Hand of Doom
song composed by Tony Iommi performed by Black Sabbath
"Hand of Doom" is a song by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, originally appearing on their second album Paranoid, released in 1970.
Background
The song was conceived after the band had observed a growing number of US soldiers arriving in England from the Vietnam War in the late 1960s with severe drug addictions, particularly heroin which was in many cases used to cope with post traumatic stress disorder they were suffering. The song paints an unflattering picture of hard drug use for the purpose of self-medication. The lyrics were written by Geezer Butler while the music is credited to the entire band.
Personnel
Black Sabbath
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitars
Geezer Butler – bass guitar
Bill Ward – drums
Cover versions
Danzig version
The band Danzig covered "Hand of Doom" for their album Danzig 5: Blackacidevil, with new lyrics and musical arrangements by Glenn Danzig. Danzig explained his changes to the original version: "I didn't want people to think it's just a cover...I started improvising and twisted the words. The melody is still the same, with an industrial kind of groove to the beginning and then the chorus comes in and it's full on crazy, with the screaming vocals." The idea for recording a cover version of the song came during a soundcheck by then-Danzig guitarist John Christ.
Orange Goblin version
The band Orange Goblin covered "Hand of Doom" for their EP Nuclear Guru.
Slayer version
The band Slayer covered "Hand of Doom" for the Black Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black II.
Tool version
The progressive rock band Tool has covered the song live. They first covered it at the Back To The Beginning concert, and have performed it at several other concerts in 2025.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hand of Doom” as song composed by Tony Iommi performed by Black Sabbath. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as song composed by Tony Iommi performed by Black Sabbath. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3782969. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970 and 2025.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Hand of Doom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.