Black Sabbath are solely responsible for conjuring the diabolical power of heavy metal. When guitarist Tony Iommi lost his fingertips as a teenager, he turned to a less painful style of playing— a style that produced a new, genre-defining type of gloom and heaviness. The band climbed through the seven circles of British podunk hell to international rock star success, but the lore of their dark imagery compelled the freaks to flood out of the woodwork and to their shows. Despite composing songs that warned against the evils of the occult, Black Sabbath attracted legions of devil worshippers, occultists and 1970s freak-flag-flying practitioners of the dark arts. Kids went mad for their metal. Critics hated it. And much to the band’s dismay, Satanists found their battle cry in the heavy gloom that Black Sabbath had awakened.

This episode was originally published on October 26, 2021.

To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com.

To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to a monthly exclusive episode, weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/membership.

Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - GET THE NEWSLETTER

Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND:

Instagram

YouTube

X (formerly Twitter) 

Facebook Fan Group

TikTok

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices