Black Sabbath

Released: July 1, 1980

Songwriter: Bill Ward Geezer Butler Tony Iommi Ozzy Osbourne

Producer: Patrick Meehan

[Instrumental Intro]

[Verse 1]
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields, the bodies burnin'
As the war machine keeps turnin'
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisonin' their brainwashed minds
Oh, Lord, yeah!

[Verse 2]
Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that all to the poor, yeah!
Time will tell on their power minds
Makin' war just for fun
Treatin' people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'til their judgment day comes, yeah!

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 3]
Now, in darkness, world stops turnin'
Ashes where their bodies burnin'
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of Judgment, God is callin'
On their knees, the war pigs crawlin'
Beggin' mercies for their sins
Satan, laughin', spreads his wings
Oh, Lord, yeah

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.

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