BLACK SABBATH Week On Maidenfans! (8/18 - 8/25)

Favorite Sabbath albums? (Pick up to 5)


  • Total voters
    15
Ozzy Era

At the top: Paranoid. Nearly perfect. Even "Rat Salad" is cool.

Second tier: Volume 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. As a total album, both are nearly as strong as Paranoid. However, Paranoid beats SBS by the quality of filler (eg "Electric Funeral" vs "Looking For Today"). Volume 4 has awesome filler ("Cornucopia", "St. Vitus Dance"), but the lead songs aren't as good (eg "Iron Man" vs "Wheels Of Confusion"). I must confess a weakness for "Tomorrow's Dream", my vote for most overlooked Ozzy-era gem.

Third tier: Black Sabbath, Master Of Reality, Sabotage. Here, you've got mostly great albums with a few notable flaws. "Warning" is an uninspiring end to a world-shaking debut. "Orchid" and "Solitude" kill all the energy and momentum of a record that otherwise would have been up a level. Sabotage is heavy as fuck as a total package, but no song - not even the lauded "Symptom" - matches the material on the first five albums.

Fourth tier: Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die. I like these albums quite a bit. Some serious classics are to be found, such as "All Moving Parts (Stand Still)" and "Never Say Die". What Sabbath lost on these two albums was innovation. The songs are mostly pedestrian, with a few exceptions like "Air Dance". Sabbath stopped thrilling us with new sounds and became just another heavy rock band on these two. A good band, the albums are fine, but any band could have made most of those songs.

Dio Era

Just go listen to Heaven And Hell already. Take two Neon Knights and call me in the morning.

Gillan Era

I love Born Again. That's because I love Deep Purple, and Gillan's voice makes it sound that way to me. I don't think of it as a Sabbath album, really. "Zero The Hero" is a great song.

Martin Era

This started good. Every album got a little better. Most of The Eternal Idol, all of Headless Cross and the first half of Tyr stand out to me. Especially Tyr, where I'd call those first four songs my favorite chunk of the whole bunch.

Overall

You've got six essential albums: the first five, plus Heaven And Hell. A metalhead without knowledge of these records needs to be promptly educated.

Then there are six that aren't quite essential, but are highly recommended: Sabotage, Mob Rules, Headless Cross and Tyr plus two live albums: Live Evil with Dio, and Live At Last with Ozzy. Dio is Dio and his voice is always worth the price of admission. Live At Last is a cool document of what Ozzy brought to the stage back then. Alternate lyrics for "War Pigs" and "Killing Yourself To Live" are fun. The full-band improv jams in "Wicked World" work well here. Live At Last makes me think that a live version of "Warning" to close out the debut might have been much cooler.

From there, you can pick up anything else in order of release, and you'll be good. By the time you get to Cross Purposes, you've got all the good stuff. Forbidden is for completionists, and 13 was a disgrace that I prefer not to acknowledge. **BILL WARD SUPPORTERS UNITE, FUCK SHARON** What happened to the band that wrote "Into The Void"?
 
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