Black Sabbath...the musical review

[phlemmy]

About the same time my brother was bringing home KISS’ Dressed to Kill, he was also letting me hear Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. The mid-70s were very influential on my becoming a metalhead. Here’s how Sabbath breaks down for me.

Black Sabbath – 1970
This is still one of my favorite Sabbath albums, in the top 3 even. The haunting vocals of the title track are awesome as is the use of the Devil’s tritone chording. NIB is the only song I wish I would never ever hear again. Perhaps radio overplay killed it for me. I don’t really remember liking it that much as a kid either. Ozzy’s voice is clean and has a raw quality to it.
9/10

Paranoid – 1970
I catch flack for this all the time, but I really don’t like this album in general. Maybe hearing it all the time growing up killed it for me, I don’t know. Paranoid, Iron Man and War Pigs make me want to puke. Radio overplay again maybe. I guess it’s really those 3 songs that kill this one for me as I do love Planet Caravan, Electric Funeral and Hand of Doom.
6/10

Master of Reality – 1971
Sabbath is really starting to hit their stride at this point. Other than Sweet Leaf, I adore this album. The downside to this is that it is starting to make me hate Ozzy’s vocals. One of the things that has annoyed me about him all these years is that he always seems to have to do stuff between normal vocal parts, i.e. “alright now”…”can you hear it”…”yeah”. And it may not be so much what he says, but the frequent nature of it and his annoying whine. But damn, Children of the Grave, Into the Void, After Forever, Lord of this World. Doom! DOOM!
8/10 (blame Sweet leaf for bringing down the score)

Volume 4 – 1972
This is not a bad album overall, but I rarely ever listen to it. I don’t know why that is. Even Changes doesn’t bother me. I have no favorites on this one. I can’t praise it but I can’t dog it out either.
5/10

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – 1973
This is a great one beginning to end although Ozzy’s whiney voice really gets on my nerves. Spiral Architect and National Acrobat are definitely my faves.
8/10

Sabotage – 1975
Damn man. That’s a lot of metal from 1970 to 1975. Anyway, this is another one that I rarely listen to. Hole in the Sky and Symptom of the Universe are definitely my faves. There are no stinkers on here.
7/10

Technical Ecstasy – 1976
I sometimes like this one and I sometimes hate it. I don’t listen to it often, but I don’t think it sucks. This is definitely an experimental one for Sabbath and I like seeing bands try to stretch their limits a bit. It didn’t really pan out for them here.
3/10

Never Say Die – 1978
This was a nice recovery for Sabbath. The title track is great. Overall it’s not a great album, but it has a few shining moments.
5/10

Heaven and Hell – 1980
Ladies and gentlemen, Ronnie James Dio. Having heard plenty of Rainbow growing up, I was familiar with Dio and always loved his voice. This album is brilliant. Sabbath got heavier. This is another of my top 3. There are no bad songs on here. There aren’t really any average songs. It’s just awesome any way you slice it.
10/10

The Mob Rules – 1981
Oh man. Things got even better. How is that possible? Don’t ask questions, you doofus. Just listen to the album…over and over. Simply brilliant. Too bad Ronnie left after this one. This is my favorite Sabbath album. My top 3 rotate around sometimes and H&H falls out only to be replaced by the next album on the list…
11/10 (yes, I said 11)

Born Again – 1983
This seems to be an album that people either love or hate, no in betweeners. I personally love it. The addition of Ian Gillan was nice even though his vocals on here are pretty erratic. Trashed is perhaps my favorite Sabbath song ever. The first time I heard it was on the K-Tel metal compilation Masters of Metal (which also featured Rainbow and DIO). Other than the production, this is a great LP. The songs are very weird and very dark.
9/10

Seventh Star – 1986
WTF? I never liked this one in general. No Stranger to Love is OK but this just isn’t Sabbath enough for me. Yeah, I know, this was to be a solo album for Tony. Glenn Hughes’ voice annoys me. I don’t like his Deep Purple work either.
2/10

The Eternal Idol – 1987
Enter Tony Martin. This is a pretty good album all the way around and I always felt Tony was a good substitute for Dio. The Shining is awesome. It’s not a brilliant LP by any means but it’s worthy of several listens.
6/10

Headless Cross – 1989
This is definitely a step up from The Eternal Idol. The addition of Cozy Powell doesn’t hurt. This is a great album beginning to end. I still kick myself in the arse for not going to see this tour when it rolled through Norfolk. Thankfully, I do have that show on CD. Tony Martin sounds awesome on here.
9/10

Tyr – 1990
An often overlooked album by metal fans. It’s nowhere near the caliber of Headless Cross but it does kick some mighty arse…well, except for It Feels Good to Me. Sorry, that song sometimes makes me nauseous. By the way, Mr. Martin…nice hair. Haha
7/10

Dehumanizer – 1992
I just bought this in 2007 having only heard a few songs back when it first came out. After seeing Heaven and Hell at Radio City, I figured I'd pick it up since they played a few tracks from it. It's a really good album. The highlights are certainly I, Sins of the Father, Letters from Earth and After All. Dio is brilliant as always. Again, Appice's drumming leaves me flat. Blech.
8/10


That’s it for me. I never bothered with Cross Purposes or Forbidden.

