Tony Martin. Absolutely no contest on that. His vocal abilities are beyond amazing, his Sabbath albums are the best they ever wrote and recorded, his stage presence surpassed both Dio's and Ozzy's, his singing just did nothing but improve from album to album, and was the most complete frontman they could have. Yes, Dio is an absolutely amazing singer, but Tony Martin's every bit as good as Dio when it comes to technique. He even goes further, because Tony Martin's vocals fit better the Black Sabbath sound than Dio's.

On top of that, he was the only Black Sabbath singer to do a full album about Satan. Not even the so-called "Prince of Darkness" did it. There's absolutely no way someone can beat him.

Dio is the most talented vocalist the band has had, and there's no question that the albums he did with Sabbath are classics. It was impressive how the man sounded fantastic throughout his entire career, where Ozzy's vocals have been mediocre for over a decade now. Tony Martin was really terrific too, but the albums he was on, even though they were good, don't compete with the classic Ozzy albums or what Dio did with the band.

That being said, Ozzy was with Sabbath for the first 8 albums, and those are even bigger classics than anything Dio or Martin did with them, so I have to go with Ozzy-era Sabbath for the poll.

Does that automatically make him better





http://www.youtube.com/v/JeqBz30JMT8

http://www.youtube.com/v/YCjspyo-_aI

Don't start it with me, mindshadow. If that's what you got from my post, then you really have to learn how to read.

Is there something wrong with that live performance? Martin is pretty great and yeah, it's a song from the Ozzy era and you link a live version versus the studio one, that's like saying Bayley is bad by linking a song from the Dickinson era, they're different vocalists. Makes some sense, Mindshadow!

Also, Ozzy is winning

Dio. Not only was he their best singer, but the band wrote their best songs with him. Blackmore also wrote his best stuff with Dio. I think Ronnie's just the fuckin' man.

Really the obvious choice is Dio. Ozzy was on a lot of good albums, and his unique voice fit them well, but if we're judging him separately as a lyricist, frontman, and singer, he's just clearly not as good as Dio or even Tony Martin. His range is limited, both in terms of notes and emotion, and if you watch live videos from the 70s he's decent at the frontman thing but not great. Dio on the other hand is amazing at all of those things, which is something I shouldn't have to justify for people here. Tony Martin vs. Dio is more complex, in that both are very good singers, but I think Dio is just more distinctive and has that extra 'oomph' and character to his voice that Tony Martin lacks in comparison. Martin is very good, but he's not great.

A good way to look at how much Ozzy, Dio, and Martin contributed to Sabbath is to look at what they did without Iommi; Ozzy and Martin's post-Sabbath bands have been mediocre to awful, while Dio's pre- and post-Sabbath efforts have resulted in some amazing material.

My favourite Sabbath albums are with Ozzy, but my favourite singer is Dio, so I picked Dio. Ozzy wasn't the highlight on the '70s albums, whereas Dio was essentially the spotlight of everything he did with Sabbath (in my opinion). Also, he wrote all his own lyrics, so yeah, fuckin' Dio.

Someone picked Hughes!

Oh, also Dio owned the live stage until the day he dropped dead. The same can't really be said of Ozzy.

My favourite singer out of these is Dio, but as far Sabbath goes, Ozzy-era is my favourite.

Ozzy for me, as much as he's embarrassed himself in the past 20 years, nothing can touch the first 6 sabbath albums and his performance on them is perfect.

Dio on Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules is untouchable too, but his run wasn't quite as prolific.

The Tony Martin era stuff has some real gems, and Born Again is really cool too. But, ultimately it comes down to Dio and Ozzy.

I chose Gillan. Born Again is seriously underrated.

This. I tried to say something similar in my post but as usual you put it much better.

Im fucking love that album. Also "Born Again".

But honestly, nobody beat Ozzy performance on "Volume 4" and "Master Of Reality".

well in all fairness, not all of Ozzy's post Sabbath stuff has been mediocre to awful; his first two solo albums were in fact quite excellent. But that was mostly due to the guitarist that played on those two Ozzy albums. Ozzy's third and fourth studio solo albums were still decent, but everything afterwards- well, I gotta agree with Failsafeman's sentiments there. As I already said, I voted for Dio because even though Ozzy's Sabbath stuff was more "classic", so to speak, Dio is unquestionalby the better vocalist and really brought out the band's fullest potential.

definitely Ozzy im a huge fan and love nearly everything hes done with Sabbath and Ozzy

Ozzy (Sorry OpsiusCato )

Ozzy. He really embodies what Black Sabbath means to me when I hear their name. My first exposure to the band was on a greatest hits cassette when I was probably about 10. From the opening self titled track, I was hooked. While the Dio albums are great, I feel like the band had started to take on a different direction by that point. Give me the original line up any day.

Dio is a better vocalist easily, Ozzy is better for the band's sound. Ozzy all the way.

Tony Martin. I never really liked the Ozzy era and though Dio is a good singer I think that in general the Martin era is superiour. I just found the albums from that period to be much darker, more atmospheric and Martin's vocals were just magnificent. Headless Cross

I'm torn between Tony Martin and Ozzy. The first three albums Tony sang on were awesome, but Ozzy is the eternal idol that Black Sabbath is known for.

Ok my two favorites for the band are Ian Gillan and Dio, though I have to say Ian Gillan fits the band better. Dio is unmatched on faster songs like "Turn Up The Night" but his voice just doesn't grab me the way Gillan does on the slower doom tracks and for a band like Black Sabbath those tracks really matter.

No Ray GIllen?

Ray Gillen's version of Eternal Idol is very good, also. Not "Tony Martin Good", but very good.

