Seriously. On sunday I had the HONOUR to see the (almost) original lineup of Black Sabbath live for the first and probably last time in my life and I cried tears of joy all the way through the concert. Ozzy was in top condition and Tony Iommi was standing atop the olymp of metal riffs, just as I suspected! This thread is here so you can explain your appreciation for BLACK SABBATH and what they did to improve your life. CHEERS!

I listen more to Heaven and Hell these days, although I do APPRECIATE! Sabbath was a staple when I was younger and had a tiny music collection. I spent many a night just spacing out to their first five albums.

Heaven and hell counts. Different name doesn't make a different Band necessarily. Whenever Iommi stands behind it, it's sabbath at its core.

Unless it's seventh star

I owe my metal fandom to Sabbath. The Iron Man riff drew me in and Children of the Grave sealed the deal. Still love those classic albums.

1 - We know it is a thread already, you don't have to be redundant.

2 - I don't like apples or pears, but I still appreciate the fibre.

I give this thread a 3 out of 10 overall, albeit with an extra 3 points because I can pretend I never clicked on it, so essentially this thread is a zero for me. Good luck with it though, perhaps someone can come along and salvage it - there might actually be people here who like Black Sabbath but seeing as how this is a metal site I doubt it.

I like Black Sabbath apricots.

I actually saw what you did there and corrected my typo.

waiguoren, you said it.
First album from Sab I have listened to - their self-titled, of course. Liked it. Then I jumped to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and only after that did I hear Paranoid. Still like Bloody Sabbath more overall than Paranoid. I found War Pigs to be really disappointing after that great introduction, Planet Caravan is just goofin' around.

That's it. Til now the bulk of the discussion has been provided by two persons. Closer to the lock.

Sabbath gave us Electric Wizard, which introduced me to doom metal. Sabbath created heavy metal, speed metal, progressive metal, and doom metal. Master of Reality is badass, and Sabotage is kickass. They are '70s heavy rock personified, long haired working class white British dudes armed with guitars.
I don't exactly know where else to go from here.

I am guessing that Black Sabbath appreciation will be pretty much near universal on this board.

Well, okay...maybe a handful of people (you know, the die-hard extreme death/black metal crowd) don't like em all that much but still I'd call it about 95 percent in favor.

I will add that as a teenager, I got more into the Dio years albums than the 70's stuff, and was probably in the minority there as far as that goes. But of course I now appreciate the pre- "Heaven and Hell" era just as much, albeit for very different reasons. There is a definite difference in aesthetic appeal between the Ozzy and Dio eras, and both are great. Dio= better vocalist, more modern metal in approach and maybe slightly more appealing to a 13 or 14 year old kid who lived in the year 1983. While there is a certain timelessness to the Ozzy era that transcends the whole "Metal" thing, which has been copied by countless other newer bands but never really equaled.

Sabotage is one of rock music's greatest works. Ephemeral, world-ending power.

Listened to Cross Purposes today while I was at work. There's some Sabbath in my day, every day and has been for a very long time. They are timeless.

I will also be seeing them live for the first time, next week that is.... Really looking forward to that. I just hope Ozzy's voice doesn't get shot after two songs or so. But then again he's in his mid 60's... and after all that drug use in the 70s and 80s we should give Ozzy a break, and just let him do his thing even if he might ocasionally sound 'offkey'

It looks like Sabbath will be focusing on the first 4 albums and '13'. Too bad I'll probably never ever hear Iommi play any song off the Headless Cross album (which is logical, since I cannot imagine Ozzy not ruining those songs live), i love that album, awesome songs on there... Maybe if some day Tony Martin could finally get this Headless Cross project rolling.... But then again... I want to hear Iommi play those songs :/ If Iommi is still up for it, I hope he joins that project so the fans of the underdog Sabbath albums can also get their share of the fun (just like with Heaven and Hell)

After the first six albums, it feels like the drumming became unimportant. I mean, I LOVE Vinny and Powell, but it didn't really sound like them on those albums they played on.

Best album is hard to choose, but the debut might edge out over Master Of Reality and Paranoid for me.

I saw them for the first time last year (day before my birthday, no less), and Ozzy's voice held up for almost the entire set. The only song he sounded really off on was Children of the Grave, but then he bounced right back for Paranoid. Either way, his voice was shockingly great.

