(I\u2019ve always been fascinated by the occult overtones of Rock and Roll and Heavy Metal. Generally, the occult trappings in rock are nothing more than window dressing, but they can still be worth exploring. Strange Days<\/em> is a series chronicling the truth about the occult in rock. Future articles will include looks at The Doors and T. Rex) <\/em><\/p>\n Without question, Black Sabbath is one of the all-time great rock bands. They sit on the classic rock Rushmore, alongside bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Who. The biggest difference between Black Sabbath and those bands is that Sabbath invented a sub-genre of music almost entirely on their own: Heavy Metal. The Sabs were the first ever heavy metal band, and there\u2019s very little debate about it. <\/p>\n Sabbath guitar player Tony Iommi almost single handedly created the genre when he was forced to start \u201cdown-tuning\u201d his guitar after an industrial accident chopped off the tips of the fingers on his left hand. That horrible accident changed the sound of Iommi\u2019s guitar, making it deeper, darker, and kind of menacing. (For those of you who don\u2019t play guitar, I should probably elaborate a little bit. Iommi uses his right hand on the frets of his guitar. It\u2019s that hand that he uses to press down the strings. Down-tuning makes the strings lighter, and therefore easier to press down.) That was the first part of the equation that would create heavy metal, the second part was the band\u2019s aura, an aura created almost entirely out of the public\u2019s perception that Black Sabbath was a Satanic rock band. <\/p>\n