From its very inception, heavy metal has owed a debt to cinema. This newly adopted moniker would push the group’s songwriting in a darker direction – “We wanted to create the vibe you get off horror films,” guitarist Tony Iommi would later say. Stuck for a suitable replacement, inspiration would suddenly strike bassist Geezer Butler when he spotted people queuing for a revival screening of Mario Bava’s 1963 Black Sabbath across the road from a rehearsal room. Initially the Birmingham fourpiece went by Earth – much too hippy-dippy. But there was a problem – they weren’t called Black Sabbath. Of course, heavy rock had already started to harden in the back half of the 1960s (Cream, Hendrix, Iron Butterfly et al) but Sabbath’s formation in 1968 still stands as metal’s definitive creation myth – a brutal new form of rock ‘n’ roll forged in the fires of England’s industrial North. Unlike most forms of popular music, heavy metal has a definitive origin story that both fans and scholars can agree on: in the beginning, there was Black Sabbath.
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