The Batlord

Follow up post:

I mean, just listen to this bad mofo'ing song. Sort of like Heaven & Hell/Mob Rules, mixed with the heavier elements of 70s Sabbath, but with an all-new sense of anger. The songwriting might not be quite as on point, but Black Sabbath mostly make up for it by being so ****ing heavy at times. Iommi's riffs are just so totally on point on this album that it's unfair. If they'd really went for it, this could have been their Painkiller.




And that album they released as Heaven & Hell, The Devil You Know, put 13 to shame. Much the same sound as Dehumanizer, and with the same pluses/minuses. Dio also still sounded fantastic, which Ozzy... didn't. (It was also Dio's last studio album, which is metal history, right there.)





Another underrated part of Sabbath's career was the era with Tony Martin on vocals. I haven't listened to enough of those albums to be able to say how good it actually was, but at least Headless Cross is moderately fantastic.

Tony Martin comes across as a respectable Dio impersonator, with a bit of the rasp of David Coverdale from Whitesnake -- for better or worse -- and the band likewise does a surprisingly good job of imitating Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. It's a bit more dated than their previous work, but it's actually a solid album pretty much from beginning to end.

Some of their other Martin-era albums don't get as much respect, especially the two after he rejoined when Dio left after Dehumanizer, so perhaps the flak he gets is at least partially warranted, but he doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the likes of Blaze Bayley.

After Mob Rules, Sabbath seems have been written off as a relic, but I think they had enough moments of redemption to at least get more respect than Ozzy's post-Sabbath material, even if their successes were mainly capturing a bit of the Heaven and Hell magic. Just listen to this awesomeness...

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The Batlord

Definitely better than Paranoid, which I always thought was good but overrated anyway, has less downtime between tracks than Master of Reality, and while the debut has hands down my favorite run of songs from the band ("Black Sabbath" through "NIB"), the second half is borderline crap. Honestly haven't listened to Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath enough to make intelligent comparisons, but Sabotage is definitely competitive. And while Heaven and Hell has a brilliant A-side, I think the last half is good, but still a step down in quality.

Not saying that Sabotage is necessarily better than those albums -- except for Paranoid -- but I still think it's highly underrated.

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Moss

Volume 4 is actually at the top of my list. I think part of the appeal for me with Vol. 4 and Sabotage is they didn't get played to death like so many of the other albums. Not just the stuff on the radio, at friends houses and parties and things.

Frownland

Agreed on Sabatoge, that's been my favourite since I first heard it.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

gentlyweeps86

I just find Ed Sheeran really annoying!

Mondo Bungle

Freebird > Stairway

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The Batlord

I'd take Corpsegrinder-era Cannibal Corpse over 99% of other brutal death metal bands (yes, including Suffocation and Cryptopsy), and probably 90% of death metal bands in general.


These...






...are superior to these...

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Janszoon

Batlord prefers a slice of bread over a BLT, film at eleven.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

The Batlord

This just in: **** BLTs.

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Ninetales

nah he just likes a slice of cheese