[rickenbrother]

I never heard Sabbath on the radio when I was growing up!
We pretty much have the same favorite Sabbath albums Sean, but when I bought Born Again, I played it once and never again listened to it. I didn't like what I heard at all.
I'd give the Heaven And Hell album an 11 also.
As much as Ronnie James Dio is a way better singer than Ozzy, I don't like hear him sing a song that was originally done with Ozzy. I don't know, RJD sings the songs too well?!

I never want to hear Paranoid again. Iron Man and War Pigs are still okay with me.

[phlemmy]

I can't stand to hear Dio sing Ozzy's songs. It just doesn't work for me. I think you should give Born Again another chance.

[incubus2432]

Born Again is also amongst my favorites. I never think of it when i think of my favorite Sabbath albums though since it's so different from the rest.

I tend to like Dio's take on Ozzy era Sabbath....but I can see why some don't. The Dio offerings are magnificent (even Live Evil,,,,which has enough overdubs to sound like a studio LP).

[ric330]

A pretty good ride through the years but the first album is my fave.

[nattiep]

I have to agree with Sean on most of this. I like classic Sabbath, but Ozzy is just so overrated to me. He's awful. The best singing wise he ever did was Sabbth Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage.

I agree about the Dio stuff. I hated Dio with a passion for years. I've since changed it to I hate Dio the band, not the man. Ronnie made Black Sabbath metal again. The late Ozzy stuf is just **** IMHO. I'm really happy I caught Heaven and Hell when they played Darien Lake. I couldn't pass up $60 for four lawn seats. Amazing Show. Dio sang hard all night and never tired.

I'm personally a fan of Born Again. Killer record. Disturbing the Priest is such an eivl song. And Born Again is amazing.

Any Black Sabbath record without Ozzy, Dio or Gillan aren't real to me. I don't have them and I don't want them.

[phlemmy]

Lots of the Tony Martin stuff is great, though. He was a great replacement for Dio (after Gillan). As for DIO the band...Holy Diver and Last In Line are magical albums for me, even more so than his work with Sabbath. His recent works are pretty lacking, but he still ahs the pipes and puts on a great show, be it H&H or DIO.

[sloop_john_b]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is such a great album. I love the weird stuff like "Who Are You", with that great fat analog synth line. It directly lead to me eventually buying a monophonic Minimoog (d'oh!). Is it true that Wakeman played on it?

The little jazzy bridges in the title track are so killer - blew my mind when I first heard it. And the main riff is just so heavy. I think they were tuned to Db for this album.

[phlemmy]

Rick did play on that album.

http://www.black-sabbath.com/discog/sab ... bbath.html

[rickenbrother]

I can't stand to hear Dio sing Ozzy's songs. It just doesn't work for me. I think you should give Born Again another chance.

I love RJD, he's one of my favorite singers, but his voice just doesn't fit the Ozzy songs. I should give Born Again another chance. I'll have to pick it up again. I left it with my ex-wife.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is such a great album. I love the weird stuff like "Who Are You", with that great fat analog synth line. It directly lead to me eventually buying a monophonic Minimoog (d'oh!). Is it true that Wakeman played on it?

That synth line from "Who Are You/" was one of the first things I learned to play on bass.
Rick Wakeman played keyboards on the song "Sabbra Caddabra".

[phlemmy]

I've got the demo versions of Born Again which sound better than the remastered version.

If you'd like them, I'll post for you to download.

[nattiep]

Tony Martin is a cheesy hairmetal singer. He belongs in Whitesnake!

I'm gonna put up a counter review for this tomorrow though for the most part I agree with you.
Make another thread like this for Maiden. I'll try to do a counter there too.

[rickenbrother]

I've got the demo versions of Born Again which sound better than the remastered version.

If you'd like them, I'll post for you to download.

That would be cool, thanks!

[phlemmy]

Tony Martin is a cheesy hairmetal singer. He belongs in Whitesnake!

I'm gonna put up a counter review for this tomorrow though for the most part I agree with you.
Make another thread like this for Maiden. I'll try to do a counter there too.

I have these bands ready to go:
Priest
Maiden
Thin Lizzy
Ozzy
Yngwie