I made a similar post about Led Zeppelin not too long ago, however I think sabbath is truly a prog. band whether they knew it or not

the satanic/black magic theme runs through a lot of albums/songs

many songs flow together from the first album, which has a very prog. intro with the thunder, rain and churchbell. 

"what is this that stands before me?

Figure in black that points at me" - so scary

they have many instrumental songs on all albums

songs are divided into different parts containing instrumental sections/jams

the more I look at all their albums the more prog they seem

and they wrote a song called 'the wizard' --so prog

oh i know they never worship satan or promote that kind of thing in any way, in fact they warn against it

they manage to paint this dark evil picture with their music that influences so many prog. metal bands

Sabotage is my favorite album, everyone should own that one, great riffs, ozzy's voice peals paint off walls, and there's some unexpected suprises on the album too (Don't start(too late), the outro to 'symptom of the universe' etc. etc)

I would say they were THE heavy metal band! There was some prog elements to their music, but you could probably argue that for most heavy metal bands that emerged in the 70's.

I've always liked them, and I think Sabotage is their best album overall. The albums they made with Ronnie Dio were also very good, although I couldn't get on with Dio's solo stuff. Too much dragon nonesense I think..

Great... AddSabath... Then Add some more hard rock.. BUT leave the prog influnced & porg related heavy metal out!!!!! Don't let Maiden in here!!!!

This is gettin really amazing...

I just feel sooooo unfair..

I still don't understand what are Purple doing here?

Sabbath were undoubtedly progressive in approach - but quickly settled into a style. Like Led Zeppelin, the style was progressive within itself - but that's not really enough for prog rock.

If you count the prog "elements" within any given song, they tend to be few in number, and exceptions rather than the rule, and no one album is entirely progressive or even conceptual in nature, although they all have a great flow to them and some fairly diverse styles.

It has to be remembered that there were a lot of blues bands that were considered progressive at that time (witnessed by the number of "Progressive Blues" compilations from that time), and the variety in style was pretty much expected.

Some of the riffing (a non-progressive and pretty much hard rock specific technique in itself) is easily traceable back to the other heavy blues bands of the time - what was progressive about the Sabs mainly was in the heavy metal genre they were helping (unknowingly) to spawn - or disseminate, depending on your viewpoint about bands like Blue Cheer, and later High Tide, May Blitz, etc.

The roots of Sabbath's music are very clearly heard on Spooky Tooth's "Spooky Two", notably the track "Evil Woman" (not the Sabbath version, in fact I think BS used the exact riff on "Master of Reality", but I can't remember which track).

"Heaven and Hell", OTOH clearly (to my ears) contains some of the roots of prog metal, especially in terms of the production - that album is a landmark in metal, as you can clearly detect a difference in just about every metal band afterwards.

I'm not even sure that BS would make prog-related though.

That's what I think, anyway...

Yeah I think it was 'Sweet Leaf' that had the same riff as 'Evil Woman', Cert. Was playing 'Spooky Two' earlier and STILL think Spooky Tooth should be here...

An album always cited as being the birth of this sort of heavy rock is Jeff Beck's 'Truth'- I was playing it recently, and I see the point- certainly, Jeff Beck's guitar techniques here were as revolutionary as Hendrix's work was. I think Jeff Beck remains somewhat upset that Led Zeppelin did 'You Shook Me' as Beck himself had done a similar arrangement of it. To me though, Zeppelin's debut is a more coherent and well rounded album than 'Truth' is.

The problem for me in adding these bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin is the categorisation; I hardly think the underhand term of 'prog related' does their music justice to be honest. I had no problem with Deep Purple or Uriah Heep being here, as similar bands like Atomic Rooster, Lucifer's Friend, Quatermass, Warhorse, Captain Beyond and Still Life are here without much protest yet Heep and DP predated and influenced these acts. However, with Zep and Sabbath, whilst I wouldn't be outright against their inclusion, I would find it a little harder to justify it.