My *current* Ranking for Black Sabbath's Albums

Hello everybody, tonight I finally got my ranking for Black Sabbath's albums finished and this was probably the most difficult album ranking I've done yet as there's so many albums that are equally good just for different reasons so a lot of them are interchangeable, but here's my current ranking for Black Sabbath's albums.

A quick note for this ranking: I won't be including the "secret" Black Sabbath album 'The Devil You Know' by Heaven and Hell because although you can argue it was one last hay day for Dio in Sabbath before he unfortunately passed away and Ozzy was still deciding on if he should rejoin the band again as it's not under the Black Sabbath moniker. Still a mostly solid album and it definitely has a soft spot with me as it was essentially one last shining spot for Dio before he died a year later but for the sake of the already complicated history of Black Sabbath, I won't include 'The Devil You Know' by Heaven and Hell (aka Black Sabbath 2.0).

With all of that said, I hope everybody is doing well and I hope you have a great day today but anyway let's not waste any more time and let's get on with this blog!

#19.) Forbidden

Instrumentally this album is pretty good as it has more of the doom metal atmosphere that Sabbath originally did for a while, but that's about it. Ice T was rapping on here which would've been fun on a KoRn record, but he shouldn't be on a Black Sabbath album. Tony Martin, while being one of the most underrated vocalists of all time, didn't sound like Tony Martin on this record. Listen to something like 'Headless Cross' and you'll see how great he is, but this record is not his bright spot. The lyrical content was decent but nothing we haven't heard from the earlier records, and overall I think this would've been more accepted by metal fans if it was an instrumental only album.

#18.) Never Say Die!

I've always been mixed on this album because on one hand we have the great self-titled opening track with some of Ozzy's best vocal performances in my opinion, 'Johnny Blade' is a bit underrated, 'Shock Wave' has a killer guitar solo, and 'Air Dance' is a decent track. However, on the other hand we have tracks such as 'A Hard Road', 'Over to You', 'Breakout', and maybe 'Swinging the Chains' that all have decent instrumentals, but seriously lack in the replayability aspect and this is one of the few albums from Sabbath that I don't revisit all that much. Plus, this was the last album that Black Sabbath made before Ozzy was fired from the band so it didn't really feel like a Sabbath record in retrospect. When you think of Black Sabbath you think of gloomy heavy metal and the occasional psychedelic track, this was more of a hard rock album with very few Sabbath ideas (yes I know the band was experimenting with this one but it still doesn't feel like Black Sabbath.) Not a bad album, just one that doesn't have a lot of replayability.

#17.) Technical Ecstasy

I actually like this album and tracks like 'You Won't Change Me', 'Rock N Roll Doctor', and 'Back Street Kids' are all really good tracks, however I don't come back to this album all that much. I can agree that this record is underrated like a lot of hardcore Black Sabbath fans say, however I personally think there's 3-4 other underrated/underappreciated albums by the band which are a lot better than this one. I liked the production on here and some of the riffs are great especially considering this was in Black Sabbath's more experimental days, however there's a couple songs such as 'Dirty Women' and 'All Moving Parts' which I don't care for all that much, and if I'm being honest I think I prefer the live version of 'Dirty Women' from the '13' release more than the actual studio version. I would give this a 7/10 probably, it's a good experimental Sabbath record and there's some killer songs that I revisit on a regular basis but some of the other songs are just okay at best in my eyes.

#16.) Cross Purposes

Another one of the band's more underrated works in my opinion, 'Cross Purposes' has tons of gems from the tracks 'Evil Eye', 'Dying For Love', and 'Cross of Thorns' arguably being the best track from the Tony Martin era of Sabbath. I loved the riffs that Tony Iommi came up with as well as Geezer Butler on the bass and Robert Rondinelli coming in to play the drums. It never really felt like a Sabbath record due to all of the lineup changes but at the same time it did a great job with the more "epic" scales that they were trying to achieve at the time. If you're not a big Black Sabbath fan you may not enjoy it but I think it's a solid heavy metal record in it's own rite.

#15.) Dehumanizer

I'm probably gonna get shit for this album at the #15 spot but I still enjoy the record very much to this day and it's possibly the heaviest record that Sabbath has done with the Dio era and potentially throughout their entire career. It's a very good album with the bone crushing drums and wailing guitar riffs with Ronnie James Dio's vocals powering over them. However, there's a few (not too many, but still a few) times where I don't think the production was as good as it could've been and there's just a few tracks that I don't come back to all that often. There's still tons of fantastic songs on here like 'After All', 'Buried Alive', 'Computer God', and 'TV Crimes' that I enjoy but it's not an album I come back to on a regular basis and when I do come back to it I don't listen to it in it's entirety unlike some of Black Sabbath's other records that I can listen to on a daily basis and never get bored of.

#14.) Tyr

Arguably the most underappreciated release by Black Sabbath, 'Tyr' has some of the most beautiful guitar tones from Tony Iommi of all time and Tony Martin's singing was top notch. 'Anno Mundi' is the most underrated song from the Black Sabbath discography in my eyes because it's just so beautiful at the beginning but Cozy Powell's drumming gets heavier over time and the track is soon transitioning into a more heavy metal based track. The record is just below 40 minutes long so it's not super long and the production is pretty solid for the most part. I don't have anything bad to say about this release and hopefully more people check it out.

