Black Sabbath

Songwriter: Tony Martin (heavy metal vocalist) Geezer Butler Tony Iommi

Don't come closer, because it ain't safe here
Just turn around now and walk away
I've gotta tell you, there are no rules here
Sometimes I wonder, what goes on there
Behind those eyes

[Hook]
When a promise is broken, and no one trusts you
And young ones cry with there heads in their hands
When you talk about saving, the souls of the faithful
You can't help thinking you've got blood on your hands
From a cross of thorns
Cross of thorns

Tongues of fire always talking
Wasted words that ring in my ears
We're still waiting, losing patience
With all the lies of 400 years
I've got to tell you, there are no rules here
Sometimes I wonder, what goes on there
Behind those eyes

[Hook]
When a promise is broken, and no one trusts you
And young ones cry with there heads in their hands
When you talk about saving, the souls of the faithful
You can't help thinking you've got blood on your hands

We gave you yesterdays, and now you want today
Oh, from the hands of death we take our daily bread
Now all we do is choke
And the words that you once spoke, fade away
Fade away
Look at what you've done
It's a cross of thorns
Cross of thorns

Take away
This cross of thorns
Look at what you've done
Look at what you've done
It's a cross of thorns

When a promise is broken, and no one trusts you
You've got blood on your hands, from a cross of thorns

From their start as a heavy blues-rock band called Earth in 1968, Black Sabbath survived over four decades with a total of 19 studio albums and numerous hits, but only “Paranoid” reached the top 10 UK Singles Chart, putting together one of the greatest rock bands of all time and setting the standards for music in their genre.

Virtually every single heavy metal band has cited the early Black Sabbath albums as a major musical influence and Black Sabbath have at least played some part in laying the foundations for most of heavy metal’s sub-genres, including thrash metal (“Symptom of the Universe” and “Into the Void”), doom metal (“Black Sabbath”) and stoner metal (“Sweet Leaf”). The band also explored many rock sub-genres, including hard rock (“Paranoid”), blues rock (“N.I.B.”), psychedelic rock (“Planet Caravan”) and, of course, the traditional heavy metal, being one of the precursors of this genre.

They were ranked by MTV as the “Greatest Metal Band” of all time and placed second in VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” list. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number 85 in their “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” They have sold over 70 million records worldwide. Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. They have also won two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance.

more tracks from the album

Cross Purposes

From the album

Cross Purposes (1994)

Black Sabbath popular songs

Cross of ThornsBlack Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Cross Purposes