What's your favorite Black Sabbath album?

I grew up on Ozzy in late Jr high school / early high school in the early 80s.  My friend had Never Say Die.  I found the first few albums, and liked them.  Then a friend in charge of the PA system in school for events was allowed to play music on the system in the auditorium at lunch and fired up Heaven and Hell.

I still remember the opening chords of the title song vibrating my chest he had it so loud.  It's been one of my favorite albums since.  Of course I then heard Mob Rules and later Dio's solo career (also discovered Rainbow and Elf).

But I also heard Born Again and it was so different.  Later figured out Ian Gillan and Deep Purple.  I have a soft spot for that album.  I like Ozzy and respect the old stuff, heard some more recent Black Sabbath at the end (my first concert was Ozzy in 1986, Queensryche opening), but if pressed for a favorite, it's going to be H&H.

What about you?  (The bosses are both out, so I'm passing the time.)

I don't generally go for live albums but Live Evil has always been one of my favorites. I know some aren't as big a fan of the Dio era but the dude has a hell of a voice. After that their self titled album would be my next favorite. 

I've gotta go with the early stuff.  While their first, self-titled album is a classic because it basically invented heavy metal, their second album "Paranoid" is where they really cemented the sound.  I have it on vinyl and even though it's an overplayed song, Iron Man still sounds fantastic cranked up nice and loud.  Hard to beat that second album, although I'll readily admit Dio was a much better singer than Ozzy.

Black Sabbath is a hugely important band to me. I typically split their catalog into four subcategories:

-Ozzy Era

-Dio Era (and that includes the single Heaven and Hell "band" release)

-Tony Martin Era

-Ex-Deep Purple Singer Era

For the Ozzy Era, it's a tough one, since so many of them were groundbreaking classics. I'm going to go with Master of Reality. That album just SLAMS, and it has one of the first instances of fast double bass drumming ever on the breakdown in Into the Void. The whole album is riff-tastic!

Dio Era has to be Heaven and Hell, but Mob Rules is damn near equal to me. They are both incredible works with next-level writing that blew me away upon first listen.

The Tony Martin Era often gets overlooked, but Headless Cross is a classic that ranks up there with some of the best Metal albums ever made. And Brian May plays on one of the songs!

And for the two Deep Purple ones, I have to go with Seventh Star. Glenn Hughes delivers a solid, powerful vocal performance that I feel fits that era better than Ian Gillan on Born Again. I like Ian's work in Deep Purple, but he just doesn't fit the Sabbath style for me.

If I had to pick one Sabbath album to rule them all, it has to be Heaven and Hell. It's among my favorite albums made by anyone, ever. I remember the first time I heard it. I was on a school band trip in high school out-of-state, and we stopped at a mall somewhere in Maryland (I think) for some shopping and to take a break from the road. My friends and I were sick of the tapes we had on us, so we headed for the record store to stock up. I grabbed Wiseblood by Corrosion of Conformity and a few others, while a friend grabbed a tape that had Paranoid on one side and Heaven and Hell on the other. Later on in the trip, we traded tapes, as I wanted to listen to Paranoid. I popped in the tape, expecting to hear War Pigs, but instead got blasted with the intro to Neon Knights. It was so different. And oh man, that's Ronnie James Dio! WTF??? I had no idea he was in Sabbath at all. That first listen was a life-changer and shaped my taste in music for years to come.

Paranoid, hands down, if for no other reason than "Fairies Wear Boots".  It's got a couple of other good songs on there, too.

Any album that has War Pigs on it.

EastCoastMojo (Forum Supporter) said:

I don't generally go for live albums but Live Evil has always been one of my favorites. I know some aren't as big a fan of the Dio era but the dude has a hell of a voice. After that their self titled album would be my next favorite. 

I'm usually not a live album fan either, but yes Live Evil is great.  (Ok I'm old so KISS Alive II ranks up there.)

Mob Rules.

Blame the movie Heavy Metal.

Paranoid.

There is no Sabbath for my except Ozzy.

Mob Rules for me too. I'd heard all the Ozzy-era stuff on the radio & really liked it, and that was around the time Dio was huge with "Rainbow in the Dark". So discovering that Dio had been in Sabbath was completely mind-blowing, and to me that album is far better than both his solo work & the earlier Sabbath stuff. 
 

And for a perfect example of why I feel that way, I present:

, but any of the first four will do. 

Respect for RDJ, but I love Ozzy, and yep, Never Say Die is bitchin' keyboards and all.

It's Paranoid, except for when it's Masters of Reality, or those times when it's obviously Volume 4. 

It's definitely Ozzy Sabbath for me. I would say it's a tie between Paranoid and Master of Reality, so good! I remember the first time I heard Black Sabbath it was on my way to go trick-or-treating with my favorite uncle who said "I'm going to play some Halloween music" and that was my first introduction to metal somewhere around age 8. I loved it immediately! :D My first cassette tape was Metallica's Master of Puppets. I played it so much it fell apart one day :(

Self titled and Paranoid are a close tie for me. Can't stand the later stuff. That's all I have to say about that. 

Band: Black Sabbath

Song: Black Sabbath

Album: Black Sabbath

Year: BLACK SABBATH

Definitely "Paranoid". Just look at side 1 of that record.

And if we're stretching the definition of Black Sabbath, may I nominate "Diary of a Madman"?

Probably Master of Reality for me. There is just a certain feeling you can only get driving at a high rate of speed blasting Children of the Grave with the volume knob cranked all the way up.

Paranoid 

I wasn't sure of the lineup after RJD then Gillan, so I read Wikipedia.  Man, some serious revolving doors for singers and various other members.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath

I've never been an album guy really, I just like songs.  Nobody's Perfect is probably one of 3 albums that I'll listen to all the way thru.

Sabbath has a varying sound that no one that mimics or says to love them gets. Play a casual Sabbath listener Symptom of the Universe and watch it blow their minds

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

That and I are by far my favorite Dio era songs. I is a very overlooked song that's great IMO

I

https://youtu.be/fl8RxD214DU

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

Mob Rules for me too. I'd heard all the Ozzy-era stuff on the radio & really liked it, and that was around the time Dio was huge with "Rainbow in the Dark". So discovering that Dio had been in Sabbath was completely mind-blowing, and to me that album is far better than both his solo work & the earlier Sabbath stuff. 
 

And for a perfect example of why I feel that way, I present:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RgjmxYL04V4?rel=0

 

Sign of the Southern Cross is one of the heaviest riffs ever riffed from the Lord of the Riffs himself. It's so good. 

I is a GREAT one. In fact, Dehumanizer on a whole is fantastic. It's too bad Dio got mad and left after that one (again) because they had a good thing going. Probably the last truly good Sabbath album. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I'm glad someone else likes I , most people haven't even heard it

13 wasn't terrible, Age Of Reason and Loner we're good imo

Ok I've forgotten about Dehumanizer, time to dig through my CD collection.  (Or just add it via SWMBO's Youtube music account.)