Great live version!
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Wow I just awoke to the news and amazing so soon after the recent gig.
Love TE as well but I will soon head into his best with Sabbath - Master of Reality. Then onto Blizzard. Onya Oz one of the greatest.
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When I first got into Sabbath, I picked up a fair few albums second hand from Skeleton records in Birkenhead (Skellies). I can’t remember which one I was looking for exactly, but the guy who worked there recommend Master of Reality “if you like the heavy stuff”.
He wasn’t joking. That opening riff on Sweet Leaf nearly takes your head off.
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Saw Sabbath in 2016? (I think, it was when they said their last show would be at Download. I might have to google the year to double check). They were still great. Ozzy was still very Ozzy. As they played Children of the Grave the skies opened and rain began lashing it down. Perfect moment.
Hard to pick a favourite Sabbath song, but one of them (and perhaps the most fitting at the moment) has to be Planet Caravan.
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Rip Ozzy.
Was never a fan of his singing. But singing ability is just one part of what makes a great frontman. Ozzy had the other requisites.
His time with the band produced the best Black Sabbath songs.
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I have a childhood friend with whom I share the love of heavy metal and we’ve always had a funny debate about which Black Sabbath album was the best - each time, one of us would name a different one because we could never agree on one! Basically, the one we heard the last was the best at that point of time…
Incidentally, while I was driving to work this morning, I put on Master of Reality. Gonna put on Vol. 4 after that, so that one will be their best until I put on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
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Ironically the best is Heaven and Hell….with an honourable mention to Headless Cross…oops taking the shine off Oz maybe too early…
Heaven and hell is a great album , probably the greatest Sabbath album. Just the volume of songs released when Ozzy was the frontman was more.
Dio was special with BS but that’s him being Dio , the greatest metal vocalist of all time.
I like Sabbath with Tony Martin as well.
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I thought he did great stuff with Sabbath. Mob Rules was a great album as well. The only problem was that it sounded like a Dio solo album rather than Sabbath as such.
Ozzy actually wasn’t a typical Metal singer. He was trying to emulate John Lennon and his voice was far more pop than rock. That’s partly what made the Sabbath sound so unique.
Oddly enough, I seem to be the only person who liked Born Again with Ian Gillan as vocalist.
Not the only person. I wore that album out back in the day. Even though the mix was a bit dodge it was awesome with Disturbing the Priest and Zero the Hero. Very heavy.
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Do think likes of Butler and Iommi were restricted in terms of the songs that they could do when Ozzy was the frontman. They could do that better when the likes of Dio , Gillian and Martin came in more.
Love how this thread can have discussions about Dio etc etc when Ozzy just passed away.
And i mean that. People can respect Ozzy for what he’s done for music all while having another opinion.
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All good. I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum. I’ve got all the Ozzy Sabbath albums, even the, uh, less good ones. You’d have to pay me to sit through a Dio Sabbath album.
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On a Sabbath-unrelated note, I was at The Sisters of Mercy gig last night. Really stoked for that, even if Eldritch’s vocal powers have significantly diminished over time (and they came from a rather low starting position anyway). Atmosphere was excellent, even if it was a bit too hot - the stage was set in the open but at least the sound was great. Not sure how much energy they (i.e. Eldritch) have in them to continue touring in the future, so I made sure to go this time. Set list was great, though, even though I wished they played a couple of songs that I’d always held dear.
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Well, that’s a shame but it’s not like I don’t understand it. That sound was more heavy metal as opposed to, hmm, doom sound of Ozzy era? I love those albums, even though they are probably ranked at seventh and eight spot of my most listened Black Sabbath albums list - and that by a considerable margin.
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For me , it’s the other way round. I got into BS’s music after having heard Maiden , Priest and older bands like rainbow , deep purple etc. Almost all with more “cleaner” heavy metal vocals.
That I suppose coloured my expectations on Ozzy and his singing capabilities. I like Heaven and Hell album a lot. Mob Rules not so much though.
I do think BS with Ozzy had the more iconic songs. It’s just that listening to the other bands in my metal listening formative days stopped me from having an appreciation for Ozzy as a singer.
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If you compare any heavy metal vocalist to Dio, you’re most likely going to end up disappointed… Unless you’re comparing Halford and Dickinson to him. That’s not a slight on Ozzy or anyone else, it’s just that Dio was a powerhouse.
As for albums, those first six Black Sabbath albums literally created metal music. Words like “classic” or “legend” get bandied about often but they are created for albums and bands like these ones.
I’ve always held Judas Priest in higher regard for multitude of reasons (then again, I probably love only Type O Negative more than I love them) but Black Sabbath’s quality and influence cannot be overstated, at least when we’re talking about those first albums.
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Ohh I really liked Peter Steele and Type O Negative
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With me, I got into I got into Sabbath and a lot of other metal bands after picking up a copy of Axe Attack from Woolworths. This was a metal compilation album on the K-Tel label which had been promoted on the telly.
There were lots of bands I picked up on after hearing that. Black Sabbath had Paranoid on. There was Running Free by Maiden (who were a new band at the time), Bomber by Motörhead, Breaking the Law by Priest. I think I liked 80% of the bands on there and tried to get related albums.
The problem at the time was that most of the big record retailers didn’t stock many metal albums. There were a few independent that did, but if I’d heard something on the Friday Night Rock Show it was a struggle. I think NEMS had closed locally by this point, but Skeleton in Birkenhead were great (particularly second hand) and Probe at the end of Matthew Street were good for independent labels and imports.
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