“Black Sabbath gave us the recipe”: how the British band molded the heavy metal already current groups like Slipknot

The leader of Halestorm, Lzzy Hale, says that she would not be the singer, composer or guitarist who is today without the influence of the band. “For some reason, Black Sabbath caught me from the beginning and it was something that I didn't even know how to describe, but I understood,” he says.

Being part of the show “I was not even on my dream list,” he adds, “because it was an unattainable dream that I couldn't even consider because it was impossible.”

Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward sold more than 75 million albums worldwide.

Black Sabbath, initially called Earth, emerged from a vibrant music scene at the Birmingham in the 60s, according to his first manager, Jim Simpson.

When Big Bear Records founded in 1968, Simpson invited the quartet to play at Henry's Blueshouse, at The Crown pub at Hill Street, where they became an instant success among the public.

“They were given much more attention than the average band,” he recalls.

The four began playing blues, before dedicating themselves to composing their own material. At first, the band put together a “tremendous scandal,” adds guitarist Iommi, “but in the end it worked; it was great.”

They were a “product of the time and the city,” says Jez Collins, founder of the Birmingham musical archive.

“I don't think it would have emerged from another area other than Aston with all those foundations and factories and those bombed areas,” he adds.

Taylor, from Slipknot, agrees.

“Iowa is, without a doubt, the reason why Slipknot is Slipknot, and the Midlands (the average lands of England) are, without a doubt, the reason why Sabbath is Sabbath,” he says.

The distinctive sound of the band, which promoted them to worldwide success, was due in part to the previous work of IOMMI in a steel factory.

When he planned to leave the job to join another band, he lost the two fingers on a steel cutter.

“After the accident, I went to several doctors and told me: 'Better leave it, you will not be able to play,” he says.

“But I did not accept it,” he adds, and describes how new fingertips with a melted bottle of detergent and pieces of a leather jacket were manufactured.

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, who grew a few kilometers away, in Walsall, takes up the legendary story.

“When Tony suffered the accident and had to define some strings, the notes began to sound more serious and heavy, and that was when the true magic began,” he says.

“And certainly for me and for all of us in Priest, from the first day, those bands and others were a tremendous influence.”

LED Zeppelin and Deep Purple were also precursors of the movement, but it was Sabbath who consolidated it, says Taylor.

He and other artists talked to the BBC for a new documentary, “Forging Metal”, which analyzes the history of gender.

Barney Greenway, vocalist of Napalm Death, also of Birmingham, explains that the “density and depth of the music they made was completely new.”

“There were bands that made dark and heavy music at that time, but possibly nothing like Black Sabbath.

“The heaviness and extreme musical intensity were something that had not even imagined,” he says.

The looks of the world will be put in Birmingham for the concert in Villa Park, a “center of great importance for metal,” says Dr. David Great, academic of the city and author of the external project “why the metal matters.”

But, he adds, “the metal was global since its origins, with American indigenous people such as (guitarist and composer) Link Wray, and others, especially in Latin America, crucial for its emergence.”

The genre has literally raised hundreds of subgenres, probably thousands, “he explains, and some of them are now used to promote social and environmental activism in the most remote corners of the planet.

“There is an absolutely wonderful band in the northern end of Finland, called Uncarhly Rites, which is heavier,” he says.

“They are hostile, they are dirty, they are simply glorious, their main theme is to protest against open -pit mining and their musical heritage dates back directly to Birmingham bands such as Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower.”

Many of the “most interesting” artists who drive metal are currently women or non -binary people, added the history professor at Birmingham University.

Debbie Gough, from Birmingham and leader of the Metal Banda Heriot, argues that the scene is “the most diverse space” he has known.

Heriot has just completed his second tour of the United Kingdom and is about to embark on a 32 -dates tour of North America as openings of the “superinflucent” Trivium.

“I feel very welcome and I think it is a very cozy and very informed space, which has allowed many different people in the bands to experience music,” he says.

There has been a remarkable change since the Covid-19 pandemic, he says.

“Before that, I could count on the fingers of one hand as many times as there had been a female team, or other bands with women in the formation, and now nobody is flimered, which is great.

“I am delighted that the system of who can be part of a metal band has completely destroyed and now anyone can be in any band, and it is really amazing to see it,” he adds.

Emily Drummond, vocalist of Cherrydead, the women's band of Birmingham, reveals that she is very excited about the future of metal.

She believes that there has been a “true change” for women. Although it is not perfect, he adds, “a transformation is coming and I feel that things have changed a lot in that regard.”

The metal scene faces all kinds of crisis, says Galege, and many music rooms are threatened.

“But the metal is nourished by crises; metal is the music that represents how we process crises, and bands are doing it in very exciting ways,” he adds.

“It is a deeply supportive community; the area where the pogo is made is itself is an allegory of all the best of life: you give yourself total freedom, you let yourself fall, let anything happen with the full certainty that someone will help you if you fall.”

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