Greatest Black Sabbath Album?

[Taverner]

Now the self titled and Paranoid are fucking awesome. Yeah. But are they the best? No.

Sorry, Paranoid was all cool and stuff - but in the end, they outdid themselves on every album, successively, through the Ozzy years. Technical Ecstasy notwithstanding.

So my two faves are Never Say Die and Sabotage.

And only one of those that can stand up to all of the others is Sabotage.

Pure rock and roll genius.

With a runner up for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

[Kali]

1. Top row

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. I'll second that

I remember when "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" was released, I got a white label "promo only" copy at the local record store for two bucks. The title track knocked me on my ass. After that album, except for a track here and there, I pretty much stopped caring about Sabbath...the Ozzy edition, anyway. But yeah, the top row is their greatest album.

:toast:

[pintobean]

23. scroll down

http://bootlegtunzworld.org/archivearea/2011/08/black-sabbath-war-pigs-lolympia-paris-france-12-20-1970/

[MiddleFingerMom]

2. Master of Reality -- and for me, only because of this:

.
.
.
My friend Bill came over to play some basketball in our driveway. He parked
his car at the base of the driveway -- giving us as much room as possible.
.
.
It was the era of eight-track tapes. Bill had JUST bought M of R and slipped
it in the player, then walked up to play b-ball.
.
.
The first song, of course, is Sweet Leaf -- and the coughing that starts it
sounded JUST like the player was eating a brand new tape (those players
were notoriously HUNGRY).
.
.
I can STILL summon up the image of the panic in his face as well as his
mad dash towards the car to "save" his tape",
.
.
.
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
.
.
.

[Throd]

3. I lost my virginity to "Hole In The Sky".

[pintobean]

4. Dio isn't un-Sabbath.

You sound like an Ozzie fan who discovered he had been in Black Sabbath long after he had left.

[nomorenomore08]

5. Really? 'Heaven and Hell' et. al. doesn't sound anything like the Ozzy stuff.

And the less said about the post-Dio era, the better. 'Seventh Star' anyone? :puke:

[Taverner]

8. Dio's Dio

Not to knock Dio, but Sabbath he ain't

"Heaven and Hell" has more in common with "Holy Diver" than it does "Vol 4"

[pintobean]

16. Nothing from the 80s has much in common with "Vol 4"

"Heaven and Hell" sounds like what it is - Black Sabbath with a different singer. I wouldn't compare it to anything else Dio did.

[vi5]

20. +1,000,000,000

[nomorenomore08]

6. 'Vol. 4' for me. "Snowblind" puts it over the top.

nt

[Swede]

7. I like all of them.

I cannot pick one over another.

[opiate69]

10. I had to pick Sabotage

Particularly because of "The Writ," "Megalomania" and "The Thrill of it All", but I may very well be the only person on the planet who thinks Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die are criminally under-rated.

[OriginalGeek]

22. I'll agree they are both underrated

but maybe only misdemeanorly rather than felonally - still criminally though.

Heaven and Hell is in my top 3 BS albums and I love every song on it. No other Black Sabbath album is as complete to me however many contain songs I like more than any song on H&H.

And I LOVED Ian Gillan's work on Born Again.

I'm just glad I got to see the Heaven and Hell tour before RJD died. (Not the album tour, the reunion tour a few years ago).

Tony Iommi is one of my all time favorite guitarists though so I really don't care who sings for him.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Volume 4.

Much modern metal has it's origins in that album.

[Ohio Joe]

12. Sabotage

Followed by Never Say Die.

[aikoaiko]

13. You are correct that some of the later albums are even better than the 1st two, but "War Pigs"

from Paranoid taught me that you didn't have to be a folk singer to be anti-war.

[Iggo]

14. Gun to my head? Paranoid.

Iron Man.
War Pigs.
Nuff Said.

But in reality, I really can't choose.

Whichever one I like best at any given time depends on my mood.

