Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath was an English heavy metal band. The band was founded in 1968 with members Ozzy Osbourne (vocalist), Geezer Butler (bass), Tony Iommi (guitar) and Bill Ward (drums), originally touting the name Polka Tulk Band. Eventually the band changed its name to Earth, and then Black Sabbath. Since the band formed, the only constant member has been Iommi.

By reshaping the blues-rock which was practiced by bands like Cream, Vanilla Fudge and themselves (while under the name Earth), through a more aggressive instrumental layout and soturnal themes, both in lyrics and arrangements, Black Sabbath is widely considered as the first heavy metal band and, as such, is one of the most influential in its genre.

Sabbath has so far provided four tracks all of which are: "Iron Man" to Guitar Hero, "War Pigs" to Guitar Hero II, and "Paranoid" to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, "Children of the Grave" to Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock three of them from their second album, Paranoid, released in 1970, and one of them from there third album, Masters of Reality. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock also have a live version of "Paranoid" that was performed by Metallica and was sung by Ozzy Osbourne at the 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts.

Currently, the band tours and is recording as Heaven and Hell, with the formation under which they toured the eponymous 1980 album (see Band members section below).

Discography

(studio albums only)

• Black Sabbath (1970)
• Paranoid (1970)
• Master of Reality (1971)
• Vol.4 (1972)
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
• Sabotage (1975)
• Technical Ecstasy (1976)
• Never Say Die! (1978)
• Heaven and Hell (1980)
• Mob Rules (1981)
• Born Again (1983)
• Seventh Star (1986)
• Eternal Idol (1987)
• Headless Cross (1989)
• Tyr (1990)
• Dehumanizer (1992)
• Cross Purposes (1994)
• Forbidden (1995)
• 13 (2013)

Band Members

(as Heaven and Hell)

• Ronnie James Dio: vocals (1979-1982, 1991-1992, 2006-2010 (deceased)
• Tony Iommi: guitar (1968-2017)
• Geezer Butler: bass (1968-1985, 1991-2017)
• Vinny Appice: drums (1980-1982, 1991-1992, 1998, 2006-2017)

Notable past members

• Ozzy Osbourne: vocals (1968-1979, 1997-2017*)
• Bill Ward: drums (1968-1980, 1982-1983, 1997-1998, 1999-2017*)
• Geoff Nicholls: keyboards (1979-1985 as a session musician; 1985-1991 and 1992-1997 as an effective member)
• Ian Gillan (from Deep Purple): vocals (1982-1984)
• Glenn Hughes: vocals (1985-1986)
• Cozy Powell: drums (1988-1991, 1994-1995)
• Eric Singer (currently on KISS): drums (1985-1986)
• Tony Martin: vocals (1987-1991)
• Dave Spitz (not to be confused with former Anthrax lead guitarist Dan Spitz, who is his younger brother): bass (1985-1986)
• Bob Daisley (formerly from Ozzy Osbourne's solo band): bass (1986)

*Officially, Black Sabbath per se, with the original formation, has not disbanded, in spite of the Heaven and Hell project and Ozzy's solo career.

Trivia

• Sabbath's vocalist, Ozzy Osbourne, is the only person who, counting Guitar Hero World Tour has appeared nine times in the series (in third place behind Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, with 13 appearances - guest drummer in Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows" and regular drummer in Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box", "Breed", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Lithium" and "About a Girl", and drumming for Them Crooked Vultures' "Scumbag Blues", aside from Foo Fighters' own songs "Monkey Wrench", "All My Life", "The Pretender", "This is a Call", "Everlong" and "No Way Back", And Queens of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, with ten performances, which were lead guitar on "Demon Cleaner" by Kyuss, vocals and guitar on "Scumbag Blues" by Them Crooked Vultures, and the Queens of the Stone Age songs "No One Knows", "Little Sister", "Sick,Sick,Sick", "Make it wit Chu", "3's & 7's", "Mexicola", "Avon" and "How to Handle a Rope."); as the vocalist for "Iron Man", "War Pigs" "Paranoid" and "Children of the Grave",as a solo vocalist for "Bark at the Moon", "I Don't Wanna Stop", "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" and as a guest vocalist for "Paranoid (LIVE)" by Metallica.
• Along with Iron Maiden and Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath is the one of the only bands which contributed to the series with four songs, beaten only by Foo Fighters with 5 tracks, not counting downloadable content, in which they are beaten by My Chemical Romance, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, each with nine songs. (Queens of the Stone Age have 4 additional downloadable tracks, and Foo Fighters have three). This also does not include songs that appear in games that are centered around the band that performed them.
• As a result of frequent line-up changes, vocalists from two other GH bands have come up to the plate to join Black Sabbath. The most notable of these is Ronnie James Dio (who was represented by "Holy Diver" in Rocks the 80s), who originally came from Rainbow to sing for the band to fill the empty spot Ozzy had left in 1979 (bringing about the popular albums Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules). After quitting the band in 1982 to persue a solo career, he re-joined Sabbath in 1992 for the album Dehumanizer. He is currently touring with the Heaven and Hell line-up under the name Heaven and Hell. Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame (whose songs "Smoke on the Water" and "Hush" were featured in the first game and the Xbox 360 version of the second game, respectively) also sang for Black Sabbath for the album Born Again in 1983. Incidentally, he had joined to fill Dio's spot in the band.