Black Sabbath has long been considered one of the heaviest heavy metal bands. After 40 years, his monstrous riffs still reverberate in the brains of hard rock fans around the world. Sabbath was always much more than a heavy rock band; Acoustic interludes, jazz phrases, pop melodies and bluesy riffs are just some of the textures that can be found in his music. Still, their overall sound has always been pretty unforgiving.

Here’s a list of some of the songs that I think cement Sabbath’s well-deserved reputation as the heaviest in the country.

1.) “Into the Void” – from Master of Reality, 1971

If I had to pick just one song to justify Black Sabbath’s unrivaled heaviness, it would be this one. This song alone has more top metal riffs than most guitarists do in the course of a career. As is often the case, Tony Iommi leads the pack here with a tone and attack that makes listening to this song feel like you’re slowly encased in cast iron (um, in, you know, in a good way). However, the band’s chemistry shouldn’t be discounted here; without Ozzy’s voice crying in the desert and the inimitable rhythm section of Bill Ward and Geezer Butler working and rocking simultaneously, the track’s heaviness would be less than half. Advances in technology have naturally made it easier to get fat, heavy guitar tones or production sounds, but the key to why these things still sound alarmingly heavy even today lies in crazy hand vibrato. from Iommi, along with the chemistry with the rest of the band.

2.) “Iron Man” – from Paranoid, 1970

Exaggerated? Maybe. Still, despite the fact that the riff to this classic is one of the first things every rock guitarist learns (along with Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”), and it’s seared into the brains of rock fans, rock from all over the world, never sounds as heavy in your head as it does when you actually listen to it. This is heavy almost to the point of parody and therefore awesome.

3.) “War Pigs” – from Paranoid, 1970

Another big hit, and from the same album, but “War Pigs” also demands inclusion. The opening chord alone qualifies this song for the heaviness hall of fame.

4.) “The Writ” – from Sabotage, 1975

Some of Sabbath’s heaviest songs come from this underrated album, including “Hole in the Sky”, “Symptom of the Universe” and “Megalomania”. They all probably belong on this list, but “The Writ” turns out to be the heaviest of the bunch to my ears, if only because of the harrowing emotional punch it packs. It’s often overlooked how much Ozzy’s voice adds to the actual heaviness of the Sabs’ denser material.

5.) “Falling off the edge of the world” – from Mob Rules, 1981

It had to include something from the Dio era and it was a mix between this and “Follow the Tears” from the 2009 album “The Devil You Know”. That album, however, although recorded by the same staff as “The Mob Rules”, was released under the band name Heaven & Hell, not Black Sabbath. So, I’m calling this difficult choice on a technicality here. However, any one of these tracks is overwhelmingly heavy and makes a strong case for Iommi and Butler’s ability to dish out world-class heaviness even with two very different musicians on drums and vocals (Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio, respectively). Another strong contender would be “I” from 1992’s “Dehumanizer.”

In the end, it’s really hard to pick five as the ultimate heavy moments for these guys. However, I think if you listen to these five songs in a row, you’ll see why people consider Black Sabbath one of the heaviest bands of all time.