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[Randy Watson 101]

Just listened to all eighteen Black Sabbath albums for the umpteenth time, and although most of the songs are crackers; there are a few that are pretty dire. Now, this isn't a thread that aims to say how much better the Ozzy-era Sabbath was or whatever, because there's at least one stinker from that time too. In most cases, I love all the eras equally.

Here's a couple of some of the pretty terrible songs that come to mind:

First of all, here's a song from the Ozzy-era. It's called 'Who Are You' and it's off the 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' (1973) album. The bass parapedals make a crap song worse than it already is. The middle section is kind of interesting though:

Black Sabbath - Who Are You YouTube - Black Sabbath - Who Are You?

So, all in all the Ozzy-era could be considered pretty flawless. Unless of course there's a song as bad or worse than 'Who Are You'? The same goes for the first Dio-era of Sabbath.

The Ian Gillan-era, however, is...oh, dear. The 'Born Again' (1983) album would be borderline acceptable if it weren't for one song. Enter 'Disturbing The Priest'. The verse is cool but the chorus is shocking: you hear Gillan squeal like a pig in boiling water. I don't want to be too critical but the song, as revealed by Tony Iommi on Planet Rock Radio, was actually about a vicar that they had been hassling whilst out camping. Sorry to get all technical here, but a vicar ISN'T a priest! It just made a crap song sound plain ignorant - in my opinion:

Black Sabbath - Disturbing The Priest YouTube - Black Sabbath "Disturbing The Priest"

Roll on 1986 with 'Seventh Star' which was pretty much billed as a Tony Iommi album (after all, he was the only remaining original member from the band's inception) with Glenn Hughes on vocals. Personally, I love this album. Maybe you think otherwise.

The following year saw the release of 'Eternal Idol' which was not a bad offering, but once again proved Sabbath to be a revolving door for musicians, let alone vocalists. Ray Gillen had originally recorded vocals for the album, but was soon replaced by Tony 'The Cat' Martin, in what is one of my favourite eras of Black Sabbath. Name me a dud song from the 'Headless Cross' (1989) album, if you dare!

In retrospect, the eighties were considered an embarrassing episode in the Black Sabbath saga. What would the nineties bring? 'Tyr' (1990) was a weaker Tony Martin follow-up, with Sabbath entering the decade with a whimper rather than a bang, but 'Dehumanizer' (1992) got everyones attention with the return of Ronnie James Dio.

I know how much 'flaming' potential there is in the debate about Dio-era Sabbath, so I'll leave it to you good people to discuss the merits of 'Heaven And Hell' (1980), 'Mob Rules' (1981) and 'Dehumanizer', let alone Tony Martin's other efforts in 'Cross Purposes' (1994) and 'Forbidden' (1995)!

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

Hmm, all of Never Say Die was pretty ding after the first three tracks.

[Randy Watson 101]

Really? That's one of my favourite Sabbath albums! Then again, I'm probably the only one that likes the jazzy bit in 'Air Dance'!

[Fast Caz]

Tv crimes!!!!

I heard this song and stopped listening to Sabbath for a long time.
The video matches the song for complete filth.

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

Never Say Die, Junior's Eyes and Johnny Blade are all pretty good, my memory of the rest of it was that it wasn't very happening, and there's a heap of Sabbath I'd need to get again before Never Say Die.

As Far as Dio era goes, Neon Knights is well ace, but RJD only really made sense to me in Rainbow

[Bonesaw Bazz]

As far as the Ozzy years goes. I think "Changes" in all it's forms, sucks balls.

[Original Spies]

Changes really is terrible. I'm glad they picked an absolute bollock of a song for Kelly Osbourne to ruin. Imagine if she'd had menstruated all over a classic Sabbath jam? Cripes!

[Randy Watson 101]

The original 'Changes' is brilliant, though the version with Kelly is awful. Especially when it comes to the 'I love you, DADDY' bit!

[fatboy]

I love the Ozzy era Sabbath best to be honest. The sound of their first 3 or 4 albums is unmistakable and can't get enough of it. Don't care much for "Am I going Insane" from Sabbotage.

Never Say Die album is really a departure from the former sound although I really dig it, especially "A Hard Road" and "Juniors Eyes". the latter sounds a bit like Ozzys solo efforts

Technical Ecstacy has one of black sabbaths unusuall classics "It's Alright" I have alot of time for that song. other than that song i thought the rest was pretty lame, i think they ran out of riffs and tried different ways of playing, it didn't turn out good apart from a few good riffs here and there.


Never liked the movent in sound through constant line up changes and thought sabbath lost their edge.

they worked well as a unit, but as soon as it was no longer the original four members the magic was lost.

I remember when I was young and naive buying a heavy metal compliation CD from HMV for like £2. It had the likes of man o war, thin lizzy, montrose, (heavy metal yeah right!) and on this CD had Black Sabbath - Headless Cross, I remember listening to it thinking "this isn't sabbath! this sucks balls" I dont like the sound they had round that era, very epic power metal style with lots of echo and lame soundfing drums. PANTS

[The Sloth]

I like 'who are you?' and 'changes'. The stuff on Technical Ecstasy is crap tho. I never bothered with anything after Mob Rules.