As for their albums, I've already made no secret my worship of Headless Cross, but if we're gonna talk the Ozzy albums then I'd say the debut is my favorite. Just plain evil music.

Yeah, but let's not hold that against them.

This is a very timely thread, because I've been in a big Sabbath mood since yesterday. What's more, King Fowley just printed a run of 'Headless Cross' shirts! That'll make a nice first/only Sabbath shirt for me.

It's so hard for me to narrow down my favorite album, because there's Black Sabbath, and there's Black Sabbath... and two or three more Sabbaths on top of that. You know, it's a very different thing wanting to listen to 'Tyr' from wanting to hear 'Black Sabbath Vol. 4', to me. I *think* 'Headless Cross' is my favorite overall, because it's so catchy and powerful - and wonderfully consistent, something that is far from guaranteed in any given Sabbath album. 'Heaven and Hell' benefits from the same strengths as 'HC', so that one is high in my favor too. For Ozzy's stuff, I consider 'Paranoid', 'Master of Reality', 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', and 'Sabotage' the best; picking just one is difficult, but it's probably between the latter two. 'Paranoid' suffers from a problem that's not even intrinsic to the music: overexposure. So much of it has been played to death, but I'll be damned if 'War Pigs' and 'Iron Man' don't sound like great songs nonetheless. I just listen to that record sparingly, because I want it to sound as fresh as possible to my ears.

It's a testament to this band's greatness that throughout their many changes, musically and otherwise, you will find people everywhere who ardently love and defend each era. And they've just given us *so* much music; it's so very rewarding to take the time to explore it all.

Good shit.

its really good to have a thread to discuss this oft overlooked band, thank u OP

How anyone can enjoy this band I don't know, "Symptom of the Universe" is ripped straight from Diamond Head and everything from "Volume 4" and earlier is straight up Sleep copying. They even stole the idea for the cover of that from Sleep's "Volume 2". Let's not even get into their stuff with that other bozo named "Dio" which sounds just like a complete Screaming for Vengeance rip off.

Since I've discovered metal back when I was a kid, Sabbath has always been, and always will be, my favorite band.

It's timeless, it speaks to me on many levels. Not much else to say.

Totally dude! I mean c'mon BLACK SABBATH? You never see anyone giving these guys the due respect. We've needed this thread for some time.

bugman's reaction made the sarcasm detector go berzerk, marcomai's reaction however...... hmmmm

I gave Sabotage a good listen last night and still think The Writ is the best performance they ever got out of Ozzy. Fucker sounds pissed off and arguably has more power in that song than the rest of his career combined.

I love every album and era of Sabbath's career but would probably list my top five as Master of Reality, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and Dehumanizer.

I've already posted my thoughts earlier, but I just have to add: HOLY SHIT 'ANNO MUNDI'! Bloody hell, what an amazing song. This might be in the top 1 best choruses of all time. 'YOUR EYES ARE BURNIIIIIIING!'

I was already preparing an angry post when I realized you were probably joking meaning they are influential.

"Falling off the Edge of the World" from Mob Rules -- Overlooked gem of the Dio era?



As for my favorite Ozzy era Black Sabbath album, Master of Reality is definitely my all time favorite. Tony Iommi's guitar is at its most sludgy on that album. Its also the last time Geezer Butler's bass was audible because it seems after this album it became forever buried for the rest of the Ozzy era. Didn't Iommi also tune lower to 1 step and a half down for the Master of Reality album too?

Love the first 6 records with Ozzy. Can't get into the Dio era stuff but maybe someday.

Sabbath > all

Single handedly created almost every damn genre of metal.

There is no words to explain how great Black Sabbath is. Both Ozzy and Dio era albums are great.
Timeless amazing music.

First six Sabbath albums are essential to each and every rock and metal enthusiast. Apart from that my favourite Dio and Martin era albums are in following order:

