"One of the scariest songs I ever heard." Slipknot's Corey Taylor pays tribute to Black Sabbath, reveals the song he listens to so he can "go some place mentally."

Corey Taylor standing on stage at a press event with Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has paid tribute to Black Sabbath ahead of the metal icons' final show in Birmingham tomorrow night. While Slipknot are one of the few giant metal bands to not be playing the stacked bill at Villa Park, he and his bandmates have been profoundly influenced by Sabbath all the same, as he explains to the BBC in an interview published earlier this week.

"Sabbath gave us the blueprint, Sabbath gave us the recipe," he explains. "They gave us the cookbook, man. The mystique was in the lyrics. It was in the sound. It was in the way that everything was just a little darker."

Taylor describes Sabbath's terrifying, eponymous track, taken from the self-titled debut album released on February 13 1970 and generally considered the ground zero of heavy metal, as "one of the scariest songs I ever heard," adding that he plays it when he "wants to go someplace mentally".

"I don't have to look for, you know, Damien Thorn [the lead character and antagonist of classic 1976 horror The Omen]. I don't have to look for Mercyful Fate.

"I go back to the beginning. I go back to Black Sabbath, the song and the rest is history."

Featuring Sabbath themselves playing their final ever show - as well as their first show with all four original members of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for 20 years - the Back To The Beginning extravaganza will also feature appearances from Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Tool, Slayer, Mastodon, Gojira and many more. It will be streamed via the Back To The Beginning website.

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Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.

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