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.
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
Last edited by Johnnyo on 08/03/2026 05:24; edited 1 time in total
• 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.
1. Paranoid
2. Black Sabbath
3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4. Master of Reality
5. Vol 4
6. Sabotage
7. Heaven and Hell
8. Blizzard of Ozz
9. Never Say Die
10. Technical Ecstasy
• Mach II Black Sabbath sounded so incredibly different than Mach I Sabbath.
• At this point, no other band had ever sounded like this... . Not even late 70s Rainbow (NOT EVEN CLOSE! 😈 ).
• They were HEAVY in a whole different way.
• Two of the biggest albums that influenced Power Metal were Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules. I'd argue that Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules had a LOUDER impact on the evolution of Power Metal than all those Mach I albums with Ozzy!
• BOTH Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules are easily classics of early '80s Metal. (Ozzy's first two solo albums easily reach classic status as well.)
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