20. Mercury Rev — Planet Caravan
“It was nice and relaxing,” Geezer Butler said about “Planet Caravan.” “Good to get stoned to… It was about floating through the universe with your loved one instead of ‘let’s go down to the pub and have some chips’ or whatever. And that’s what it was about – just taking a spaceship out into the stars and having the ultimate romantic weekend.”
Mercury Rev absolutely nail that floating-spaceship sound in their cover, which could pass as a Mercury Rev original. Or, for that matter, as Black Sabbath doing a different take on the same day. That speaks highly for both bands, I think. And their loved ones. — Patrick Robbins
19. Iron Horse — Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Iron Horse’s bluegrass cover of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” feels like it should be used on the soundtrack to a horror movie. I can picture the scene: the hero walks into a downtrodden church somewhere deep in the woods. A few hapless parishioners listen in attention as a snake- handling preacher rattles on. Then the choir comes in singing “Dreams turn to nightmares, heaven turns to hell,” backed by intense guitar and banjo picking. The hero turns around and sees the villain coming towards him and … Well, who says bluegrass can’t be as menacing as metal? — Curtis Zimmermann
18. Otu — Iron Man
Finnish guitarist/vocalist Olli Suurmunne released his Fuzzy Tunes covers album back in 2022 under the Otu moniker. That album made our best albums list and his version of “Gangland” made it on our best Iron Maiden covers a few months ago. He’s back, this time with a spot-on version of “Iron Man” in the style of stoner metal titans Sleep, who in turn owe so much of their style to Sabbath. It feels like a pretty obvious pairing, but to do it well takes the musical talent as well as some restraint. The song crawls along with well-placed guitar slides and a fun guitar solo to close out the latter half of the track. If you’ve always thought “Iron Man” was good but just too upbeat and peppy-sounding, you’re in luck: Otu is bringing the doom-filled sound you’re looking for. — Mike Misch
17. Stryper — Heaven and Hell
The early ’80s were a new era for Black Sabbath. After kicking Ozzy Osbourne out of the band, the group tapped Ronnie James Dio as their new singer. With this lineup, the band produced two of arguably the greatest metal albums of all time Heaven and Hell and The Mob Rules. They’re so remarkably different from Ozzy-era Sabbath that I consider this incarnation to be a different band. (They might agree, as they reunited and toured as Heaven & Hell in the 2000s.)
The Christian metal band Stryper paid homage to the Dio years with a cover of “Heaven and Hell” on their 2011 covers record The Covering. A word of caution when listening to this track: don’t dive too deeply into the lyrics and try to find deeper meaning because the band is Christian. Instead, focus on the amazing musicianship as the band shreds their way through the iconic solos, adding a few tweaks for the guitar aficionados. The track showcases Stryper’s own place as masters of the metal genre. Just enjoy the cover and leave the cultural analysis for another day. — Curtis Zimmermann
16. Jazz Sabbath — Children of the Grave
The Wakeman name is associated with the concept album. But how about a concept band? No-one knows the Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne oeuvre better than Adam Wakeman, having spent time working with both. In recent years, he has essayed that into the recordings and live shows of Jazz Sabbath. Wakeman plays the part of Milton Keanes (trust the Brits that this is witty), a jazz player who wrote all the songs of Black Sabbath, and was about to release them when some disaster intervened. When he recovered, he found that perfidious Midlanders had stolen his songs and turned them into heavy metal. A thin concept? Perhaps, but if you can back it up with world-class playing you can have recording and live gold. The show has toured the UK and Europe for several years, and there are three albums. The live shows are entertaining and barnstorming, but do not stint on the musicality. For this live version, there is the touching sight of a hugely proud Rick Wakeman literally standing at the shoulder of his son as he unleashes another solo. — Mike Tobyn
15. Sarah King — War Pigs
