Black Sabbath (LP)

‘Black Sabbath’ is the eponymous debut studio album by Black Sabbath. Released on Friday 13th February 1970, the album reached number 8 in the UK Albums Chart and number 23 in the Billboard Charts. Based around the band’s live set, it was recorded in a 12 hour session in October 1969 and is regarded by many as one of the most significant albums in the development of heavy metal. Key to the band's new sound on the album is Tommy Iommi's distinctive playing style that he developed after an accident at a sheet metal factory where he was working at the age of 17 in which the tips of the middle fingers of his fretting hand were severed. Iommi created a pair of false fingertips using plastic from a dish detergent bottle and detuned the strings on his guitar to make it easier for him to bend the strings, creating a massive, heavy sound. Black Sabbath has been lauded as perhaps the first true heavy metal album. It has also been credited as the first record in the stoner rock and goth genres. In 1989 Kerrang ranked ‘Black Sabbath’ as number 31 in their 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time. In 2000, Q magazine included ‘Black Sabbath’ in their list of the “Best Metal Albums of All Time”, stating: “[This album] was to prove so influential it remains a template for metal bands three decades on.” In 2005, it was ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; it was ranked number 243 in a revised edition of the list in 2012. Rolling Stone ranked ‘Black Sabbath’ number 44 in their list of the 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time, describing the title track as the song that “would define the sound of a thousand bands.” 180gm vinyl includes a copy of the album on CD.