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GenitalTomb wrote:
Thursday morning

beginning of into the void = the greatest riff of all time

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Shaunography wrote:
Wednesday afternoon

For everyone in England - http://www.last.fm/event/719082

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ThrillKillWilly wrote:
Wednesday afternoon

Bow before them

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VashTheStamped wrote:
Wednesday morning

Hello! Sabbath fans will have to join the Ultimaterock's Rock Galore group! RYM very own Ultimaterock provides the group of heavens! haha http://www.last.fm/group/Ultimaterock%27s+Rock+Galore

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DAYANANDREA wrote:
Wednesday morning

I like the rain..in Black Sabbath Black Sabbath www.dayanandrea.org

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iYoichiro wrote:
Wednesday morning

http://animeheavens.net/ anime fans and black sabbath fckin rocks

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sinnfuln8ure wrote:
Tuesday evening

best fucking music of that generation

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gouthamr wrote:
Tuesday evening

sabbath, bloody sabbath....!!!!..tommy iommi has that amazing gift to bring unbelievable riffs to any song...

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ShockBanana wrote:
Tuesday morning

well, i agree that paranoid is way overrated, but iron man is a killer... my favourite sabbath track would probably be symptom of the universe... first thrash song.

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