Okay, I checked out "side one" of Sabotage on the way home yesterday, and "side two" on the way in to work today.
That some good shit!
I like that there's more of the upbeat stuff, not so much slow heavy BOM BOM BA-DA-BOM! Also, the sound seems more refined or better produced. And "Supertzar" - what the hell was that?! What a crazy track. Choir juxtaposed with electric guitars? I like. I'm glad they didn't stop with the instrumentals and experimental stuff. The occassional acoustic rhythm guitar here and there, Ozzy screaming in head voice (which I'm sure he can't even do anymore), that kind of thing. Gonna give it another spin or two over the next few days, but initial rating is 8/10, with a strong chance of going higher.
Also, I need to revisit Heaven and Hell, which was actually one of the first ones I bought on vinyl, like 100 years ago. I used to really like it, then someone told me it sucked because Dio is so inferior to Ozzy, and I listened to them. Teenagers are so impressionable. In some ways I like Dio better; his voice doesn't bug the fuck out of me like Ozzy's does from overexposure to bad post-Sabbath material. But it's not on my iPod and I know I've got it somewhere. Probably on my external hard drive...