Ozzy era Sabbath > Ozzy solo > Dio era Sabbath
Nothing against Dio, I love his work with Rainbow and some of his solo stuff, and while he had some good stuff with Sabbath it's a bit too much on the generic side for me, it doesn't really sound like Sabbath and I consider it a completely different band.
Ozzy's solo stuff may have been more commercial, but it's still the Oz and you can't confuse it with anything else. The Blizzard of Ozz is great fun metal record. Rhoads really was a great player, had a beastly tone and his solos sound like the sky should collapse from their metal awesomeness.
Zakk Wydle can just f*ck off. I can't get over how much of a raging douchebag he is. He doesn't impress me as a guitarist, he hardly does anything that ever approaches listenability, there is never a f*cking moment when this guy feels that a pinch harmonic wouldn't fit in there somehow.
Oh yeah, and he's a TERRIBLE songwriter, listen to this sh*t (or try anyway).
And this guy had the audacity to call Cobain a hack.
