The Unexpected Band That Inspired Black Sabbath’s Dark Sound

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, has revealed an unexpected source of inspiration for his dark, heavy sound. It wasn’t a metal band, but a much earlier group.

Iommi said that in the early 1960s, there was only one band that really caught his attention. This band was The Shadows.

“The Shadows were the only band that appealed to me [in the early ’60s],” Iommi explained, as writes Far Out Magazine. He liked that they were an instrumental band and thought their sound was quite spooky.

Scary feeling
Iommi was particularly impressed by The Shadows’ song “Frightened City”. He felt it had a scary feeling that appealed to him.

This early influence helped shape Iommi’s musical direction. He and future Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward used to practice by playing The Shadows’ songs together.

Later, Iommi and his bandmates added blues and jazz influences to create Black Sabbath’s famous heavy metal sound. However, Iommi admits he didn’t like the “metal” label at first, preferring to call their music “heavy rock”.