Metal Essentials I: Grandfathers of Metal (1970 - 1975) - FINAL ROUND - Zeppelin vs Sabbath

vote for your FAVORITE song in each pair

  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .
I don't have enough bad words for you all


If all popular Sabbath songs are gonna win the duel regardless of the weight of the other contender, I won't play pairs before 1975.
 
Death to dull Deep Purple. Be banished, bluesy band.

All bow deep for the evil, sinister, atmospheric, dark and heavy Sabbath. Revere the riffs of the ruler. The one and only real metal band of this round.
 
These albums are truly quite hard to pair up in a head-to-head match, mostly because they are so dissimilar. I'm familiar with both records, but for this game I listened to each song pair at a time and in the end, Black Sabbath is my hands down winner.

Paranoid and Machine Head are both incredible albums, but one is a brilliant early heavy metal album and the other is a great hard blues rock album. The uniqueness in what Sabbath is doing, from the music, to the mood, to the lyrics, is simply at a higher level than the expertly-played blues that Purple pumps out here. Don't get me wrong, I love these Purple songs, but the Sabbath tunes are iconic and varied. Every time I played these songs in pairs I thought, "WTF is Sabbath doing, this is exciting!" and then thought, "Yeah, Purple's playing some fun blues." It even shows in the lyrics. Ozzy's belting about war, giant robot monsters, evil, faeries, and a bunch of other drug trip shit, and Ian Gillan's talking about cars, trucks, and literally being lazy and sleeping - one is just so much more inspired and inspiring.

Smoke on the Water gets my sole vote for Purple because the riff, lyrics, and overall feel of the song far surpass Electric Funeral (which is probably the weakest overall song on Paranoid and also the most jumbled together). The thing is, even when these Sabbath songs seem shaky in structure or a little meandering, they're still more engaging than stuff like Lazy (which is literally just a giant blues jam).
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
early heavy metal album.
Click to expand...

War pigs is swing pop compared to Highway star.

Also the pick is criminal because the Sabbath album is the one with most early metal hits while Machine Head isn't (IR - Speed King, Child In Time, Hard Lovin Man, Bloodsucker).

If you manage to drop all Purple MH songs except Smoke in the water, I suggest all you that voted that way send your resume to the Rolling Stone, they need a dozen or more echobrains to write their best of lists.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
These albums are truly quite hard to pair up in a head-to-head match, mostly because they are so dissimilar. I'm familiar with both records, but for this game I listened to each song pair at a time and in the end, Black Sabbath is my hands down winner.

Paranoid and Machine Head are both incredible albums, but one is a brilliant early heavy metal album and the other is a great hard blues rock album. The uniqueness in what Sabbath is doing, from the music, to the mood, to the lyrics, is simply at a higher level than the expertly-played blues that Purple pumps out here. Don't get me wrong, I love these Purple songs, but the Sabbath tunes are iconic and varied. Every time I played these songs in pairs I thought, "WTF is Sabbath doing, this is exciting!" and then thought, "Yeah, Purple's playing some fun blues." It even shows in the lyrics. Ozzy's belting about war, giant robot monsters, evil, faeries, and a bunch of other drug trip shit, and Ian Gillan's talking about cars, trucks, and literally being lazy and sleeping - one is just so much more inspired and inspiring.

Smoke on the Water gets my sole vote for Purple because the riff, lyrics, and overall feel of the song far surpass Electric Funeral (which is probably the weakest overall song on Paranoid and also the most jumbled together). The thing is, even when these Sabbath songs seem shaky in structure or a little meandering, they're still more engaging than stuff like Lazy (which is literally just a giant blues jam).
Click to expand...
:notworthy:

Purple: great musicians, important with their fast material for metal, but the music is indeed what Knick describes.:yawn:
 
Zare said:
War pigs is swing pop compared to Highway star.
Click to expand...

Highway Star is the only other song I considered voting for, but it still pales in comparison to the far more dynamic, darker War Pigs. Sure, the solos in Highway Star are amazing and those high vocals parts are cool, but it's just a really rocking blues tune. It may have gotten the edge if the lyrics weren't about a damned car, but even then: probably not.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
The thing is, even when these Sabbath songs seem shaky in structure or a little meandering, they're still more engaging than stuff like Lazy (which is literally just a giant blues jam).
Click to expand...

This is very ironic, given that the whole Paranoid album was basically born out of blues jamming.
 
I think Machine Head is kinda getting an unfair deal here. There are definitely a few tunes that are above average bar blues. On one hand, they are better performed than what you would hear from most blues bands because everyone in Deep Purple is a monster player. On the other hand, I have to question why a band this talented is wasting its time on subpar blues songs especially after kicking off with Highway Star.

That being said, I wouldn't reduce something like Highway Star to a "really rocking blues tune." There's a lot to it, especially in the instrumental. Space Truckin' and Smoke On the Water are also hard rock gems. Fairies Wear Boots, the song currently dominating Space Truckin', is just as heavily rooted in the blues. The underrated track of this round is Never Before. Great riffing on that tune and it stands out a lot more than some of the other lesser known tunes on Machine Head.

Anyway, I still voted for more Paranoid songs. The toughest battle ended up being War Pigs vs Highway Star, which actually ended up being the deciding match since I had voted for an equal number of songs from each album already. This actually made the decision easier, as I just went with the song from the album I prefer, which is Paranoid. After giving it some thought, I think War Pigs is the stronger song anyway.
 
I think what it boils down to for me is that, especially as evidenced on these albums, Deep Purple are a bunch of top notch performers writing songs to play and Black Sabbath are a bunch of interesting songwriters pushing themselves to perform at the same level they are writing. I simply prefer the latter.

And again, this is tough because Machine Head is a great album in its own right; but not in this matchup.
 
Mosh said:
The underrated track of this round is Never Before..
Click to expand...

Yes.

Rat Salad getting a pass as well due to it being tacked on to Hand of Doom. It's the worst track across both albums.

Also, people having a go at Purple for being straightforward and mainstream compared to Sabbath. The most straight forward and mainstream pop hit across both albums is Paranoid and it currently has the most votes of any song in the poll.
 
Last edited:
MrKnickerbocker said:
I think what it boils down to for me is that, especially as evidenced on these albums, Deep Purple are a bunch of top notch performers writing songs to play and Black Sabbath are a bunch of interesting songwriters pushing themselves to perform at the same level they are writing. I simply prefer the latter.
.
Click to expand...
I can get behind that
 
All Deep Purple apart from Fairies Wear Boots and Iron Man. Tbh I never really understood the hype for this particular Sabbath album
 
Songs like Black Sabbath and The Wizard...yeah Paranoid is not much of an album. I don't like Iron Man anyway, the lyrics and the vocals are outstandingly bad.
 
Wogmidget said:
Tbh I never really understood the hype for this particular Sabbath album
Click to expand...

Me either. I've got a couple of their albums kickin' around that I haven't listened to, maybe they'll change my mind.

Zare said:
I don't like Iron Man anyway, the lyrics and the vocals are outstandingly bad.
Click to expand...

My biggest gripe is the vocal melody following the guitar riff. Instrumentally, the song is phenomenal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top