Fitting that it would be Friday the 13th, as it was exactly 45 years ago on this day that Black Sabbath released Black Sabbath featuring the song “Black Sabbath” and kicked off the genre that gives my life meaning today. It wouldn’t be another 15 years til the second most significant milestone in metal history (me being born) (is joke) and another 15 from that moment til I actually heard that album, but it has in part determined the path of my life since then (another neat unit of 15 years).
I only tell that self-centered story because I’m an egomaniac, I mean because I know that there are millions of others who have experienced exactly the same thing – hearing Black Sabbath Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath” and just having that wide-eyed moment of realization that you knew what you wanted to do with your life. And since that moment, for me, it’s been a lot of practicing guitar.
Four lads from a factory town in England – Toni Iommi, John “Ozzy” Osbourne, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward – may have made what we would in 2015 call “doom” metal, but since there was no other kind, their sound was the genesis of all things to come from that moment forward. And now we have this:
In case you have yet to experience this moment of zen, now’s a great time to start. Here’s my gift to you, on their birthday. Happy Birthday Black Sabbath!