I understand that Tony Martin is a great vocalist but I don't get what's supposed to be so great about Tony Martin era Black Sabbath. To me it sounds like generic stadium rock with some heavy metal thrown in as an alibi. Obviously Iommy can do much better.

Dio is easily my favourite vocalist of the bunch. I tried something by the so acclaimed Martin, but though I found his skill to be quite great, I wasn't overly fond of his style. To boot, the music during Dio's era is considerably superior.

My favourite Sabbath albums are from the Ozzy era, before Sabotage, but I chose Dio as the best singer.

A lot of people (61 and counting) seem to be voting for their favorite chunks of the band's discography, rather than for who they think was the best lead singer for Sabbath... I mean, Ozzy is winning!

To be fair, considering just their time in Sabbath, and even album quality aside, I get that the answer may be different than if one takes into account the singers' performances throughout their respective careers. Ian Gillan, especially, was a fantastic singer in Deep Purple, and could arguably even top this list or score just a bit less than Dio if 'Born Again' didn't happen to be a rather low point in his career. And Glenn Hughes was a great singer once, even if 'Seventh Star' is hardly a Sabbath album.

But still. Based on merits as a frontman and singer, there should be a solid 10-15 vote gap between Dio and number 2, and then a decent gap between Martin and Ozzy.

I love and respect Dio as much as the next metalhead, and it couldn't be more obvious that he was a more technically gifted and powerful singer compared to Ozzy, but that still doesn't make him the best fit for Sabbath in my opinion. Ozzy's off-kilter nasal warblings are as much codified into the DNA of doom for me as Iommi's impossible riffing and Geezer's wonderful wandering bass lines. His voice is the sound of witches gathering around fires, his voice is the sound of young maidens being lain upon altar slabs. It's fucking DOOM, man.

Without Ozzy I would likely never have heard Bobby Liebling or Terry Jones. Unacceptable.

(edit: All that being said I'm not going to vote on the poll out of respect for my man Antoine. I haven't heard Sabbath with Martin and probably won't be remedying that anytime soon.)

Jonpo pretty much describes where I stand. Dio and Martin are both technically great singer, but neither does very much for me with the music presented. Ozzy just has much, much more character from my perspective, a character which fits the music excellently. I think the songs from the Ozzy era are much better, too, although that obviously doesn't make him better.

This is it. Ozzy is DOOM. His voice, shitty as it is, meshes so well with the riffing and the atmosphere, there couldn't be a better frontman for Sabbath, and the other contenders are no lightweight amateurs

That's fair. I agree that 70s Ozzy was cool if not technically good, and no one arguably sang say, "War Pigs" or "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath", quite like he used to. Those songs and RJD were never a great combo. Then again, the thought of Ozzy singing say, "Heaven and Hell" or "Sign of the Southern Cross", brings a knee-jerk reaction to cover one's ears. Martin did quite okay with Dio era songs, though, and pretty good with Ozzy era songs. He wasn't anywhere near as good live as on studio albums, however, that much is true (though he never seemed to get the right effects and settings his vocal approach called for on stage, which surely didn't help).


Just in case, here's a little incentive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifk08JOwd8E

I'm gonna say Dio was easily the best frontman they had. Ozzy and Dio both performed on some untouchable material, but my preference is for the Dio-era of Sabbath. Heaven And Hell resonates with me like no other album I've ever heard.

I love Glenn Hughes. Trapeze, Deep Purple, Play me Out, His 90' and 00's solo material, Black Country Communion, his albums with Tony Iommi and various other projects. Seventh Star is Decent, but he is not at the top of his game on that record (heavily addicted to cocaine at the time). I can't express what great and versatile singer he is, metal, rock, funk, pop he can do it all. If your only exposure to him is seventh star that makes me sad.

Dio is clearly the correct the choice for Sabbath AS A WHOLE. he can pull off any song any era and it will be bad ass and metal as fuck and that's important for Sabbath. Christsakes they invented metal! Can you imagine Ozzy singing neon knights? He would butcher the fuck out of it.

Can you imagine Ozzy singing neon knights at age 66 sounding as good as Dio did at the age. Hell no. I love the Ozzy albums and they are fucking milestones in music from the debut to sabotage (sabotage being my favorite), but Dio is the clear choice. Tony Martin is just Dio lite to me. I will say Tyr rules.

Ray Gillen is also a great fucking singer if you can track down his bootlegs. He sounds so young fresh and excited on live recordings I've heard. He may not have been perfect for Sabbath stylistically but he is great.

Ian Gillan is a vocal god, I LOVE born again. Zero the Fucking Hero. fuck dude. Check out live bootlegs of him singing the song heaven and hell and doing his trademark screams to the tune of the high pitched guitar bridge. I think if Gillan was given a better chance and his lineup lasted a little longer he could have had a chance at the throne Dio sits on, but Born Again is just not enough. That being said I think even if Heaven and Hell was the only record Dio made with Sabbath that WOULD be enough to place him on the throne of Sabbath vocalist king. Dio is everything metal should be.

Can't you see the writing's in the air?

I think instead of "competence", you mean "competition." Otherwise, you're basically saying that Dio wasn't a competent singer, and anyone saying that is the dumbest piece of shit on the known planet. Anyway, since the question wasn't, "Which singer was with the band during their best albums?", I picked Dio. Hands fucking down. Ozzy was with them in the golden years, but Dio is a FAR better vocalist.

The poll currently adds up to 101%.

Dio everyday of the week for me with Tony behind him. I just don't like Ozzy, I don't hold uniqueness or 'fitting in with the music' over general vocal quality. If Dio was on those old albums, they'd be so much better.

I am going to go with Dio. I like Ozzy as well, but the Mob Rules is my favorite Black Sabbath album.

I guess votes for Glenn Hughes don't count, so it becomes a statistical anomaly.