Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are a British heavy metal band originally composed of Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), Bill Ward (drums).
Black Sabbath started in Birmingham, England in the late 60s under the name Earth.. Initially a blues band. Black Sabbath became one of the definitive classic heavy metal bands, to be ranked alongside Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Judas Priest.
With a competent rhythm section and the extraordinary antics of Osbourne the band enjoyed success with their British metal of brutal riffs right from their first album, the eponymous Black Sabbath (1970). Their second album Paranoid (1970) made them a success in America. Both the albums's tunes and covers marked the band as influenced by the occult and 'black' magic.
They released a further three albums, Master of Reality (1971), Vol. 4 (1972) and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) before management problems and the label change from Vertigo to WWA ruined the bands schedules in 1973. The next album Sabotage was not released until 1975 and the follow-up to that, Technical Ecstasy (1976) was the last Ozzy-Era album in the heavy Sabbath style.
In 1978 the band released Never Say Die and rumours that Osbourne was to leave the band were proved true in 1979 (Osbourne formed Blizzard of Ozz, swiftly renamed to Ozzy Osbourne Band). He was replaced by Ronnie James Dio but it was the end of an era.
Black Sabbath's first album with Dio, Heaven and Hell, did much to bring back the Sabbath spirit of heavy metal. However, after the departure of Bill Ward, with the Mob Rules album, they started to lose their touch, effectively fading into generic heavy metal oblivion for the most part.
That is, until the reunion of all the original Sabbath members in 1998.
The band rarely received any critical praise ("blundering bozos" was one description) and Osbourne vocal talent can be safely labelled as exuberant but non-existent. Their musical talent and ingenuity are however irrefutable. They served as a pioneer in the heavy metal field, and many heavy metal bands cite Sabbath as their inspiration, including such famous and successful groups as Iron Maiden and Metallica.
Many of the incidents and characters in the spoof rock documentary This is Spinal Tap are based on Black Sabbath.

Personnel:
Tony Iommi - guitar
Ozzy Osbourne - vocals
Geezer Butler - bass
Bill Ward - drums
Geoff Nichols - keyboards
Rick Wakeman - keyboards (guest musician)
Dave Walker - vocals (never recorded)
Don Airey - keyboards (guest musician)
Ronnie James Dio - vocals
Vinny Appice - drums
Ian Gillan - vocals
Bev Bevan - drums
Dave Donato - vocals (never recorded)
Jeff Fenholt - vocals (never officially released)
Glenn Hughes - vocals
Ray Gillen - vocals (recorded "Eternal Idol," vocals redone by Tony Martin)
Dave Spitz - bass
Eric Singer - drums
Jo Burt - bass (never recorded)
Terry Chimes - drums (never recorded)
Gordon Copley - bass
Tony Martin - vocals
Bob Daisley - bass
Eric Singer - drums
Laurence Cottle - bass
Cozy Powell - drums
Rob Halford - vocals (never recorded)
Neil Murray - bass
Bobby Rondinelli - drums

Discography:
1970 Black Sabbath (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1970 Paranoid (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1971 Master of Reality (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1972 Vol. 4 (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1973 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1975 Sabotage (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1976 We Sold Our Souls For Rock & Roll (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1976 Technical Ecstasy (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1978 Never Say Die (Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1980 Heaven and Hell (Iommi, Dio, Butler, Ward)
1981 Mob Rules (Iommi, Dio, Butler, Ward)
1982 Live Evil (live - Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
1983 Born Again (Iommi, Gillan, Butler, Ward, Nicholls)
1986 Seventh Star (Iommi, Hughes, Spitz, Singer, Nicholls, Copley)
1987 The Eternal Idol (Iommi, Martin, Spitz, Daisley, Singer, Bevan, Nicholls)
1989 Headless Cross (Iommi, Martin, Cottle, Powell, Nicholls)
1990 Tyr (Iommi, Martin, Murray, Powell, Nicholls)
1992 Dehumanizer (Iommi, Dio, Butler, Appice, Nicholls)
1994 Cross Purposes (Iommi, Martin, Butler, Rondinelli, Nicholls)
1995 Cross Purposes Live (live - Iommi, Martin, Butler, Rondinelli, Nicholls)
1995 Forbidden (Iommi, Martin, Murray, Powell, Nicholls)
1996 Under Wheels of Confusion: 1970-1987 (4-disc compilation)
1996 The Sabbath Stones (compilation of later works)
1998 Reunion (live - Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)
2002 Past Lives (live - Iommi, Osbourne, Butler, Ward)

Musical style :
Although the band has gone through many lineups and stylistic changes, their original sound focused on ominous lyrics and doomy music, often making use of the musical tritone, also called the "devil's interval". Standing as a stark contrast to popular music of the early 1970s, Black Sabbath's dark sound was dismissed by rock critics of the era, and the band received virtually no airplay on rock radio.
As the band's primary songwriter, Tony Iommi wrote the majority of Black Sabbath's music, while Osbourne would write vocal melodies, and bassist Geezer Butler would write lyrics. The process was sometimes frustrating for Iommi, who often felt pressured to come up with new material. "If I didn't come up with anything, nobody would do anything." On Iommi's influence, Osbourne later said:
"Black Sabbath never used to write a structured song. There'd be a long intro that would go into a jazz piece, then go all folky... and it worked. Tony Iommi - and I have said this a zillion times - should be up there with the greats. He can pick up a guitar, play a riff, and you say, 'He's gotta be out now, he can't top that.' Then you come back and I bet you a billion dollars, he'd come up with a riff that'd knock your fucking socks off."
Early Black Sabbath albums feature tuned-down guitars, which contributed to the dark feel of the music. In 1966, prior to forming Black Sabbath, guitarist Tony Iommi suffered a freak accident while working in a sheet metal factory, losing the tips of two fingers on his right hand. Iommi almost gave up music, but was urged by a friend to listen to Django Reinhardt, a virtuoso jazz guitarist who lost the use of two fingers. Inspired by Reinhardt, Iommi created two thimbles made of plastic and leather to cap off his missing fingers. The guitarist began using lighter strings, and detuning his guitar in 1971, to better grip the strings with his prosthetics; a move which inadvertently gave the music a darker feel".