Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

The opening title track and lead single of the 1973 album. Its main riff has been called the riff that saved Black Sabbath, because Iommi had writer's block and the band rented the supposedly haunted Clearwell Castle to inspire him. The personnel are Iommi on guitars, Osbourne on vocals, Ward on drums and percussion, and Butler on bass and fuzz bass.

Slash told Guitar World in 2008 that its outro was the heaviest thing he had heard, and Brent Hinds of Mastodon called its final riff unbeatable. The song was rarely played live in the 1970s. It returned on the Heaven & Hell tour, closed shows on the Cross Purposes tour, and was shortened on the late 1990s reunion tour because Osbourne's range had narrowed. Later the opening riff became an intro to Paranoid.