Your favorite Ozzy-era Black Sabbath album?

[WildRanger]

Your personal pick out of these 9?

I have to go with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

[Art]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

[El Barto]

Sabotage, but SBS comes pretty damn close. After those two there's a huge gap.

[Zydar]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but Paranoid and Master Of Reality comes close too.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Paranoid. Honestly, you just can't beat War Pigs, or Fairies Wear Boots for that matter.

[Peter Mc]

Has to be Paranoid doesn’t it? Paranoid, War Pigs, Iron Man and Fairies Wear Boots alone should mean the end of the contest!

[Mladen]

Master of Reality

[TAC]

Sabotage, but SBS comes pretty damn close. After those two there's a huge gap.

You ad I are in complete agreement on this.

[LudwigVan]

Paranoid is a near perfect album. It toes that line between 60s drugged out psychedelia and heavy metal that I love.

[Stadler]

Sabotage, but SBS comes pretty damn close. After those two there's a huge gap.

You ad I are in complete agreement on this.

Put me in there too, except some days I give SBS the slight edge (I love the 1-2 of Living For Today and Spiral Architect).   

[pg1067]

Album:  Paranoid
Song:  Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

[El Barto]

Sabotage, but SBS comes pretty damn close. After those two there's a huge gap.

You ad I are in complete agreement on this.

Put me in there too, except some days I give SBS the slight edge (I love the 1-2 of Living For Today and Spiral Architect).

I'm a big Killing Yourself to Live fan, so that whole second side is just something else. And SBS-National Acrobat is a motherfucker of an opener. The biggest problem Is that I just don't like Sabra Cadabra at all. That really disrupts the flow and drags the album down. That's also a problem on Sabotage. What would be an amazing run of Megalomania, Thrill of it all, Supertzar, and The Writ are interrupted by Am I going Insane. Not a bad song, but it really disrupts the flow they had working. In any case, that run of songs is better than S2 of SBS, IMO. It's pretty close, though.

[wolfking]

This is very difficult.  A case could be made for most of these, even NSD truthfully.  I was leaning towards Vol 4 but I think it's Master of Reality for me.

[silentmac6]

Sabotage, but SBS comes pretty damn close. After those two there's a huge gap.

You ad I are in complete agreement on this.

Put me in there too, except some days I give SBS the slight edge (I love the 1-2 of Living For Today and Spiral Architect).   

I don't mind the lighter stuff on Sabotage, but the legal problems they were having during the making of that album really showed in their heavier stuff. SBS is great but as Iommi has stated, it wasn't heavy enough. This was when they started to get more prog and for me, it culminated on Sabotage. Unfortunately after that, they lost the plot.

[Dream Team]

WildRanger: are you over at Metal Archives under another name? Because someone just posted the exact same question over there.

[Anxiety35]

I've always liked Vol. 4 for some reason. Favorite? Difficult to say because there was a great run of albums from Paranoid to Sabotage.

[fibreoptix]

The three album run of Vol. 4, SBS and Sabotage. Favourite could well differ on any given day. I also quite like Technical Ecstasy. I understand why it gets the hate it gets, for sure, but it's nice and eclectic and the songs are more or less all interesting and engaging. I'm also of the opinion that You Won't Change Me is one of the best songs they ever did.

[The Curious Orange]

I think Paranoid was a bigger album in the US than it was elsewhere. The setlist for "The End" shows was almost exclusively drawn from the first 3 albums (bar Snowblind and - for some reason - Dirty Women) with every track from Paranoid played, excepting Planet Caravan. It was a missed opportunity, because for my money each of those first 6 albums is better than the last. For that reason I voted Sabotage. Despite it's truly awful cover.

Oh, Never Say Die is really under-rated btw.

[Stadler]

Sabotage, but SBS comes pretty damn close. After those two there's a huge gap.

You ad I are in complete agreement on this.

Put me in there too, except some days I give SBS the slight edge (I love the 1-2 of Living For Today and Spiral Architect).

I'm a big Killing Yourself to Live fan, so that whole second side is just something else. And SBS-National Acrobat is a motherfucker of an opener. The biggest problem Is that I just don't like Sabra Cadabra at all. That really disrupts the flow and drags the album down. That's also a problem on Sabotage. What would be an amazing run of Megalomania, Thrill of it all, Supertzar, and The Writ are interrupted by Am I going Insane. Not a bad song, but it really disrupts the flow they had working. In any case, that run of songs is better than S2 of SBS, IMO. It's pretty close, though.

