Your top 3 Black Sabbath albums?

Methinks it's a personal rule.....to stay away from the dark side?

 

Fake attempt?

 

1. Master of Reality- This was the album that really done it for me, from start to finish it just blew me completely away. For me it's Sabbath's masterpiece.
2. Vol. 4- Vol. 4 is an extremely close second for me, absolutely love this album. Under The Sun/Everyday Comes and Goes is my favorite Sabbath track, the last section just gives me goosebumps every time and has to be one of my favorite album closers of all time. MOR has a slight edge over this one for me, but still love it.
3.Black Sabbath- I really enjoy the debut, in comparison to the albums that follow, it has its own charm to me. Although I love the whole album, I especially dig the tracks Wicked World and Warning.

I love all albums/eras of Sabbath, but these are my three favorites.

 

"Walk Away" is pretty terrible too.

 

Yeah, after the news about Geoff Nicholls I listened to Heaven and Hell on the turntable at home and again on CD in the car. "Lady Evil" and "Walk Away" remain awful. The other six songs though, oh my word.

 

You know it, man. I don't see the point in arguing opinions.

 

Although it seems at times I am a glutton for punishment!

 

But it's always enjoyable to see how well you take it.

 

Ha! It's not like it's life or death....just minor distractions/annoyances!

 

What's crazy about it? Right out of the gate you have Hole in the Sky, which rocked harder and had a more advanced riff than any of the like-minded tracks on the preceding albums. The lyrics work on so many levels, it's just sick. Don't Start Too Late is multiple tracks of Iommi on acoustic guitar going far beyond what he did for Fluff, Laguna Sunrise or any other instrumental. This erupts into Symptom of the Universe, which was hugely influential and gave rise to many sub-genres of thrash and metal. Geezer really upped his game for the lyrics to perfectly match the thrust of the music, both in the thrash section and the acoustic section after the song goes through a 180 degree metamorphosis that out-does anything else in Sab's catalog.

The next song, Megalomania, is like Looking for Today on steroids. Addressing rock stardom and equating it with selling one's soul to be the human obscene. It also features the line that everyone can relate to, "Why doncha just get out of my life, why doesn't everybody leave me alone." Just when you think the songwriting perfection can't get any better, along comes The Thrill of It All with its euphoric riff and words, "forget your problems that don't even exist and I'll show you a way to get high!" Supertzar is an ambitious arrangement featuring a full choir with fantastic dynamics. Am I Going Insane is Sab at its most paranoid schizophrenic. It's the weakest song on the album, but the next one is a tour de force aimed at Sab's former manager.

It's not at all cray/cray to say that each of these songs is the culmination of Sab's previous efforts. It just depends whether you appreciate more elaborate arrangements and advanced lyrics or more primitive production on earlier albums.

 

s/t
master of reality
sabbath bloody sabbath

in reality, i love all of them through born again.

 

What about You Won't Change Me?

 

My 3 favorites right now...

MOR
SBS
Sabotage

The creative peak... they never reached again!

 

Two of mine aren't present in the poll so I didn't vote.

Paranoid
Born Again
TYR

 

It is for me - it was Rubin forcing them to write in a style of the 1971-ish era, hence the rehash of a few riffs from the clutch of 70's album we all love so much - his instructions after playing the debut album to them over and over again - what would you write after this album?

The retro sound he got them to use is too fake for me - check out bands like Witchcraft that bring a more real authentic retro tone to life. The drums are soul-less - sounding wise - and maybe its also the wrong drummer on the stool (okay we know Bill should be there - but I'm not convinced Brad was the right replacement either).

So I think its more the sound of the album that kills it for me as some decent songs came out of the sessions - but the one true glorious moment is 'Damaged Soul'. A song that developed from a spontaneous jam in the rehearsal room, the song of a band not shackled by a forced writing template - it has real warmth, the best guitar tone on the album and stands head and shoulders above the rest of the album for me. Thank God that Mike Exeter recorded it and worked on it into that tune and it made it through to the final album.

I also know all the orchestrations were stripped back off the album as it didn't meet Rubin's template of trying to follow what would have followed the debut album back in the day - as we know those orchestrations prominently featured on SBS / Sabotage - but it didn't get a chance for the public to hear how Age Of Reason would sound with them all there (and maybe a few other tracks - but that one was a definite).

Iommi was always a pioneer in guitar sounds developing and in his run of Iommi (2000 solo album) / Fused / The Devil You Know - his guitar sound was monstrous - the 13 guitar sound also should have been in that vein - it wasn't - its a poor thin sound thanks to Rubin and that's the core of my huge disappointment with it all.

 

If you chose :
S/t
MoR
And
Sabotage

Then you chose correctly.

 

Agree with all of this. Sabotage is top-tier Sab all the way.

Plus, Sabotage has a very "in your face" sound, the guitars are very raw and monstrous.

 

Really just having some fun with ya'. But I do like my Sabbath more stripped down, no strings and little if any keyboards. But I do agree some iconic tracks are on it.

 

I'll have to spin my US copy again, as I recall, the sound kept getting thinner with each album after Vol. 4.

 

I'd give it a 5/5, as I would every Ozzy era album, the Dio albums, and at least a couple of the post-Dio albums ranked highest on my list (which was in an earlier post).

It's just that Technical Ecstasy isn't one of my top 3 Sabbath albums (unlike Never Say Die) . . . I like all of the other Ozzy era albums more than it except for the debut. But I love every one of those albums.

 

I wouldn't say that they are progressive rock, but I'd say that they have prog elements, per how I define progressive rock. In a nutshell, a major part of what characterized progressive rock in my opinion is a departure from traditional pop song structures, including harmonic, rhythmic etc. departures.

And in fact, in my opinion, this is part of what makes something (heavy) metal versus hard rock. (Heavy) metal has prog elements in its departure from traditional pop song structures. Hard rock does not. Hard rock employs traditional pop song structures instead.

 

Labels are always tricky as they are subject to individual interpretation. In that vein, I will just say...OK.

 

I've got a different opinion on the "13" album. Great song writing throughout. I think Rubin did a great job to get them to duplicate the classic sound but in the end a huge mistake was made with the mastering. I am surprised you did not like more songs. I agree Damaged Soul is fantastic but I found God Is Dead to be very strong and End of The Beginning absolutely incredible. Loner is simple but great lyrics. Zeitgeist is probably the album highlight for me, just perfectly executed, incredible song. I don't hear a "fake" sound or a "thin" sound and in fact would say that Rubin nailed the guitar sound for Iommi throughout. I can only hope for a remixing and remastering some day. When it came out I played this over and over but as I said before (possibly due to the mastering issues) I don't play it as frequently now. My least favorite tracks are Live Forever and Dear Father. I did very much like the rain and bells to tie in the end of the album to the origins of Sabbath, that was a brilliant touch. Anyway, sorry you did not like it.