Heavy metal certainly had its origins prior to Black Sabbath's 1970 debut album – and more specifically, the intro riff to the opening song "Black Sabbath" – but the genre certainly came into form at that exact moment. But how did that iconic riff come about? In a new clip posted by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, he and bassist Geezer Butler reveal that it's all thanks to Gustav Holst's 1918 orchestral suite "The Planets".
"I was a medium-sized fan of ['The Planets'], particularly 'Mars' in those days," said Butler. "One of the days I was in the uh… we were rehearsing and I was trying to play "Mars" and then the next day, Tony went in and [played the riff from 'Black Sabbath']. That's how 'Black Sabbath' came about."
Iommi added: "Which was so different to anything else we'd heard, and I just knew it was something. It's one of those [that] when I started playing it, your hairs on your arm stand up and [you say] 'this is really different. Everybody said 'oh God that's really different'."
So shout out to Holst for accidentally inventing heavy metal. Though if you've ever heard "Mars", this should come as no surprise – that song is so fucking metal, down to the "chugs" toward the end. In a 2024 interview with Loudwire Nights, Iommi counted the classic "Black Sabbath" riff among some of his favorites the band ever wrote.
"Well, without sounding big-headed, [there were] a few. When we'd first done the 'Black Sabbath' riff, straight away I knew — it just had this vibe and a feeling and it was something so different in them days that you'd never heard that sort of thing before. And I don't know how it all happened. It'd just sort of come out. And that was the benchmark for that album.”
"Once we'd done 'Wicked World' and 'Black Sabbath', then the rest of them flowed along. And the same with 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. And also 'Into The Void'. That was a riff that I really liked, and that was Eddie Van Halen's favourite, to be honest, 'Into The Void'."
