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Black Sabbath are arguably one of the most influential and most iconic bands to ever grace the heavy metal music scene. Starting their journey in 1968 under the name of "Earth", they later decided to dub themselves "Black Sabbath", influenced by the horror movie of the same name in hope of bringing something dark and unique to the world of music which was currently ruled by the "peace and love" motto of the hippie era. Nobody would expect that this quartet of common British junkies would go on to become one of the most successful bands in the history of music.

1969 signaled the beginning of the Black Sabbath era of music, as well as a grizzly and dark end to the peace and love era that had became so popular all over the world. With the grizzly shadow of the Manson Family Murders of 1969 still sharply echoing fear throughout the world, a band by the name of Black Sabbath appeared to be growing in fame based on their unique combination of blues and metal mixed in with ominous, dark and evil lyrics. As the cold year of 1970 slowly crept closer, on the eve of Friday, February 13th 1970, Black Sabbath's self-titled first album was released.

The album became an instant cult success across the United Kingdom and America selling over a million copies. It became an iconic standpoint of music that would change the industry forever. Grasping their new-found success, Sabbath would go on to release their second album entitled "Paranoid" in September of the same year. Paranoid became an instant classic and is looked at as being one of the most influential metal albums of all time. It sold over 4 million copies in the United States alone.

Black Sabbath was quickly gaining world-wide acclaim as pioneers of the growing metal genre influenced by the roots of rock and roll. Sadly, the rock and roll lifestyle was still alive. The band would often be found drinking, taking drugs and with countless groupies. This lifestyle eventually took its toll on the bands lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne. He was eventually fired from the band in 1979 due to his ongoing problems. Ozzy himself commented that prior to his 2007 album "Black Rain"; he had never recorded a song while he was sober in his lifetime.

Black Sabbath however continued while Ozzy embarked on a successful solo career. Sabbath went on to recruit such singers as Ronnie James Dio, Glenn Hughes and Ian Gillan. Their most prominent singer was Dio, who recorded several albums with the band. As the 1990's were drawing on, Ozzy Osbourne

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