Taking Sides: Led Zeppelin Vol. 4 vs. Black Sabbath Vol.4

i.e. this one.

regards,

REB

I like Vol.4 quite a bit. It was one of the Sabbath albums I didn't have when I was 14, so I haven't heard it nearly as much as Paranoid or Master of Reality. "Wheels of Confusion" is an epic and one of my favorite songs by them. Other than "Changes" and the oddball stoner sound effect track, the rest is ace. "Supernaut" also may be their best title, whatever it means.

Normally I would rather listen to Zep than Sab, but I've gotta pick Sab over Zep in this instance, despite the presence of "Four Sticks" on Zep's 4th.

in other words: sabbath 4.

I'll call it even, with a slight edge to Zep due to the above mentioned sound problems.

I'm sick of hearing that the remastered Sabbath catalog will be "out next year"!! C'mon already.

For those who have heard the Castle reissues: How much of an improvement is it? And, how much - in your opinion - room is there to go further/better?

At least going by the Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules, the Castle reissues are a big improvement.

The Rhino 2cd set Symptom of the Universe has much improved sound, but I don't know if thee source are the Castle remasters or a new mastering job.

Sabbath wins again!

Though, the sound on those two albums never bothered me. Albums that need major work: Masters of Reality, V.4, Sabotage, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - hell, even Never Say Die (too many hi-mid & high frequencies).

I would love to hear the Symptom set, but I've been holding my money to buy those remasters. Which will be out next year, ya know? ;}

Is there a story to this? I know they got coked up and all, but what happened in L.A. that could be described as going insane?

I lucked out on the Symptom set, I found a promo cheap the week it came out. Sharon Osbourne's finger prints are all over some of the crap text in the booklet. The music sounds great.

The Castle remasters are great, and they're frequently available at good prices on eBay, in a medium-fancy box (no booklet, but mini-LP packaging for the discs themselves).

As much as I love Supernaut, which is A LOT, WtLB has basically the most crushing live drums ever.

National Acrobat (main riff)
Junior's Eyes (bass and drums)
Symptom of the Universe (jazzy acoustic breakdown)

ZOSO - No matter how sick I am of "Rock And Roll" (the ONLY song I'm tired of, incidentally), this LP is beyond criticism. Led Zeppelin were the kings of album rock, and that's their true legacy: No band - including groups that were superior in every other way - made better LPs than these guys. And they may have equalled but never surpassed this monolith. Pretentious but not pompous, loud even when it's quiet, played to death yet still inscrutable, this LP will eat through your brain like an earwig if you let it.

I choose ZOSO (or "Led Zeppelin IV" or "Atlantic SD 7208" or whatever you wanna call it.)

I have Paranoid and Sabotage. They're both good and have great moments (mostly in the guitars and beats) but there's still a strong kitsch element that isn't there with Zeppelin for me. Like I said, I haven't heard Vol 4 though.

x-post

Shakey Mo OTM...I always have to remind myself, "Dude you don't really like Presence better than IV...it's just the overexposure talking"

I've noticed: People who prefer Led Zep over Sabbath also tend to think of the Police as a punk band

Wha? I don't either.

(also these are both fantastic albums and bands...but I think Shakey Mo was correct in saying that this is peak Zep, and off-peak Sabbath - although I do still like Vol.4 alot...and actually Sabotage too which is a bit spotty as well, but somehow overcomes its weaknesses for me)

You think so? I'd rather listen to the Cars for a week than the Police for an hour.

I picked up the castle remasters a little while ago, b/c they were in hmv's sale and they sound fine to me.

i should probably give led zeppelin another chance: i thought they were awesome (especially LZIV) when i was 15, but i haven't really been able to listen to them much since.

And I realized in a pub a little while ago that the Police (along with U2) are probably the most listenable 80s new wave/modern rock guitar singles band, which says something about 80s new wave/modern rock.

um, i think that it says more about you and yer tastes than it does about 80s new wave/modern rock, sundar.

I'll check out Vol 4 soon. No, Led Zeppelin isn't kitsch for me.

I sure wasn't talking about you specifically, but yeah, you found the point.

http://bagginsshoes.com/images/converse/107188-660.jpg

Great shoes.

I wasn't around for the original thread, but Vol. 4 absolutely destroys the weak, overplayed IV.

(this is a bit blecch, but:)

Black Sabbath Vol. 4 : Billy Costigan, Jr. :: Zoso : Colin Sullivan

"Stairway To Heaven" Vs. "Changes".

There was a time when I'd say Zoso without a doubt, but I'm so burned out on Zeppelin that right now I'd rather hear Vol. 4.

Zep.

Zep.

Wrong.

Wrong.

Listening to Sabbath's Vol 4 again tonight - I've often said that this is my least favourite of Sabbath's LP's from Black Sabbath up to Sabotage but tonight it seems to be hitting the spot. I guess the reason I've always considered this one to be my least favourite is because of its really trebly sound - I tend to put that down to the bands choice of recreational substances at the time. The material itself is great, but does it ever need more low end.

Also, I'm convinced that 'FX' sounded utterly mindblowing to them when it was laid down on tape at the time. Whenever I hear it, I always feel I will never hear it as they must have heard it.

SABBATH

But LZIV is also pretty good tho I prefer III or HoH instead.

LZIV is harder to assess if by the time you were born and old enough to listen to and enjoy music, the entire album was ubiquitous on 'classic rock' radio. by the time I actually got LZIV as a gift, I'd heard like 75% of the album already.

that said, the songs on it are all fuckin classic, think it gets the nod over Sab's admittedly dope Vol IV.

It's clearly a different story in America, but prior to digital radio I remember hearing Led Zeppelin get played on the radio once, maybe twice and it was always 'Stairway to Heaven' ... even on VH-1, which used to show a lot of music from the '60s and '70s, I saw videos of 'Dazed and Confused' and 'Over the Hills and Far Away' maybe once each.

sabbath

I saw dis thread on SNA was like "I bet I started this shit" and sho nuff

Of the two, I (obviously) prefer Led Zeppelin, but just imagine Black Sabbath's Vol 4 with Led Zeppelin IV's production values...

Supernaut is the best thing BS ever did and the production is perfect

I think it's a shame that they weren't allowed to use their intended title. Snowblind would have been the perfect title for the record.

Were they consciously quoting LZ here?

I've always wondered. I mean Rat Salad is a poor man's Moby Dick so it wouldn't be the first time

I've never really thought about it that way, I just assumed they called it Vol 4 because they weren't allowed to call it Snowblind and didn't have any other last minute idea of what to call it, but now that you've mentioned it, there may have been a little bit of "let's do what Zep do and just number it!"

I mean the album title of course

snowblind is probably my favorite sabbath track these days

"The great COKE-cola etc of LA"

SUPERNAUT

yessum

Was it illusion?

Don’t have a horse in this race, like both bands but for all the virtuosity on display Zep still sounds like Blue Men Singing the Whites, whereas there is some kind of sui generis Horror meets Machine Age thing about Sabbath that reminds me of what I imagine the gizmo that took Tony’s fingertips sounded like, so them.

it's sabbath and it's not even close

With Geezer’s bass being the elastic drive belt.

Sabbath but both bands are kinda laughable when they get off the riffs.