In the years to come, bands like Witchfinder General, Pentagram, Saint Vitus and Candlemass would go on to cultivate the sound and cement doom, with its blues-laden and ever-ominous aura, as one of the undeniable cornerstones in the evolution of metal. When the stylus hit the hard black surface on the opening track of Black Sabbath’s 1970s debut LP and the menacing first notes of Tony Iommi’s guitar burst out of the speakers, the band had not only introduced heavy metal to the masses but also sown the seed for the prototype of doom metal.