[meegbear]

15. Hey! I like Technical Ecstasy!

I liked the shift in style and they put out a good record. And my favorite is Never Say Die! (which I voted for above) and like a lot of groups, they wouldn't have made Never Say Die! if they didn't make Technical Ecstasy first.

[eyepaddle]

17. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath for me. I do like Technical Ecstacy though.

Spiral Architect and A National Acrobat just rule, as of course does the title track.

[hifiguy]

18. For me it's gotta be "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"

Skull-crushing riffs, a sci-fi flavor to the lyrics plus Rick Wakeman's perfect synth/keyboard embellishments equals metal perfection. The all-time best Sabbath tune, though, is "Snowblind." :wow: even after nearly 40 years.

[vi5]

19. Dio Sabbath>Ozzy Sabbath

Granted, that's largely based on how much Ozzy has tarnished his reputation with the past 5-10 years of being a joke/clown.

But of the Ozzy years I go with either Volume 4 or Master of Reality.

I can honestly say you are the only person I've met in the past 30 years of being a black Sabbath fan who counted Never Say Die as one of their favorites.

Hell, I'm surprised Sabotage got as many votes as it did.

[Taverner]

21. Sabotage is amazing - give it another listen

Perfect AOR Metal-Rock.

The segue from Hole in the Sky > Don't Start > Symptom of the Universe almost makes this a Jam Band album.

Never Say Die is also an amazing album - what I like about that one is its all Iommi. Ozzy is almost relegated to session musician status. Don't get me wrong, Ozzy with Sabbath was awesome, but Iommi had skills that were seriously downplayed in their earlier albums.

[pintobean]

24. Dio rules

and Ozzy drools?

[vi5]

25. Ozzy has his place....

I'm not at all saying that those first couple of Sabbath albums aren't great. They are. As are Ozzy's first 2 solo records.

But Dio is just one of the greatest singers in rock and roll history. And they did 2 perfectly flawless albums with him.

[pintobean]

26. I was just joking

I took my daughter to the Heaven And Hell tour in '07. She wasn't much of a fan and really went to see Alice Cooper. Sabbath was amazing and Dio was as good as he ever was. She became a big fan that night.

Queensrÿche opened. Neither of us were fans, but they were excellent. Great concert.

[vi5]

29. Queensryche...

I'm sure like a lot of bands from that era they are past their prime. But in 1983 I saw them open for Iron Maiden. And honestly almost 30 years later I still get chills thinking about their performance. In all my years of metal, punk, hardcore, whatever shows I've never seen a band play with such hunger and ferocity as they did that night. Which is admittedly surprising because they became such a controlled, refined, prog-metal type band. And I was honestly never much of a fan beyond those first 2 albums. Which makes it all the more strange that their performance that night ranks as one of the greatest I've ever seen.

[Iggo]

31. Queensryche in the EP days were something.

They're still great, but back then they were perfect.

[Initech]

27. Of the Ozzy albums - Vol. 4 and Sabotage,

[Withywindle]

28. ooo, I got to cast a tie-breaker between Vol 4 and Sabotage

and I went for Volume 4.


cause of "Supernaut" and "Tomorrow's Dream" and "Cornucopia."


But I'm kind of regretting that now, just for "Hole in the Sky," "Symptom of the Universe" and "Megalomania."


Can't go wrong with either, IMO.

I do strongly object to the idea that anything without Ozzy is by definition "not-Sabbath," though. Sabbath for me is about the specific way Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler sound together--do you really think that, for example, "Voodoo" from Mob Rules doesn't sound like Black Sabbath? Really? Cause that particular style of heavy riffing doesn't sound to me like it could be anyone else.

[eyepaddle]

30. I'd also mention Sign of the Southern Cross. The "Mob Rules" album is fantastic.

A poster mentioned it upthread, Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, are exactly what they appear to be--Black Sabbath albums with a different singer.