In 1970 the world was introduced to Heavy Metal with the debut of "Black Sabbath!"
The self titled album, by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers Black Sabbath, gave birth to the genre we know today as Heavy Metal. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward released the album on Friday the 13th, to widely negative reviews. Despite the critical negativity the album was a commercial success, reaching number 23 on the charts. The opening track, "Black Sabbath", laid the foundations for Doom Metal, as it took the step over the Hard Rock line into something new.
Sabbath would begin to blaze a trail across the UK & US spreading their sound like a disease influencing future metal bands in their wake, as it's generally praised as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal albums of all time. The album and the band would become flag bearers for a music that quickly became hated, but could not be denied as throngs of fans cultivated the genre making it one of the best selling forms of rock. What "Raw Power" did for punk rock, "Black Sabbath" did for metal, laying the blueprint to the sound, and the look & attitude for the style.