Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Today's "Chart of the Day"...

Steve397's Top 100 of the '70s

... has a really interesting ranking of Sabbath's albums with Sabotage on top. 😈

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

Repo wrote:

Today's "Chart of the Day"...

Steve397's Top 100 of the '70s

... has a really interesting ranking of Sabbath's albums with Sabotage on top. :twisted:

Very interesting ranking. Seems like a fanatic who loves them all. Why this particular order, only he knows. It'd be cool if he posted here to explain, but in nearly a decade on BEA, he has never post on a forum. Keeps activity to charts and ratings. To each their own.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

CA Dreamin wrote:

Repo wrote:

Today's "Chart of the Day"...

Steve397's Top 100 of the '70s

... has a really interesting ranking of Sabbath's albums with Sabotage on top. :twisted:

Very interesting ranking. Seems like a fanatic who loves them all. Why this particular order, only he knows. It'd be cool if he posted here to explain, but in nearly a decade on BEA, he has never post on a forum. Keeps activity to charts and ratings. To each their own.

I actually PM'd Steve. Hopefully he responds!

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Repo wrote:

CA Dreamin wrote:

Repo wrote:

Today's "Chart of the Day"...

Steve397's Top 100 of the '70s

... has a really interesting ranking of Sabbath's albums with Sabotage on top. :twisted:

Very interesting ranking. Seems like a fanatic who loves them all. Why this particular order, only he knows. It'd be cool if he posted here to explain, but in nearly a decade on BEA, he has never post on a forum. Keeps activity to charts and ratings. To each their own.

I actually PM'd Steve. Hopefully he responds!

I hope so and well done for doing that repo. You’d imagine steve397 would have some interesting takes. Hope they decide to join us.

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Talking about talking about Sabb, does it feel the right moment to start on

Sabotage (1975) by Black Sabbath

Looks like SBS has been well covered

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

CA Dreamin wrote:

While I struggled to find words for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, no problem here talking about Sabotage, an album admittedly not as good as its predecessor, but more fun to discuss. The band was going through intense legal battles, and that fueled both anger and creativity. This was probably their most aggressive-sounding album to date, and I liked the change in tune from SBS and Vol 4. Hole in the Sky opened the album with a callback to their apocalyptic imagery, and contained one of their most memorable riffs. After a brief acoustic instrumental, a signature of nearly all their albums, Symptom of the Universe created fast-paced thrash metal that would take off in later years. It also had a great mid-song improvisation. The songs Megalomania and Am I Going Insane touched upon the theme of mental illness, but the songs were constructed completely different. Megalomania is nearly 10 minutes and feels like three tracks in one, a BEA favorite and hard to disagree. However, I feel Am I Going Insane is unfairly rated as the lowest track on Sabotage (excluding the instrumentals). It's a more straightforward rock song, which is not Sabbath's usual, but it's still very well-written. I really like the outro, when we begin to hear the maniacal laughter, that seems borderline silly at first, but it gradually gives way to maniacal screaming in the closing 5-10 seconds. It was a haunting ending to the song, telling us the band's stress over the legal struggles was really affecting their mental states. It was a great way to lead into The Writ, the excellent closing track where Ozzy lashes out against the music industry, and specifically the band's former manager who was suing them, the cause of all their stress during the production of Sabotage. Ozzy, who wasn't the primary lyricist of the band (that would be Bill Ward Geezer Butler), wrote the lyrics to this one, and it clearly expressed his frustrations.

Welp, Sabotage was another good album from Black Sabbath. Again it's not as good as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and it may actually the weakest of their first six albums, as the songwriting feels a half notch lower than the other five. Two things, though. 1. That isn't an insult, because they're all good albums. 2. Musically, Sabotage may be their most interesting album in years, and I rather enjoyed revisiting it. It's undeniable that external circumstances played a big part in how it turned out, and sometimes that's how it goes. A lot of art, in all its forms, reflects what the artist is feeling. And it kind of sucks knowing this album was fueled by real-life stress, anger, and frustrations of Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, and Ward. One can enjoy the music that came from it, but at the same time hope the next album sounds different, for it would be a sign the band's headaches have ended.

correction: Geezer Butler was primary lyricist, not Bill Ward, don't know what I was thinking

CA Dreamin' got the ball rolling on Sabotage a few days ago and then I buried his post! 🤦‍♂️😅

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Repo wrote:

CA Dreamin wrote:

While I struggled to find words for Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, no problem here talking about Sabotage, an album admittedly not as good as its predecessor, but more fun to discuss. The band was going through intense legal battles, and that fueled both anger and creativity. This was probably their most aggressive-sounding album to date, and I liked the change in tune from SBS and Vol 4. Hole in the Sky opened the album with a callback to their apocalyptic imagery, and contained one of their most memorable riffs. After a brief acoustic instrumental, a signature of nearly all their albums, Symptom of the Universe created fast-paced thrash metal that would take off in later years. It also had a great mid-song improvisation. The songs Megalomania and Am I Going Insane touched upon the theme of mental illness, but the songs were constructed completely different. Megalomania is nearly 10 minutes and feels like three tracks in one, a BEA favorite and hard to disagree. However, I feel Am I Going Insane is unfairly rated as the lowest track on Sabotage (excluding the instrumentals). It's a more straightforward rock song, which is not Sabbath's usual, but it's still very well-written. I really like the outro, when we begin to hear the maniacal laughter, that seems borderline silly at first, but it gradually gives way to maniacal screaming in the closing 5-10 seconds. It was a haunting ending to the song, telling us the band's stress over the legal struggles was really affecting their mental states. It was a great way to lead into The Writ, the excellent closing track where Ozzy lashes out against the music industry, and specifically the band's former manager who was suing them, the cause of all their stress during the production of Sabotage. Ozzy, who wasn't the primary lyricist of the band (that would be Bill Ward Geezer Butler), wrote the lyrics to this one, and it clearly expressed his frustrations.

Welp, Sabotage was another good album from Black Sabbath. Again it's not as good as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and it may actually the weakest of their first six albums, as the songwriting feels a half notch lower than the other five. Two things, though. 1. That isn't an insult, because they're all good albums. 2. Musically, Sabotage may be their most interesting album in years, and I rather enjoyed revisiting it. It's undeniable that external circumstances played a big part in how it turned out, and sometimes that's how it goes. A lot of art, in all its forms, reflects what the artist is feeling. And it kind of sucks knowing this album was fueled by real-life stress, anger, and frustrations of Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, and Ward. One can enjoy the music that came from it, but at the same time hope the next album sounds different, for it would be a sign the band's headaches have ended.

correction: Geezer Butler was primary lyricist, not Bill Ward, don't know what I was thinking

CA Dreamin' got the ball rolling on Sabotage a few days ago and then I buried his post! 🤦‍♂️😅

Hadn’t notice. Thanks for the heads up repo. I’ve got some catching up to do.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Unlike CA Dreamin', I like Sabotage EVEN MORE than Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It's heavier. And the dynamic shifts are perhaps their best. Which is just mind boggling when you think about it. I mean how is that even possible? But the album as a whole just flows so well. It's also peak Ozzy in what I think is his best vocal performance EVER. Especially on "Megalomania." BUT honestly he crushes pretty much every track here.

I've sort of run out of superlatives for this band, really. All six of their first albums would be in my personal Heavy Metal Album Hall Of Fame. Each akin to a Super Bowl Championship. Six rings to rule them all! lol. And the cool thing is that this isn't even disputed. It is simply known. Judas Priest would come take their crown the next year (without much of a fight to be honest) with Sad Wings Of Destiny, and then pretty much own the second half the decade in much the same way that Sabbath owned the first half. Kind of cool timing. \m/

Rank 'Em: Black Sabbath
1. Black Sabbath (1970) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
2. Master of Reality (1971) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
3. Sabotage (1975) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
4. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
5. Paranoid (1970) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
6. Vol 4 (1972) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 1/2

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Repo wrote:

Unlike CA Dreamin', I like Sabotage EVEN MORE than Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It's heavier. And the dynamic shifts are perhaps their best. Which is just mind boggling when you think about it. I mean how is that even possible? But the album as a whole just flows so well. It's also peak Ozzy in what I think is his best vocal performance EVER. Especially on "Megalomania." BUT honestly he crushes pretty much every track here.

I've sort of run out of superlatives for this band, really. All six of their first albums would be in my personal Heavy Metal Album Hall Of Fame. Each akin to a Super Bowl Championship. Six rings to rule them all! lol. And the cool thing is that this isn't even disputed. It is simply known. Judas Priest would come take their crown the next year (without much of a fight to be honest) with Sad Wings Of Destiny, and then pretty much own the second half the decade in much the same way that Sabbath owned the first half. Kind of cool timing. \m/

Rank 'Em: Black Sabbath
1. Black Sabbath (1970) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
2. Master of Reality (1971) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
3. Sabotage (1975) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
4. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
5. Paranoid (1970) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦
6. Vol 4 (1972) 🪦 🪦 🪦 🪦 1/2

Cool write up Repo. I'm not sitting on the fence here but I agree with both you and CA regarding this album.

SBS is a better album than Sabotage but all of the things that you say about Sabotage are also true. A great performance from Ozzy on all of the tracks and the album does flow very well. So why do i put SBS above Sabotage? I think that the rest of the bands contributions are slightly superior on SBS and I think that there are slightly better songs on SBS as well.

That's not to say that Sabotage isn't a great album, it is and, like you, I would place it amongst the greatest metal albums of all time. (I feel a custom chart coming up).

It's interesting what you say about Judas Priest taking Sabbs mantle as Heavy Metal crown bearers. It was only fitting that another Brummie band took the lead on this. The honour of the city was intact.

Repo

BeA Sunflower

Location: Forest Park

Johnnyo wrote:

Cool write up Repo. I'm not sitting on the fence here but I agree with both you and CA regarding this album.

SBS is a better album than Sabotage but all of the things that you say about Sabotage are also true. A great performance from Ozzy on all of the tracks and the album does flow very well. So why do i put SBS above Sabotage? I think that the rest of the bands contributions are slightly superior on SBS and I think that there are slightly better songs on SBS as well.

That's not to say that Sabotage isn't a great album, it is and, like you, I would place it amongst the greatest metal albums of all time. (I feel a custom chart coming up).

It's interesting what you say about Judas Priest taking Sabbs mantle as Heavy Metal crown bearers. It was only fitting that another Brummie band took the lead on this. The honour of the city was intact.

Are there any other albums from 1975 that you would include in your chart of the greatest metal albums of all time? 🤔