Best Black Sabbath Album

Best Non Ozzy/Dio Black Sabbath Studio Album

Good try, but you stumble out of the gates on the Volume 4 rundown. Wheels of Confusion is an absolute monster. Plus the Supernaut thing kills me.

and how can you not love Tomorrow's Dream?

^yeah, I actually had a hard time wrapping my mind around this myself.

as far as IV being the best, I totally agree...challops?

IV > Paranoid: this is kind of hard to justify, except the fact that Paranoid was the first Sabbath album I ever bought, and I liked it, but I was already v. familiar with half the songs, and the other half didn't really jump out at me, giving me a first impression of the album as suffocating and monochromatic...I mean, there's songs on it I love...Planet Caravan, Fairies Wear Boots, Paranoid, War Pigs, and even the songs that didn't really stick with me are hard to argue against, like the opening to Electric Funeral, but put it all together, and...I don't know, just seems a bit too monolithic to me I guess...

IV > Master of Reality: A bit easier, there's like four songs on this album, and only Children of the Grave (the best thing Sabbath ever did) shits on the stuff on IV from anything resembling a great height...I mean the album gets a little closer once I realized that After Forever was the earlier superior original article, and St. Vitus Dance was the rewrite, but still...I'm not exactly sure which three songs are stronger: Sweet Leaf/Children/Into the Void or Supernaut/Snowblind/Cornucopia, but it doesn't matter; without these IV is still within striking distance of a sprwaling druggy masterpiece...

these = its three songs

I find it strange that vol IV isnt the canon album for you guys.

worth running this poll again?

"I find it strange that vol IV isnt the canon album for you guys."

I don't understand this at all. It's a great album, and for me has Sabbath's best song, but if you're looking at the so called "canon", at least in the US, it's undoubtedly Paranoid. I've obviously gone on ad nauseum about how I think Master of Reality is the best. Incidentally, the guys in Sabbath themselves would vote for SBS for what it's worth.

Me, I usually rely on RYM to give me some kind of indicator of an album's canonical status:

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/black_sabbath

Paranoid leads the way in ratings, reviews and overall score. Not that that's anywhere near definitive, of course.

http://www.foreverdoomed.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=9621 what DFFD votes

I've just picked up Sabotage after years of meaning to buy it, but being put off by the cover and an unsubstantiated notion that it is a sub-par Sabbath album. And it's great. The only poor song is Supertzar.

Now I need to persuade myself to get Heaven and Hell..

how dare you? supertzar's amazing, and the best song on that album...

Heaven and Hell is awesome! Might as well go ahead and pick up The Mob Rules too. I can't believe how much I've fallen for that Dio area, great stuff.

mob rules is fuckin RUTHLESS

"...and an unsubstantiated notion that it is a sub-par Sabbath album."

I've never been aware of this "notion".

Yeah, Mob Rules fucking kills, you gotta get that.

i know loads of people who say Sabotage is their fave album.

I've never been aware of this "notion"

That's because it was my own notion. And, as I say, unsubstantiated. I dunno, maybe it's the cover alone, maybe it's my poor memory of listening to this album at friends' places as a kid -- I just got it into my head that Sabotage was a bit of a clanger. Wrong I was.

Thanks for the Mob Rules recommendation. Will give it a listen.

I'll admit the cover of Sabotage is hilariously bad. A bone-headed idea ruined by terrible execution.

yeah, it's the worst from a series of truly bizarre covers.

I will get behind any of the ozzy/dio era studio albums, personally. was recently blown away by how much I liked never say die, for example.

My eyes are always drawn to Bill Ward's red tights.

def a bold fashion choice

Ozzy's kimono was also a fine example of "out of the box" thinking. And Geezer looks like he just time-traveled in from a 1982 Eddie Money video shoot.

is there a thread for the remasters? the bonus discs are pretty dope

Bill what do you think the worst Sabbath album is

serious question

Seventh Star or Forbidden. Tyr's pretty bad too.

How about you?

Just listening to Vol4. Someone above bemoaned the lack of love for Wheels Of Confusion. I *adore* the beginning of the track, and I love its different parts, but to me all of these parts don't quite work as an ensemble: the song as a whole sounds poorly tacked together (to put it perhaps a little brutally). At one point I even think (probably wrongly) that the timing is off ("lost in the wheels of confusion"). The transitions between the different riffs somehow jar a little.

dunno I haven't heard 'em all! I haven't heard the stuff between Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the Dio albums. I do dig Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules

"what do you think the worst Sabbath album is"

It's definitely Forbidden. But really there are no good ones that don't have Ozzy, Dio, or Ian Gillain singing. And the absurd awfulness of the others is never to do with the singer. It's just universally bad songwriting and production. The singers are all fine.

the new album is so good

so is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUkwv5yZyhA

Yeah I am really into the new record. Favorite track at the moment is still Follow the Tears. I will assuredly spin that at my Dj gig tonight. The 3-sided LP is gorgeous.

god, "Follow the Tears" is such a monster track ... really dig the bridge part, where Dio goes into "We'll be there for you / I believed and I can tell you it's not true" ... it sounds floaty and psychedelic dropped into the middle of this amazing doom track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ7EBF6IQn4

"Atom and Evil" and "Bible Black" are so good too

sabbath bloody sabbath title track 3:20--4:50 best 90 seconds of metal ever recorded

" I haven't heard the stuff between Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the Dio albums. "

Forget what you have heard and listen to this stuff because it's great.

Too bad you feel that way about Wheels of Confusion, Duke, that's one of their best songs ever. Sounds like the fucking apocolypse on that "Lost in the Wheeels...." part.

ou-ou-ou-ou, not enuff sabotage luv-uv-uv-uv in them poll results i don't think.

I haven't heard the stuff between Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the Dio albums.

that includes sabotage! rectify! rectify!

Sabotage is placed about right in that poll.

Sabotage's about three places lower than it should be, I'd say.

And so's Bloody Sabbath.

My personal poll of Ozzy era albums:

1) Master of Reality
2) Vol. 4
3) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4) Never Say Die (yes, really)
5) Sabotage
6) Black Sabbath
7) Paranoid (Yes, really)
8) Technical Ecstasy

feel free to print that out and toss darts at it.

mine would be:

black sabbath

sabotage

master of reality

paranoid

sabbath bloody sabbath

never say die

vol. 4

technical ecstacy

The four stabs / punches of guitar on "The Wizard" as Ozzy sings "never talking, just keeps walking" are fantastic.

Black Sabbath
Master of Reality
Volume IV
Sabotage
Paranoid
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Never Say Die
Technical Ecstacy

But god I love them all so much.

dudes, how great is this 'Never Say Die' clip ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvVwiE2U9_g

like, the band is so on fire you can hardly believe they would be on the verge of breaking up. Why break up when you can rock this hard?

(also, love Bill's neckbeard and dreads, he looks like some total refugee from No Neck Blues Band or something)

ok, maybe Ozzy was a *little* drunk .... but the performance still holds together quite nicely

Ive seen other songs from this particular show, the band is on, but Ozzy has some issues with his voice. Especially on Symptom on the Universe.

IV winning seems challopsy to me in retrospect

― d20 riot tard (M@tt He1ges0n),

that comment seems challopsy