I didn’t exist at the time, but I get the feeling there was debate around Black Sabbath being heavy metal or not back when they hit the scene. Just gatekeeping, all the way down
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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Don't be an ass and try to keep the gatekeeping and whatnot to a minimum. Memes from all sorts of metal genres and bands are welcome here.
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I mean... they were part of the hard rock scene, contempories with led zep, ac/dc, queen and deep purple. Iommi was (is) even friends with Brian May back in the day.
It's just that they are the defining difference between hard rock and what heavy metal turned out to be; and the first canonical heavy metal band. The atmosphere was distinct to the others.
I'd mention King crimson but they're too firmly in prog to put in the same bucket.
Also, Stone Cold Crazy is Thrash as fuck. If it wasn't for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, you might even consider it the first thrash song.
Side side note, not only was sabbath the first metal band, they also laid the grounds for various subgenres like thrash with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Prog with Johnny Blade, doom with... fucking everything, etc etc
doom with... fucking everything
This elicited a laugh, thanks for that. Totally agree with your take
I think most tracks are, especially most old ones. Some others are more like rock ballads or power ballads etc.. I think that's normal and a good thing. When you listen to an album, you don't want it to be an hour of pure headbanging. Most metal bands have some songs that are more rock than metal and that's also true for other genres. I'm not surprised to find bossa nova or salsa on a jazz album or a blues band playing some swing.