Black Sabbath's landmark 1970 debut album was recorded by the original lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, four childhood friends from the North of England who grew out of the U.K's late 1960s blues/hard rock scene, which also included Led Zeppelin, Cream, Blue Cheer, and other greats. Sabbath's sweeping and masterful metamorphosis away from that tradition helped spawn heavy metal music as we know it. With crushing rhythms, doomy riffs, haunting songs, and Ozzy's other-worldly vocals, the band conjured a dark, menacing, and resonant sound that forever reverberates on essential numbers like the killer title track, "The Wizard" and "N.I.B."