Though never released as a single, “War Pigs” is one of Black Sabbath’s most iconic songs and, by some reckonings, one of the greatest metal songs ever. But on her cover, Vermont singer Sarah King has decided to ignore nearly everything about what makes “War Pigs” iconic. Instead, she imagined the song as something like Broadside would have published back in the ’60s: a folk anti-war protest song. She drops the sludgy intro entirely and jumps straight into the lyrics, pairing her voice with a solitary acoustic guitar which takes the place alternatively of Bill Ward’s drums and Tony Iommi’s and Geezer Butler’s guitars. “Luke’s Wall,” the outro, is also gone. The result focuses the listener on the song’s famous anti-war lyrics, which concisely condemn the people who declare war but never fight. “War Pigs” is now a classic protest song instead of a metal banger. — Riley Haas
14. Billy Strings — Planet Caravan
Guitar slinger Billy Strings has never been one to stick close to the bluegrass canon. In his live performances, he’s covered songs from just about every type of genre. In 2019, he first performed Black Sabbath’s dreamy psychedelic odyssey “Planet Caravan.” True to form, whenever he plays the track he often stretches it out beyond the ten-minute mark, performing epic solos that defy the boundaries of bluegrass, creating a sound that seems entirely new. — Curtis Zimmermann
13. Emmerson Nogueira — Changes
So Black Sabbath were all about heavy metal bombast, shrieking vocals and grinding guitars, with pounding drums and earthshaking bass? Well, no, this nugget, from Vol. 4, about as far removed from the genre they invented as you can imagine. In the original, a piano-led torch ballad, Ozzy sounds more yearning and regretful than you’d believe he had in him, and it is lovely turn of the coin. Emmerson Nogueira is a Brazilian guitarist and singer notable for playing stripped back acoustic cover versions. This comes from his fourth such set, Versão Acústica 4. I dare say there will be have been a few, unfamiliar with the original, who will have complimented him on this delicate exposition, checking then back to see how it first sounded, getting the surprise of their lives. From lighters in the air, Nogueira switches to a campfire singalong, finding a cowboy swagger in the melody, which is even more unexpected. — Seuras Og
12. Four Tet — Iron Man
An instrumental version of “Iron Man” is kind of a weird idea. How much of our collective love of the song comes from Ozzy singing, through a metal fan, “I Am Iron Man”? But Kieran Hebden, aka, Four Tet doesn’t care about the famous intro. He also is keen on de-emphasizing the part of the song literally everyone knows: the guitar riff.
Four Tet’s version begins, instead of with the famous distorted vocal intro, with drums and a high-pitched drone. Hebden plays the guitar riff, but he fingerpicks his acoustic guitar and he only plays the actual riff in its entirety a few times until the outro, where he repeats it over and over. The bass part merely hints at the riff in the sections where the guitar ignores it. And around these instruments swirl backmasked samples. Hebden also drops the break and transforms the guitar solo section to a vamp featuring a repeating guitar lick.
It’s not unrecognizable, by any means. It’s still clearly “Iron Man” when he plays the guitar riff. But the aesthetic is totally different. Gone is the visceral power of the original. It’s replaced by a pretty folktronica jam, something few of us would associate with the idea of Sabbath or “Iron Man.” — Riley Haas
11. Ruthie Foster — War Pigs
Ruthie Foster is one of the archetypal female blues guitarists, like Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi and Sue Foley, who confound those who feel blues is a purely masculine domain, especially if searing electric guitars are on the menu. OK, of late she has shifted to a more R’n’B based sound, but this comes from her 2017 album, Joy Comes Back. Toting a national steel resonator for this one, her version is characterized by that instrument, her primal vocal and the howl of harp from Simon Wallace. It is sufficiently inflammatory to remove much memory of the, if only by comparison, frankly anemic original. This should be broadcast daily across anywhere in the world where barricades are a necessary part of street furniture, so that all may hear the voice of God holler out the warning. If this is one of the band’s most covered songs, Foster is one of the few able to explain that status, by cutting through all the hubris, to deliver the cutest iteration of the blood and guts within it. — Seuras Og
For me the best Black Sabbath cover was Generation X’s final encore at High Wycombe’s Nag’s Head in March ’77. Too bad the only version I can find of it today sounds like crap.
That War Pigs cover…