So Black Sabbath have taken their final bow and the curtain has come down on the career of the most influential metal band of them all. The Back To The Beginning farewell show at Villa Park on July 5 was the perfect send-off – an all-star celebration that lived up to Tom Morello’s promise of it being “the greatest day in heavy metal history”.
But if their retirement has left you feeling bereft, fear not. Such is the band’s massive influence that they’ve spawned generations of bands who have churned out humongous, doomy riffs while sparking up a massive bifter. Here are 10 bands who will fill the Black Sabbath-shaped hole in your life.
Pentagram
Sabbath may be no more but fellow 70s warhorses Pentagram are still out fighting the good fight – and in the case of frontman Bobby Liebling becoming an unexpected late-life meme (you know the one).
Pentagram were formed in Virginia in 1971 and were pretty much the American Sabbath – doomy riffs, wailed vocals and, in Liebling, a bug-eyed madman on the mic. Stability and success have both eluded them over the years – they’ve split up and reformed several times, with Liebling the only constant member, while it took until 1985 for them to release their self-titled debut album. They’ve not come within a hundred miles of a mainstream breakthrough, which only makes them more beloved by doom-heads. The perfect Sabbath surrogate.
Saint Vitus
Formed in 1978 by guitarist Dave Chandler and vocalist Scott Reagers, and named after classic Black Sabbath song Saint Vitus Dance, LA’s Saint Vitus helped spark the second wave of doom that bloomed in the 80s. Like Pentagram before them, were strictly cult level, but they channelled Sabbath’s dark spirit and monolithic sound.
A mid-80s union with Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich from The Obsessed (more on them in a sec) led to such classic albums as 1986’s Born To Die and 1990’s V,, but Vitus were too dark and too damn heavy for mainstream metalheads. But they’re still out there, spreading their unique brand of misery – their most recent, self-titled album came out in 2019.
The Obsessed
The third in the holy trinity of 80s US doom lords alongside Saint Vitus and the equally brilliant Trouble, Washington DC’s The Obsessed were greasy, Sabbath fixated longhairs who were embraced by their hometown’s hardcore scene. They formed in the late 70s, but it took until 1990 for them to release their self-titled debut album (not helped by frontman Wino leaving on a free transfer to Saint Vitus in 1986). A brief mid-90s stint on a major label didn’t turn them into the next Sabbath, but for many doom connoisseurs, they remain Ozzy and co’s natural heirs.
Kyuss
Kyuss guitarist (and future Queens Of The Stone Age mainman) Josh Homme always insisted that the desert rock pioneers were more inspired by Black Flag than Black Sabbath – maybe that’s true, but the Californian band did more than anyone to reinvent Sabbath’s monumentally heavy sound for the 1990s.
They made four albums between 1991 and their split in 1996, at least two of which – 1992’s Blues For The Red Sun and 1994’s Welcome To Sky Valley – are nailed-on classics. Josh Homme has spent most of the last 30 years batting away calls for a reunion, but his position seems to have shifted recently, saying: “I don't have negative feelings about anybody… so, yeah, it's possible.” Exit Black Sabbath, re-enter Kyuss? We can but hope.
Sleep
San José’s Sleep are quasi-religious Sabbath devotees, and exercise their worship through expansively slow, chasmic riffs that call to mind Iommi’s same axe-slinging sorcery.
Their classic second album, Sleep’s Holy Mountain, served as a cornerstone of the genre’s developing scene in the early 90s, while 2018 smoke-wreathed comeback album The Sciences –has plenty of hat-tipping moments, including hidden images of Sabbath members in the vinyl’s gatefold cover, (you can spot drummer Bill Ward on a milk carton and Iommi on a piece of toast), the track Giza Butler (a play on the city of Giza and bassist Geezer Butler), and a reference to Iommi on Marijuanaut's Theme.
Electric Wizard
As if spawned from the loins of Tony Iommi himself in a drug-fuelled, ritualistic romp, Dorset-based Electric Wizard are arguably metal’s most devoted Sabbath acolytes. Their band name alone is an ode to the Brummy rock gods, formed of the two Sabbath tracks Electric Funeral and The Wizard. At the forefront of their worship are hazy riffs deployed from drop-tuned SG’s, and a deliciously evil allure.
Incorporating peculiarly-distorted vocal melodies and plodding hooks, Electric Wizard are an amalgamation of their obsessions, and pay homage to not only Sabbath, but Lovecraftian horror, occultism and of course, marijuana.
The Sword
From their 2006 debut Age Of Winters, Texan sci-fi/fantasy enthusiasts The Sword have been making a type of bell-bottom boogie metal that crosses Sabbath’s early groove-heavy hits with monolithic thrash. Although somewhat submerged under thick blankets of distortion-soaked riffing, vocalist John Cronise also shares Ozzy’s same urgent, unpolished timbre. 2012’s Apocryphon, which was set out to be a “classic rock” album from the very beginning, feels their most Sabbath-stamped, highlighted by tracks like The Hidden Masters and Seven Sisters.
Witchcraft
Initially formed in 2000 as a one-time Pentagram tribute band, Sweden’s Witchcraft have remained close to their original intentions. Possessing an unvarnished early 70s sound that basked in the smell of incense and cannabis, their first three albums – 2004’s self-titled album, 2005’s Firewood and 2007’s Alchemist – managed to conjure that same mystical element that led Black Sabbath to be stalked by witches and banned from conservative circles.
2012’s Legend was a modernised version of their earlier imitations, albeit with no vintage production, but brimming with jackhammer riffs and crooning vocals. For Paranoid-style chugging riffs, just listen to the introductory track, Deconstruction.
Lucifer
Berlin’s Lucifer reside closer to the occult rock part of Sabbath’s influence, crossing magical imagery with hard rock, a brush of 60s psychedelia and bottom-heavy riffs. Fronted by vocalist Johanna Sadonis, who sounds like a mix between Heart powerhouse Ann Wilson and Dio, Lucifer’s Deep Purple, Blue Öyster Cult and Sabbath influences are easy to spot.
The latter is most obvious on their 2015 debut Lucifer I, through songs such as the eerie Total Eclipse, Sabbath and Purple Pyramid. Their following album, 2018’s Lucifer II, sees them rising from the underground with more radio-friendly melodies, as on Dreamer, which calls to mind Dio-era Sabbath, and more specifically, the 1980 Heaven And Hell track Children Of The Sea.
Green Lung
Deeply inspired by their formative surroundings – similar to Sabbath’s ascent from Birmingham’s industrial smog – Green Lung are a modern echo of those that came before. Driven by eccentric British tales and rural folklore, Green Lung meld Sabbath’s esoteric philosophy with the floridity of Queen.
Carried aloft by fantastical riffs, caterwauling vocals and charming flamboyance, their 2019 debut Woodland Rites sees their stoner, early 70s roots sprouting through the mix. 2021’s Black Harvest amps up their theatrical side with plenty of fun grooves that evoke livelier Sabbath tracks like Children Of The Grave and Fairies Wear Boots. And in 2020, Green Lung even covered Sabbath’s Snowblind on a compilation album in tribute to 1972’s Vol.4.
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