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Black Sabbath Lyrics

What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn 'round quick and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one
Oh no

Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan's sitting there, he's smiling
Watches those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please god help me

Is it the end, my friend?
Satan's coming 'round the bend
People running 'cause they're scared
The people better go and beware
No, no, please, no
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Submitted by
carlos_avdas On Dec 22, 2001
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Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

Like many above said, this is one of the scariest songs ever recorded. Scared the shit outta me when I first listened to it, unknowing. Also Sabbath werent all that big satanists. The satanist image was made up by their record company for publicity. But back to the song: Like one poster above said, the song was way ahead of its time. It had the scariness Marilyn Manson has today (only a lot scarier!) , the depressiveness of Nirvana, and the Heaviness of 80's Metal Bands like Slayer or Metallica but it fucking 1970! People mustve freaked out when they first heard this

@OpiumForThePeople

They also sing about God and Jesus as well in some songs.

They are Christians, so they know Christ's message fairly well. Satan just happens to be a big part of that.

@OpiumForThePeople A book once best described it as "Rain begins to fall, a bell tolls and lightning strikes something ominous is coming.", "It's not complex, It's not Pretty...It's just metal in it's purest form."

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

In my opinion this song is simply about the grim reaper coming for someones soul and they dont want to leave....just read the lyrics

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

this song is just plain scary. it even scared marilyn manson when he first heard this song. before black sabbath, almost every band was writing nice mushy crap. like oh flowers are pretty. but when black sabbath came, it was evil, evil, evil! yeah the first album was the scariest of all the other black sabbath albums and its the scariest albums ever. try hearing Black Sabbath while the light is turned off and candles are lit all around you.

I love Sabbath, I saw them live, Lots of sweet leaf and Tony Iommi was Dio like.

@TheOzzman

Black Sabbath is not evil, and nor is this song. This song is attempting to scare the piss out of you, but it's not evil. The thing is, you have to stand firm, and fear not these things like the people in the song. Every time I listen to it, it's like a test, like I must control myself and now bow down to the fear.

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

This song is basically about messing with shit that you don't understand(i.e. the occult) and getting something much different than you expected. A young occultist accidentally summons Lucifer and pays the price. I absolutely love Ozzy's wails right before Tony grinds back into his heavy riff. It's as if he's looking the devil straight in the face, scared shitless. Oh, and the riff! Sweet God, the riff! An excellent use of the tritone; it makes the song sound so fucking evil and heavy! One of my all time favorite songs.

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

sounds like fun! -P

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

i love this song ! anything that deals with evil...like, hearing the bell toll in the distance, thunder and lightning, and satan smiling...gotta love it !

gotta agree with you. it just gives (especially this song) a whole dark feel to it

Not Valid
Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

The meaning of this song is pretty obious, its about the end of the world according to the christian bible.

I totally agree. But I get a kinda nightmare-ish feeling to the song. I like to picture that its from a very bad dream.

It's not about the end of the world. It's about the end of a village, being raided by God-preaching knights who are deceived by Satan. The song is told from the perspective of villagers running for their lives. Such things were common place, and still are in many places of the world. Just look up the Massacre of Soissons or Jerusalem in 1099.

@paalmartin But I also agree.

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

this song is way beyond ahead of its time. sorry but sabbath never topped this..... this is still one of the heaviest and darkest metal songs ever to this day.... this is pure doom metal. absolute genius

Did you ever get into Alice Cooper (Killer album)?

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Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

This is from Mitches http://www.ozzyhead.com/bio1.htm"One night the band was asked by a witch to play at a satanic ceremony. The band declined and the witch cast an evil spell over the band. Being totally freaked out by this, Ozzy had his father make aluminum crosses for all four members of the band to keep evil spirits away from them. In a recent interview, Bill Ward said he is the only one that still has the original cross. Ozzy now has 14 karat crosses!"

Cover art for Black Sabbath lyrics by Black Sabbath

What's great is that you have to imagine when this song was released: 1970. Now imagine all the bands around in that era; Cream, Hendrix, Led Zep, and so on. Which is the odd one out out of all these bands? Sabbath, as they are the only one (and first one) singing about Satan! All bands up to this point had sang about lovely stuff and such, but Sabbath came along, being louder then pretty much everyone else, being heavier, flattening the fifth, so to speak, and singing about Satan taking over the Earth. Fantastic.. I'd say it's my favorite Sabbath song.