Best Ever Albums

Re: Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne

Repo — Sun, 2 Aug 2026 22:32:03 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 08/03/2026 02:32

• Blizzard of Ozz and Heaven & Hell are such different animals. Kind of cool how different sounding the ex-couple became after just ONE album. They're pretty much in two separate sub-genres of Metal immediately.

• Ozzy hooking up with an Eddie Van Halenesque neoclassical gunslinger - Randy Rhodes -and taking Van Halen's guitar-centic Hard Rock meets Glam another crucial step into Hair Metal territory. Just as importantly but more singular, the Gothic Rock elements of Ozzy's first 3 albums is pretty much unequaled by any band. Perhaps the best Gothic Hard Rock of all time.

Re: Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne

Johnnyo — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 02:10:05 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 07/31/2026 06:10

CA Dreamin wrote:

Something I forgot to mention in my post was how Blizzard of Ozz was heart-on-sleeve, whereas Heaven and Hell was kind of vague. And this was matter of stylistic differences between Ozzy and Dio, and where there were at in 1980. As I mentioned, Dio's lyrics touched upon fantasy, surreal, mythology, but he didn't get too specific, leaving the meaning of his words up to interpretation. Ozzy, on the other hand, was a wreck, more so than usual at the time of Blizzard of Ozz. You can easily tell how hurt he was over getting fired from Black Sabbath. There isn't much room for interpretation in songs like Goodbye to Romance and Suicide Solution. Ozzy was drinking heavily, plus dealing with the falling-out with his long-time friends and musical collaborators. It's as simple as that. Therefore I probably gravitate more towards Ozzy's 1980 album than Sabbath's, but only slightly. And I stand by my statement neither album comes close to Sabbath 1970-75. Anywho, since this be a rank'em thread, time to update them:

1. Paranoid
2. Black Sabbath
3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4. Master of Reality
5. Vol 4
6. Sabotage
7. Blizzard of Ozz
8. Heaven and Hell
9. Technical Ecstasy
10. Never Say Die

I'm interested in reading Repo's more enthusiastic write-up on H&H and BoOzz. As well as anyone and everyone else who wants to chime in.

It's going to be interesting to see where Ozzy's solo albums fit into the overall Sabb rankings. I think that I'd probably put Heaven & Hell just ahead of Blizzard but 7 & 8 feels right to me

Re: Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne

CA Dreamin — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:50:11 GMT

Author: CA Dreamin

Posted: 07/30/2026 16:50

Something I forgot to mention in my post was how Blizzard of Ozz was heart-on-sleeve, whereas Heaven and Hell was kind of vague. And this was matter of stylistic differences between Ozzy and Dio, and where there were at in 1980. As I mentioned, Dio's lyrics touched upon fantasy, surreal, mythology, but he didn't get too specific, leaving the meaning of his words up to interpretation. Ozzy, on the other hand, was a wreck, more so than usual at the time of Blizzard of Ozz. You can easily tell how hurt he was over getting fired from Black Sabbath. There isn't much room for interpretation in songs like Goodbye to Romance and Suicide Solution. Ozzy was drinking heavily, plus dealing with the falling-out with his long-time friends and musical collaborators. It's as simple as that. Therefore I probably gravitate more towards Ozzy's 1980 album than Sabbath's, but only slightly. And I stand by my statement neither album comes close to Sabbath 1970-75. Anywho, since this be a rank'em thread, time to update them:

1. Paranoid
2. Black Sabbath
3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4. Master of Reality
5. Vol 4
6. Sabotage
7. Blizzard of Ozz
8. Heaven and Hell
9. Technical Ecstasy
10. Never Say Die

I'm interested in reading Repo's more enthusiastic write-up on H&H and BoOzz. As well as anyone and everyone else who wants to chime in.

Re: Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne

Johnnyo — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 03:45:57 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 07/27/2026 07:45

Nice entry Repo. I'm going to revisit

Heaven And Hell (1980) by Black Sabbath

&

Blizzard Of Ozz (1980) by Ozzy Osbourne

to give them a shot. I've not played either in quite a few years and My recollection is that they were good but not great. I'll let you know what I think

Re: Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne

Repo — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:55:43 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 07/26/2026 19:55

I'm burnt out from a 3 week roadtrip with my kids, BUT I will be adding my 2 cents shortly.

I consider both Heaven & Hell and Blizzard of Ozz to be total classics and some of the best metal albums of 1980. 1980 was one of the most important years in the history of metal and both albums were a key part of that.

I recently ranked the the metal albums of 1980 and here were my rankings...

Repo wrote:

The Repo Metal Hall Of Fame: 1980

First set of inductees into my Hall Of Fame. Metal albums that became part of the cultural fabric of their day and have stood the test of time. I will typically try to limit this to five albums, but 1980 just had way too much goodness. If you think something is missing, I want to here about it! If you think something doesn't belong? Again, I want to hear about it. This is ranked (in order) by how much I love them. But, they're all obviously awesome or they wouldn't be here. Let me know what you think!

7.