1970 Hit Ranked Among Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time - It Still Rocks
Jimi Hendrix might be the most well-known left-handed guitar player of all time, but Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi is often considered the godfather of metal guitarists.
His work on Iron Man landed him at No. 7 on the list of greatest guitar riffs of all time, according to Guitar World.
"The main riff is in B minor, using powerchords that follow up the pentatonic scale before more dissonant-sounding slides from the minor 6th to the 5th – all fretted on the thicker strings for a fuller sound and further intensified by drummer Bill Ward's snare hits," Guitar World wrote.
"It's this juxtaposition, the lethargic opening segment against its busier second half, that demonstrates Sabbath at their most memorable, mutating familiar bluesy roots into something darker and doomier."
'Iron Man' Came to Tony Iommi on the Spot
In a 2021 interview with Songfacts, Iommi revealed how he created the song's most defining feature, the riff.
"I was in a rehearsal room, and Bill started playing this boom, boom, boom. He started doing it, and I just went (sings bending string bit before the song's riff) and came up with this thing and thought, That's cool. Bill kept playing it, and I just went to this riff."
The heavy metal legend then explained: "Most of the riffs I've done I've come up with on the spot, and that was one of them – it just came up. It went with the drum, what Bill was playing. I just saw this thing in my mind of someone creeping up on you, and it just sounded like the riff. In my head I could hear it as a monster, so I came up with that riff there and then."
The song was a critical success and reached No. 12 on the Billboard US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
Related: 1980 Metal Hit Named Among Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 30, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 9:00 PM.