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Album
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath →802,517 listeners11,031,824 plays
heavy metalhard rockclassic rockmetaldoom metal
about this album
Black Sabbath's first release, almost universally known as "Heavy Metal's first album". The guys from Birmingham, England shocked, scared and enthused million with their new sound - a blend of bluesy, soulful riffs with heavy, distorted tones. Released on Friday the 13th February 1970 by Vertigo Records, Black Sabbath reached number eight on the UK Album Chart. Following its US release in May 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year, selling a million copies. While the album was a commercial success, it was widely panned by critics. In a review for Rolling Stone magazine, rock critic Lester Bangs felt Sabbath was "just like Cream! But worse". Bangs dismissed Black Sabbath as a "a shuck—despite the murky songtitles and some inane lyrics that sound like Vanilla Fudge paying doggerel tribute to Aleister Crowley, the album has nothing to do with spiritualism, the occult, or anything much except stiff recitations of Cream cliches" In 2003, the album was ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Q magazine (8/00, p.126) later included it as one of the Best Metal Albums of All Time, claiming that " was to prove so influential it remains a template for metal bands three decades on. The band's signature song remains the scariest of all heavy metal songs." Track listing European edition 1. "Black Sabbath" – 6:16 2. "The Wizard" – 4:24 3. "Behind th