Not that the others are bad, but Megalomania and The Writ are two of the best songs in the entire catalogue.   I'm iffy on "Symptom Of The Universe" and "Am I Going Insane", and not that iffy on "Sabbra Caddabra", so that's often the difference for me.    To be clear, though, I'm splitting hairs between Margot Robbie and Sarah Shahi, here. 

[ozzy554]

Sabotage. Megalomania and The Writ are 2 of my favorite songs not just in sabbath's discography but 2 of my favorites in general. Also I've always had a soft spot for Am I going Insane?, not entirely sure why though.

[The Curious Orange]

Interesting fact some of you may not know - Am I Going Insane (Radio) is so called not because it's a radio mix, but because it's rhyming slang - Radio Rental = Mental. Radio Rental being a UK high street electronics store back in the 70s.

[Art]

Very nice to see the love for Sabotage, one of my favorites. Always had the impression it was kind of overlooked.

[Orbert]

Paranoid.  I've never been a huge Sabbath fan, but I had Paranoid and the first album back in junior high, and of those two I prefer Paranoid.  I eventually filled out my collection, and I like a lot of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath because it's different, but overall I find myself going back to Paranoid when I need a Black Sabbath fix.

[SleeperAwake]

Went with Master of Reality, Paranoid being my backup choice.

[Indiscipline]

Master of Reality, simply spellbinding.

[TAC]

I find Master Of Reality extremely weak, the weakest after Technical Ecstasy.

Other than the incredible Into The Void, which is a Top 3 Ozzy Era track for me, there's not much left on the album.

Sweet Leaf is one of the all time dumbest songs.

[KevShmev]

I find Master Of Reality extremely weak, the weakest after Technical Ecstasy.

Other than the incredible Into The Void, which is a Top 3 Ozzy Era track for me, there's not much left on the album.

Sweet Leaf is one of the all time dumbest songs.

I don't think the album is that weak, but I agree it is by far the least best of the first six. 

For my money, while Paranoid might be their best album, my favorites are the first album and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

[TAC]

So I have it at #7 and you have it at best #6.

[KevShmev]

I'd put it at 7 as well.

Favorites in order:

1a. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
1b. Black Sabbath
3. Paranoid
4. Sabotage
5. Heaven and Hell
6. Volume 4
7. Master of Reality
 
That is pretty much where I stop with Sabbath, outside of a few songs.

[TAC]

I have it at #7 of the Ozzy albums. If I include the Dio and Martin albums it's way down on the list.

[Trav86]

Master of Reality
Paranoid
Black Sabbath
Vol. 4
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabotage
Technical Ecstasy
Never Say Die

Btw, this thread has me going back and listening to these albums that I haven’t heard in a decade or more. So, thank you for that!

[WildRanger]

I find Master Of Reality extremely weak, the weakest after Technical Ecstasy.

Other than the incredible Into The Void, which is a Top 3 Ozzy Era track for me, there's not much left on the album.

Come on, Childen of the Grave is one of the essential classic Sabbath tunes! So heavy and aggressive for the 70's decade. 

[Max Kuehnau]

I find Master Of Reality extremely weak, the weakest after Technical Ecstasy.

Other than the incredible Into The Void, which is a Top 3 Ozzy Era track for me, there's not much left on the album.

Come on, Childen of the Grave is one of the essential classic Sabbath tunes! So heavy and aggressive for the 70's decade. 

which DT played on some occasions during the I/W tour btw. I imagine it worked whenever they played it.

[wolfking]

I find Master Of Reality extremely weak, the weakest after Technical Ecstasy.

Other than the incredible Into The Void, which is a Top 3 Ozzy Era track for me, there's not much left on the album.

Sweet Leaf is one of the all time dumbest songs.

[Max Kuehnau]

Back on topic: I much prefer Dio-era Sabbath (including the Heaven And Hell releases, they're Sabbath to me as well) and Born Again. Not a fan of Ozzy's vocal style at all. That said, I do like some of the songwriting on the post Vol4 Ozzy releases (and Rick Wakeman's guest appearance on SBS as well). I won't vote though. Hope you understand.