Celebrating Black Sabbath's debut album, which gave birth to metal 50 years ago this month

officialcharts.com:

Its rare to be able to pinpoint the precise moment a music genre came into being, but in the case of metal there is little debate: it was birthed by Black Sabbath, 50 years ago this month, with their self-titled debut album.

It's fair to say there had been indications of the genre's arrival two years prior - in particular on Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum album - but no-one had brought it together in the intense, dour and unruly way Black Sabbath had.

The album was an unlikely success story, recorded by four friends from Birmingham in just 12 hours in a London studio on October 16, 1969. "We actually thought a whole day was quite a long time," founding guitarist Tony Iommi said in an interview with