Rock fans and critics have long debated over what constituted “the birth of heavy metal”. Some will claim its roots stem from Dave Davies’s brilliant power chords on those early Kinks singles. Others suggest that the musical genre began to take shape at the end of 1966 when Jimi Hendrix pushed the boundaries and experimented with the sounds an electric guitar could make. Perhaps metal’s origins lie with Deep Purple, as they took 60s beat group and psychedelic sounds into a much more intense direction…? The speed and power could even derive from ‘Communication Breakdown’ from Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut LP. Although Zeppelin have always been keen to distance themselves from the leather trousered, heavier sounds which came later, there’s an obvious root there.

On February 13th 1970, an album was released that would change the world. Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album was without question one of the heaviest things the world had heard at the start of a new era for rock music.

Wherever you choose to believe metal’s seeds were sown, few would argue against this album being the instigator for a true metal sound. By taking blues music and heavying it up by a thousand percent, guitarist Tony Iommi was a true innovator – so much so, that thousands of bands have set out to recreate the signature Black Sabbath sound and even as we march headfirst into 2020, there are bands all around the world using the Sabbath album as their musical blueprint.

So much has been said and written about ‘Black Sabbath’ over the past half century, it’s almost impossible to add any new thoughts to those already shared. Instead, Real Gone invites you to revisit the Black Sabbath debut album in the hands of others, which is interesting in itself when you consider two of its seven tracks were covers already. So, below, you’ll find a playlist recreating the classic album with different renditions. Some take the obvious route, others not…and we guarantee there’s one first listen waiting to be discovered by most listeners.

Enjoy!