Is the song Black Sabbath the heaviest piece of work in history?

One of the most important-no one had heard ANYTHING like that. It was still in the 60's-Ultimately Sabbath influenced more bands Than ANY OTHER BAND. Underground bands, radio bands, never leaving their garage bands. Almost everyone in their thirties learned to play guitar to Sabbath!

In response to bands such as Blue Cheer giving birth to metal, it should be noted that they were more part of the San Francisco psychedelic scene. After their cover of summer time blues, which undoubtedly is a heavy piece of work, they were clearly more interested in pursuing a sound closer to bands like Iron Butterfly, although much more poorly written and produced. As for the "heaviness" in regard to the song "Black Sabbath" I would agree this is not even the heaviest or even most influential sabbath song. It wasn't until Tony Iommi lost parts of his fingers before Masters of reality that they became really heavy due to his preference to tune down to c sharp. Clearly this went on to influence bands like EYEHATEGOD and electric Wizard. Nevertheless very few bands could find that center or groove that enhanced already great yet simple songs. Their songs have been covered by bands as diverse as the Cardigans, Ice-T and cathedral. All of this not even mentioning the clear influence they had on bands like mudhoney, the Melvins and ultimately Nirvana and QUOTSA to name just a few. I agree that metal has of course evolved as evidenced by Venom, but I would argue that they were innovators in their own right, spawning bands like Slayer. As far as bands like Pentagram, they are clearly using the heavy Sabbath formula much like bands like Witchfinder General and St. Vitus who deserve a ton of credit for keeping the essence of sabbath's heaviness alive while toiling deep in the underground while other bands like COC and Black Flag were using sabbaths influence and infusing it into punk....just saying!

Sabbath's songs still stand up as being surprisingly heavy after so many years (same with Blue Cheer and Les Rallizes Denudes). But the heaviest bands of all time are Electric Wizard, Khanate, and Burning Witch.

I'll nominate this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO7VP34n2Ps

Return Trip is really f*cking heavy too (especially at 2:15 when they hold that one note for about 30 seconds). Anything off Come My Fanatics... or Dopethrone.

Just because it gave birth to metal doesn't make it the heaviest song ever recorded.

True, it gave the world the sound of metal, but it's far from the heaviest. This is pretty heavy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAUIQAegq24 (Burning Witch- Warning Signs)

We are fully aware it gave birth to metal, and we give that song lots respect, but it's not the heaviest.

It did not give birth to heavy metal. It wass recorded a year and a half after Heavy by Iron Butterfly and the original self titled Led Zeppelin album. Led Zeppelin II also preceded it so it did not give birth to heavy metal.

It's not that heavy. You want heavy listen to a Mahler symphony. THAT is heavy.

Sabbath didn't give birth to heavy metal, they simply made it popular.

Blue Cheer (1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjbDzwjoQwA&feature...

And Sabbath definitely took that sound to another level by 1970, but there were many levels accomplished soon after that also.

Pentagram (1972)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcORVns5lJY

Icecross (1973)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upmIvJKvF-g

And look how far they've come by 1980?

Venom (1981)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sb46VD5CmA

Who's to say which one truly gave birth? It's all evolution.

Not the heaviest, but one of the best

it's a landmark tune but it's not the heaviest. that honor might go to electric wizard or boris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTWmfgD_Ukc

Not by a long shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcmLjvTkjC0