In honor of the 45th anniversary of the release of Black Sabbath‘s self-titled
debut album this past Friday, today’s edition of Massive Metal Monday is dedicated to the album’s eponymous opening track. Watch the band perform the song live in Paris from 1970 here below.

Released on Friday, February 13, 1970, today marks the 45th anniversary of Black Sabbath, the debut album by the legendary band of the same name. In many ways, Black Sabbath — released on a Friday the 13th like today — stands atop a short list of influential albums which nearly singlehandedly ushered in a sound, genre, influence, and style that continues to be studied and copied endlessly by musicians and bands globally.

In Black Sabbath‘s case, they fused together a musical amalgam of Sun Records style rock and roll, doomy blues, classical overtones, jazz complexities, and a drudging sound to create a concoction that had never been heard before it. While many of the most groundbreaking bands in musical history (even The Beatles) sort of wear their influences right on their sleeves (think about Led Zeppelin records), Black Sabbath had a sound, stance, and style that almost was like coming from a mold specifically created for them.

Heavy metal godfather Geezer Butler, bassist of the legendary band Black Sabbath, was arrested on Tuesday night on charges of misdemeanor assault, public intoxication, and vandalism at The Corkscrew Saloon on the grounds of the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California. Details are sketchy but it seems that Butler was involved in a physical altercation with another man that resulted in property damage to the bar.

The Inyo County sheriff’s department issued the following press release regarding the matter. See it here below.

Born Again is Black Sabbath‘s highly underrated album from 1983. Having suffered the loss of their second singer and drummer in five years when Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice left to form Dio, many folks had written Black Sabbath off as a going concern. But guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler roared back with a new “supergroup” lineup and a killer lineup of new tunes. Legendary Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan came aboard as front man and newly sober Sabbath founding drummer Bill Ward was back behind the kit. By the time the album was released, Ward was drinking again and unable to tour while he sought treatment. Legendary drummer Bev Bevan, who had been in both The Move and Electric Light Orchestra filled in for the tour.

The album proved to be very polarizing among critics and fans alike and its album cover is widely considered to be one of the very worst in the history of metal, but the music contained therein possesses an immediacy uncommon to Sabbath and lyrical content very atypical of the band. It is a very unique album in the band’s pantheon and a cult classic among metal fans. The album’s one and only single “Trashed” helped push the album into the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the video for the song provides a brief glimpse into this short-lived but storied period in the Black Sabbath’s history.

Watch the video for “Trashed” here, below.

When it comes to metal, it doesn’t really get any more massive than 1970’s Black Sabbath. The band that almost singlehandedly invented the genre with their 1970 self-titled debut album would see its original lineup collapse under the weight of heavy drug use and artistic stagnation by the end of the decade. But in 1973, at the time they released their fifth album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the band was firing on all cylinders.

Here, with the title track of that monumental release, are Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne, the original Black Sabbath.