3 of the Best Black Sabbath Guitar Riffs Ever Recorded

There’s a reason guitarist Tony Iommi has been called the Godfather of Heavy Metal. His band Black Sabbath helped pioneer the genre by transforming blues rock into its dark, heavy, gloomy iteration. Iommi, the lord of riffs, created blueprints for future legends such as Metallica, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Rage Against The Machine, and others. Here are three of his best.

“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”

Tuned down to the key of doom, the title track to Black Sabbath’s fifth studio album features a multitude of classic riffs. It begins with minimalist power chords that helped Iommi overcome writer’s block. “We came to England and toured and all the rest of the stuff, and then we were due to make another album. We went back to the [LA] house again, to do Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and I got writer’s block. It just went dead,” he said. This six-minute deluge of epic riffs proves the drought was over.

“War Pigs”

One of my favorite things about Black Sabbath jams is how they often contain what could have been several songs within a single arrangement. This anti-war anthem features one of Ozzy Osbourne’s finest vocal performances. Meanwhile, Iommi punctuates the madness with sporadic blues licks between the power chords. “War Pigs” contains a deep groove, highlighting the importance of bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward—one of rock’s great rhythm sections—to Iommi’s timeless inventions.

“Paranoid”

It’s tough to choose only three riffs by Iommi. However, echoes of “Paranoid” have been heard in Black Sabbath’s most well-known descendants. When Osbourne went solo and discovered Randy Rhoads, the young virtuoso blended Iommi’s blueprints with classical music, which his successors, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde, continued. But many grunge hits were also built atop Iommi’s phrasing. Check out Soundgarden’s Southern Gothic classic, “Rusty Cage”, as an example of this evolution.

Metallica had increased the tempo of Black Sabbath, transforming heavy metal into its thrash variant in the Bay Area. But the Seattle bands slowed things down, perhaps taking lessons from the J Mascis school of ear-bleeding country.

Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage