Black Sabbath didn’t invent heavy metal, but they largely defined its vocabulary over their decades-long career. You can’t be a heavy metal band in 2023 without paying Black Sabbath their dues.
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While their most-popular cuts—”Paranoid” and “Iron Man” for example—helped them to become one of metal’s biggest stewards, we like to judge a band by the entire scope of their discography, i.e., their deep cuts. Luckily, Black Sabbath has a number of hidden gems that can stand up tall against their most popular efforts.
[RELATED: Behind The Meaning of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”]
Read about five of Black Sabbath’s best deep cuts, below.
5. “Planet Caravan”
“Planet Caravan” sits between “Paranoid” and “Iron Man” on Black Sabbath’s Paranoid LP. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why this track has been looked over. With fans eager to headbang along to “Iron Man,” many opt out of the songs they view as superfluous. For those fans that are willing to take a slow approach to their listening process though, they will be granted the gift of the lulling and mellow “Planet Caravan.”
4. “Into the Void”
For their third album, Master of Reality, Black Sabbath opted for a much heavier sound. The album’s closer, “Into The Void” is one of the best in that new direction. Ozzy Osbourne struggled to sing the lyrics while recording the song. He eventually figured it out and “Into the Void” became a familiar face in their live sets.
3. “Supernaut”
Bill Ward’s integral contribution to Black Sabbath is very apparent in “Supernaut.” Though he stopped playing with the outfit in 2005, his jazz-influenced drumming was a key part of the Sabbath mystique. Lyrically, this song urges the listener to live their lives to the fullest and give in to their desires—a theme that is right on par with the infamous drug usage of Black Sabbath around the time this song was released.
2. “The Writ“
“The Writ” was inspired by the group’s ongoing lawsuit with their former manager. “It was hard to create in that situation unless we wrote a song about it,” Tony Iommi wrote in Iron Man, “which sort of relieved the situation.” The lyrics read, What kind of people do you think we are? / Another joker who’s a rock and roll star for you.
1. “Symptom of the Universe”
As Iommi noted in Iron Man, “Symptom of the Universe” has been dubbed “the first progressive metal song.” “I won’t disagree with that,” he said. The Sabotage tune is deeply complex with a number of twists and turns. While there are definitely prog-rock elements to this song, the distinctive Black Sabbath sound is still very much accounted for.
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