#13.) Vol 4

I know for a fact this is the most controversial rank of an album on this entire list as I've seen countless people say this is in their top 5 and a lot of those people say this is Black Sabbath's best work, and while I like this album (it's still a 9/10 to me), it's also when Black Sabbath started to run out of ideas for the first time. 'Changes' was a nice pop song but that drags on if you're not in the mood to listen to it, 'FX' is passable at best, 'Supernaut' is a good track but there's other Black Sabbath songs with similar riffs/solos that I would rather listen to. Not a bad record by any means, I just think it's a bit overhyped by a certain group of Black Sabbath fans.

#12.) The Eternal Idol

Highly underrated record, 'The Eternal Idol' is a fantastic album with songs like 'Glory Ride', 'Born to Lose', and 'Lost Forever' having great guitar work from Tony Iommi and Tony Martin's singing was arguably on Dio's level in terms of vocal range/how he hit each note. There's some slower paced tracks that I never get bored of and although I slightly prefer the album from the previous year of this release, it's still a fun album to throw on and relax with.

#11.) Mob Rules

Fantastic record, Dio hit all the right notes on each track of the album and the instrumentals are fantastic as well. 'Turn up the Night' had a twisty riff on it which added more life to the intro track, 'The Sign of the Southern Cross' has those classic Dio vocal performances, 'E5150' was an interesting piece, the self-titled track is a bit of a gem in comparison to other songs on the album, 'Falling off the Edge of the World' has some groove to it which makes the replayability aspect go through the roof as Dio flows his vocals over the heavier instrumental, and 'Over and Over' was a fantastic way to close out the album. Hell, even 'Country Girl' has really good production on it so it's not bad either. Extremely solid record and arguably one of the band's best projects of all time.

#10.) 13

I've seen quite a few mixed reviews on this album and it's mostly a clash of older Black Sabbath fans and newer Black Sabbath fans. On one hand, the newer fans will hear this and the record will be a solid way to ease into some of the band's other releases and go on from there. Then there's the older fans who will hear this album and think it's just a modern day version of songs from the band's past and won't give it another chance on that alone. I feel like I'm in the middle of the two groups because I can look at a song like 'Zeitgeist' and say "oh that's just a 'Planet Caravan' wannabe, or I can look at a track like 'Zeitgeist' and genuinely enjoy it as 'Planet Caravan' is one of my favorite songs of all time and this feels like a sequel to it (it's a dope song btw). Then Ozzy's vocal mixing on tracks like 'Pariah', 'Loner', 'Dear Father', and 'Peace of Mind' is extremely well crafted and the riffs on here are fantastic. It really feels like a great reunion album by the band but instead of making darker tracks from their earlier years they're making more faith based tracks which I have nothing against. The only real issue I have with this album is that Bill Ward was not drumming on here, but Brad Wilk was a solid performer to fill in the gap in my opinion.

#9.) Headless Cross

I know there's a few records that I can say this for when it comes to the Black Sabbath discography, but I think this is the most underrated album from this band. Tony Martin was at the top of his game on this record, the doom metal elements came back, Cozy Powell was an amazing drummer especially on this record, the guitar work was some of Sabbath's best as we had not only Toni Iommi, but we also had Brian May (yes, the Queen one) do a solo on 'When Death Calls' which is an outstanding track. Also, the lyrical content was well written, crafted, and delivered, the lyrics were darker and more focused than on other records we have so that's another positive. I highly recommend this album, it's one of Sabbath's finest works in my opinion.

#8.) Sabotage

I personally believe this record is a sleeper hit for the band because when you ask most Black Sabbath fans what their favorite record by the band is you almost always get the first 4 albums the band came out with as their answer (a bit hypocritical considering my top few picks but oh well) and I just think this album deserves a little more love as it has some heavy hitting tracks. Having 'Hole in the Sky' and 'Sympton of the Universe' both in the first three songs of the album was a bold move as they were heavy and had a lot of energy in them as well as just being harder hitting tracks in general. Then throw 'The Thrill of it All', 'Am I Going Insane', 'The Writ', and 'Supertzar' on the album and it's arguably the best in the entire discography. It was experimental while also being heavy and Ozzy's vocals were still greatly executed. I heavily recommend this record and it's hands down one of their best releases easily.

#7.) Born Again

Once the Dio era of Black Sabbath fully settled in, the band decided to get back into the darker side of the Black Sabbath style and 'Born Again' is probably the darkest record not from the Ozzy era. 'Trashed' was a rough and heavy opening track that had a killer riff/solo, 'Stonehenge' was a beautiful instrumental only track that bleeds into 'Disturbing the Priest' which has wailing screams from Ian Gillans and percussion from Bill Ward to add some of the darkest moments in the entire Sabbath discography. Then other tracks like 'Digital Bitch', 'Zero the Hero', and the self-titled track solidify this album as one of the heaviest and one of the best from Black Sabbath.

