your 4th favorite Black Sabbath album

What does it say about this band that choosing even a 4th favorite is damn near impossible? I mean, off the bat, it's a given that there are at least three Ozzy era albums better than the Dio era, but not by much, right? To complicate it further, I love Born Again and most of the albums from the Tony Martin period. I feel like the only ones here that would almost definitely rank down in the double digits for me would be Technical Ecstasy, Never Say Die, Seventh Star, and probably The Eternal Idol (though admittedly I have never heard Forbidden or 13). This is a tough one!

probably 4. SBS is my favorite, followed by Master, then Paranoid.

First five and the two Dio studio records are all really great. The final two with Ozzy are still pretty good.

Born Again's material is pretty good but the production is probably the worst up to that point.

I've really only lightly listened to the rest. I still have never heard Forbidden or Cross Purposes.

Dehumanizer and the Dio and Ozzy late reunion records (even if called Heaven and Hell) are all pretty solid.

I went with 'Heaven and Hell' as my choice.

Black Sabbath in almost reverse order.

as of this week, I'd say Vol. 4 > Paranoid > Master of Reality > the debut

fuuuck idk i think prob Heaven & Hell idk

Just listened to Iommi's new mix of Forbidden -- the music isn't quite as good as the album cover, but weird Ice-T guest spot and all, it's fun. The production sounds like Ozzy's Down to Earth (figures), which was the first Sabbath-or-adjacent album I got to know in full -- I was eleven or twelve, and it got me exploring Sabbath beyond the hits -- a nostalgic favorite!

What's more, Tony Martin occasionally ends up sounding like Brent Mydland. So if the thought of a Black Sabbath fronted by Mydland gets you as excited as it does me, then by all means, ...

Definitely not my #4, but good stuff.

Mob Rules

i will be the person voting for headless cross

this is very hard for me tho because i love almost every album put out by the band black sabbath

<3

rough coin flip poll

i support all of you itt - no wrong answers

thinking sabotage is my 4th favorite, behind albums 2-4

My intent was to use this poll as a spur to acquaint myself with some unfamiliar Sabbath (which, to be honest, is most of the catalogue! o fortunate I), but here I am stuck at The Eternal Idol, playing it any chance I get. Something about the earthy doominess of the instrumentals meeting the airy doominess of Tony Martin's singing style!

Ranked:

Sabotage
Vol. 4
Paranoid
Black Sabbath
Master of Reality
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Never Say Die!
Mob Rules
Born Again probably around here
13
Technical Ecstasy
Dehumanizer
Heaven and Hell

The Devil You Know I should probably hear at some point, the rest is of pretty marginal interest to me.

I like the looseness of the debut. The long wandering in the middle of "Warning" sounds like a "metal" response to King Crimson's "Moonchild", issued six days before they recorded the album!

The Devil You Know is pretty good, worth a listen imo. The production is weird to my ears. I almost never say "the vocals are too loud" about anything, but the vocals are too loud. I recall listening to it in a car and thinking it was hard to discern the actual riffs unless you cranked it to an uncomfortable volume

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

master
4
sabbath bloody
sabotage

The long wandering in the middle of "Warning" sounds like a "metal" response to King Crimson's "Moonchild", issued six days before they recorded the album!

In Geezer Butler's memoir he mentions that it was seeing King Crimson's live performance of 'Mars' that led to 'Black Sabbath' the song so that's a direct KC influence at least.

Progressive rock, heavy metal, it all comes back to Gus Holst.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

39 votes...divided by 3...equals...13