In the late 1960s, in the industrial heart of Birmingham, England, four young men - Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward - were playing the blues, trying to escape the grit and grind of factory life. They didn’t know it yet, but they were about to create a new kind of music: heavier, darker, and more menacing than anything before it. The band’s earliest incarnation was called Polka Tulk Blues Band, later shortened to Earth. They played blues covers in local clubs, but something began to shift when bassist Geezer Butler, a fan of horror films and occult themes, suggested writing music that sounded like a soundtrack to a nightmare. The turning point came when they noticed people lining up to watch a horror film across the street from their rehearsal space. They asked themselves: Why don’t we make music that scares people? With that, they renamed themselves Black Sabbath, after the 1963 Boris Karloff horror film. In 1970, they released their self-titled debut, “Black Sabbath”. Recorded in just a couple of days, it was unlike anything on the radio - ominous, down-tuned riffs (partly the result of Iommi losing the tips of two fingers in an accident and loosening his guitar strings to play more easily), eerie lyrics, and a slow, crushing heaviness that echoed the gloom of their surroundings. The title track, with its tritone “devil’s interval”, became a defining statement for heavy music. That same year, they followed up with “Paranoid”, an album that not only defined their sound but also became one of the most influential rock albums ever made. It featured classics like “War Pigs”, “Iron Man”, and the title track “Paranoid”, all combining dark themes with an irresistible groove. Through the early 1970s, Sabbath released a string of groundbreaking albums: “Master of Reality” (1971) - heavier still, with sludge-like riffs and stoner-rock roots; “Vol. 4” (1972) - more experimental, with songs like “Snowblind”; “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (1973) - intricate arrangements, progressive influences; and “Sabotage” (1975) - a mix of aggression and complexity. They were playing to massive crowds, but behind the scenes, excessive drug use, management disputes, and personal tensions were beginning to take a toll. By 1978’s “Never Say Die!”, internal problems were overwhelming the band. In 1979, Ozzy Osbourne was fired due to his increasingly erratic behavior and substance abuse. Sabbath recruited former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, whose soaring voice brought a new energy to the band. The Dio-fronted “Heaven & Hell” (1980) was a critical and commercial triumph, introducing a sleeker, more fantasy-driven style. “Mob Rules” (1981) continued the momentum, but Dio left after tensions arose during mixing of the live album “Live Evil”. Over the next two decades, Sabbath went through multiple lineup changes, with vocalists including Ian Gillan (Deep Purple), Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin, and others. The band’s output varied, but their legacy as pioneers remained unshaken. In 1997, the original lineup reunited for a series of tours and the live album “Reunion”, which included new tracks like “Psycho Man”. Over the years, they reunited on and off, but in 2013, three of the four original members - Osbourne, Iommi, and Butler - released “13”, their first studio album together in 35 years. It debuted at number 1 in several countries. Black Sabbath officially retired in 2017 after “The End Tour”, closing the final show in Birmingham, the city where it all began. Black Sabbath didn’t just play heavy rock - they invented heavy metal’s blueprint: ominous themes, crushing riffs, and a sound that felt dangerous. Bands from Metallica to Soundgarden, Iron Maiden to Slipknot, owe them a debt. Their music channeled working-class grit into something mythic, turning despair and darkness into power. From the factory floors of Birmingham to the halls of rock immortality, Black Sabbath’s legacy remains as heavy as the riffs that built it.