#6.) Seventh Star

Although this isn't the eerie atmospheric type of music that Black Sabbath originally did, this is one of the easiest records to listen to in it's entirety for me personally. Glenn Hughes (yes, the Deep Purple one) was the lead vocalist on this release and although I haven't listened to a lot of Deep Purple's music yet, I thought he did a fantastic job with each note he delivered. Tony Iommi had some killer riffs/solos on tracks such as 'In for the Kill', 'Turn to Stone', and 'Danger Zone'. The bass work was pretty solid as well and the album really felt like the time that it came out. This record reminds me of certain films from the 1980s and although it's not really whimsical I can't help but to get a fantasy vibe from some of these tracks. 'No Strange to Love' is a slower track but has a lot of soul in it, the self-titled track had some great melodies on it, 'Angry Heart' had some Dio vibes to it with the vocal performance, and all around this is a record that flows by smoothly with some great riffs and amazing vocals. One of the band's most underrated records, and in my opinion one of their best.

#5.) Heaven and Hell

After Black Sabbath went from birthing Doom Metal and Heavy Metal to doing more experimental songs by the end of the 70s before Ozzy was eventually fired from the band, this record really felt like the band reformed and were more focused than ever before. Ronnie James Dio came into the band as the lead vocalist and he absolutely killed it as he hit each note he should've, the lyrics were solid, the guitar work was put into a new gear than we previously had, and this record flies by overall. 'Die Young' is still one of my all time favorite Black Sabbath songs to this day, 'Neon Knights' was a killer opening track with one of the best solos I've heard, 'Walk Away' is a great track, 'Lonely is the Word' was a fantastic closing track, 'Lady Evil' was a fantastic song, 'Children of the Sea' is great, this is hands down one of the best Black Sabbath records as well as one of my favorite metal albums of the 80s.

#4.) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

This album could arguably be the band's best in terms of Ozzy's vocal performances as he makes each song on the record sound like a hit. Tony Iommi had some of his best guitar riffs on tracks such as the self-titled song and 'Killing Yourself to Live'. Bill Ward had a fantastic showcasing on 'Sabbra Cadabra' with his rich drum patterns. Geezer Butler was consistently great on the bass as well as the synthesizers on 'Who Are You?'. The production was great thanks to the record labels and studios they were able to get to, and overall this is one of Black Sabbath's best records in my opinion.

#3.) Paranoid

Easily a classic, Black Sabbath's second album is undoubtedly one of metal's most beloved albums and it's not hard to see why. 'War Pigs' is an amazing opening track about war and politicians hiding away from the disasters they cause, the self-titled track sounds like a hit and flows throughout perfectly, 'Planet Caravan' is one of my favorite songs of all time as it's one of the greatest psychedelic rock songs that has a great solo at the end and the way that Ozzy used a Leslie speaker to create the vibrating vocals is both creative and surprisingly good, 'Iron Man' is a huge hit, 'Electric Funeral' is one of the few doom metal moments on this record and it's probably in my top 3 doomy tracks that Sabbath has made, 'Hand of Doom' has some of Bill Ward's greatest drumming in my opinion and Ozzy's vocals were great, 'Rat Salad' has some amazing percussion, and the closing tracks of 'Jack the Stripper' and 'Fairies Wear Boots' are a bit underrated in my opinion. I absolutely love this record and it's one of the better records of the 70s.

#2.) Black Sabbath

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the beginning of Doom Metal. This record is gloomy, heavy, creepy, eerie, and one of the most important records in metal history as it gave us both Heavy Metal and Doom Metal. The self-titled track is extremely haunting thanks to the way Ozzy was able to perform his vocals in a very cryptic way alongside a great instrumental that shows Tony Iommi playing possibly the darkest riff at the time and some nice drumming from Bill Ward. 'N.I.B' was simple but extremely effective as the simple bass solo at the beginning mixed with the darker lyrics about Lucifer had a pretty big impact back when this album first came out. 'The Wizard' is one of the first heavy metal tracks out there and the vocal styling was fantastic, then other tracks like 'Wicked World' have more life to them in a way as Ozzy matched the drumming while he was singing and it's great.

#1.) Master of Reality

Easily one of my all time favorite heavy metal records, 'Master of Reality' is currently my favorite Black Sabbath record although there's a few albums that go back and forth with my #1 spot. Ozzy's haunting vocals fit the gloomy imagery in the lyrics exceptionally well and the instrumentals were heavy hitters and had some nice diversity as Tony Iommi did the main guitar, but he also did the synthesizers on 'After Forever' (underappreciated track btw), did the flute and piano on 'Solitude', and was the one who played the acoustic guitar on 'Orchid'. Then we have Geezer Butler on the bass guitar, and on top of that we have Bill Ward on the drums and percussion as well as doing the sleigh bells on 'Solitude'. This record was pretty much the birth of Stoner Rock, it's been argued that this album laid the groundwork for Sludge Metal, and of course there's some Doom Metal elements as this was still early Black Sabbath. Easily one of my all time favorite records and currently my favorite Black Sabbath album although that could change in a month or so, thank you for existing 'Master of Reality'.