9.3bn all-time streams (28 Nov '25)

A metal institution whose influence cannot be overstated, Black Sabbath pioneered the genre as they constructed the framework for subsequent subgenres within metal, with entire movements rising from blueprints laid out in single Sabbath songs.

From the end of the '60s and throughout the entirety of the '70s, the band became legendary for the doomy chemistry between its players: Ozzy Osbourne's primal vocals, Tony Iommi's seismic riffing, Bill Ward's bluntly powerful drumming, and Geezer Butler's thunderous basslines all congealed into a sinister breed of hard rock and occult-fixated songcraft the world had never heard before.