The Devil You Know (under Heaven and Hell moniker)
Headless Cross
Heaven and Hell
Mob Rules
Dehumanizer
Cross Purposes

this may make me a total poser, but the extent of my listening to early sabbath extends at most to a "best of" type setup, full of songs like iron man, paranoid and war pigs. i got into metal in the early 90s, and sabbath was a generation removed from me - my dad had a couple of sabbath LPs in his collection of old records, so i'd always grouped them in with bands like led zeppelin, the doors, etc. it wasn't until i was about 14 and my mates and i started really identifying as metalheads that i bought a copy of paranoid. but this was also about 1998, and i was busy absorbing (downloading) metal from all sides; i was getting into obscure (read: not available at my local HMV) thrash, death and black metal, and sabbath just doesn't compare to that stuff when you're a textbook teenage metalhead, looking for more intensity at every turn. ozzy-era sabbath was already very dated by the late 90s, and probably well before that; i don't even think i listened through the entire ozzy-era sabbath catalogue until the mid-00s. the long and short of that being that i understand sabbath's impact on pretty much all the bands i grew up listening to, and i do think they have a number of corker tunes (from all eras, not just ozzy era), but they were never an essential band for me personally.

Love your thinking Turner, and you've said it in a much less inflammatory/trollish way that I'd have done. Some classic tunes mixed with a lot of stuff that didn't age that well/was filler anyway. And the Dio era, which was average through and through.

Essentially, this thread is full of teens trying to impress old people/that one cool uncle by only liking classic shit, but are on the wrong board to talk about the Eagles, twenty somethings who never grew out of the trying-to-impress-that-cool-uncle-you-have stage (perhaps namechecking John Coltrane didn't work), and cool uncles/old people. It's fine being the latter, but raving about Sabbath as someone who's still young? Makes little sense. Just like Whole Lotta Love sounds pretty lame sauce these days, so does a lot of Sabbath. There's a lot of bands that have improved on their formula, which is as to be expected- Sabbath may have basically invented metal, but they certainly didn't perfect it.

I didn't know you were from the Noktorn school of thought, Caspian (actually I probably did, but just forgot). C'mon, though, music can transcend generations and truly great stuff always will. It's not like people are still listening to Sabbath because it's cool, it's just fucking timeless. Sure, there's some 1970s stuff that you don't really get much in metal anymore - unless it's actively pretending to be from 1972 - but it's hardly a negative thing. Makes little sense to write something off because it came from an earlier generation. I mean, really, what you're doing is essentially saying "young people should all recognise that it's been improved on and get over themselves". Fuggin shite. It's been expanded on, sure, but you're not going to find many (any) doom bands with such great songs and instrumental interplay. Find me a doom band who can rival Iommi and Geezer... and I can tell you it ain't Sleep.

are you seriously saying that if you're young you can't genuinely like black sabbath? that's fucking stupid. and who did 'perfect' metal, as if that's possible or desirable?

Oh dirty women, they don't mess around!


Loved it when they cranked that out on tour, under appreciated song.

^ Oh yes, "Dirty Women" rules. The only good thing about Technical Ecstasy.

Oh okay, tell us what makes "sense" to like then. Tell us what we can listen to to impress you instead.

http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Nadja/14868

^This band. You'll love Pallbearer after hearing this. Guaranteed!

Yeah totally disagree caspian. I was a late comer to metal and took the Metallica -> sepultura -> thrash/death path. Always knew the "best of" sabbath and thought it was pretty cool but not overly exciting. Over the years I've delved into their work and discovered more and more to love about them. I didn't grow up listening to sabbath - I came very late to the party, but they are so much more than "you had to to be there and they are no longer impressive relative to today's bands". Great work is timeless.

Ozzy's Speak of the Devil is what got me into Sabbath at first. I was into glam and hard rock, and also into thrash, and Brad Gillis' interpretation of the Sabbath "best of" resonated with me: the flash guitar licks and the metallic aspects of faster songs.

Then I started discovering the original material and past the initial shock, found that whole different new vibe.. darker, organic, sometimes acoustic, sometimes disco, sometimes hippie.. and I appreciated it on a whole different level.

Parallely I got into the Dio and Martin stuff, and Gillan, and I appreciated them all as I appreciate different bands. It took me a while to get into Seventh Star, though I'm a huge Hughes fan.

Of course I can see the fine thread between all Sabbath line-ups, and Iommi solo projects (and those who are both) these days, but most line-ups conjure a whole different experience than another (except maybe Headless Cross and Tyr who are closer to H&H and Mob Rules).

This said, I saw the original Sabbath line-up in 1999 after being a fan for 8 years, and I was totally unmoved. Now I'm mad at myself for not having travelled to see the small audience and intimate Martin-era shows when the band's popularity was at its lowest (and I; a fan at its highest). I did enjoy the Heaven and Hell (band) show though, good memories.