Lifeson is great. Yes, he seldom gets mention in most "best guitarist" polls.

Yes, most musicians will say good things about him, but i don't think they rate him on the level of the other two mentioned by Necromancer.

BB king has some pretty epic guitar faces as well

I see him as a guitarist that's just as creative and skilled as the two guitarists of this thread.

I don't really see him being as innovative as Iommi.

Innovative? Not as much as Iommi. But Lifeson's style was as unique for his time as Iommi's was.

This is a hard one...

In terms of brute force and power, I'd definitely go with Iommi, both him and Page focused a lot on the mammoth riff, but there was always more of a raw appeal and loudness to Iommi's riff work than Page's, in some sense, Page's riffs sound soft in comparison.

However I also feel that this softness in Page's riffs gives him more room to extrapolate and launch into the solos, I feel Iommi's solos are too clean and predictable whereas Page's solos are truly wild and untamed, sometimes I think Iommi's powerful riffs works against him in this regard, because the solos become more like passages than true break-outs (in some sense I just want Iommi to return to his powerful riffs and therefore I disregard his solos).

From a heavy metal perspective I'd definitely choose Iommi. (For his mammoth riffs).

From a "classic" rock perspective I'd definitely choose Page. (For his guitar solos).

I have to give the point in favor to Page though, mostly thanks to John Bonham and how marvelously they worked together.

Excuse me but Bill Ward was a super mother ****er. Have you ever seen a live video of War Pigs? Talk about working well with your band!

Id take Ward over Bonham every day of the week!

I know nothing about technical ability or any of that shit but it's always puzzled me why John Bonham is so highly rated & Bill Ward isn't.
His style always reminded me somewhat of a jazz drummer, he always seemed more versatile to me.

I agree, Bill was a great drummer. Listen to Hand of Doom, he does some smooth jazzy drumming, followed by such a smooth bass line from geezer. It's pretty jazzy, and then they crank up the tempo, such a great song.


06 Hand of Doom- Black Sabbath - YouTube

Bonham was great, but I think someone like Mitch Mitchell is every bit as good, probably better, and he doesn't get near as much praise as Bonham.

I think Iommi has some great solos. He doesn't even really do any riffing in this one, just some great (although faint) soloing. How can a song be this cool and trippy? This song also shows off some sweet percussion from Bill.

Planet Caravan - Black Sabbath - YouTube

In commercial terms Sabbath are not regarded enough when put against Zeppelin which is ridiculous because Ward was never predictable. He was as heavy as **** but had amazing little flourishes that complimented Sabbath (along with Geezers bass playing) and gave them a very unique sound whereas Zeppelin are just a heavy Blues band that happened to have a great frontman and more commercially appealing songs.

As a guitarist in the technical sense Page is far better than Iommi but in terms of original sound and texture Iommi is miles ahead. No one will ever come close to his riffs in Metal (but that is the whole point. Metal is still frowned upon so he will never get the accolades he deserves outside of the genre).