The T-Shirt Du jour would have you believe “You can only trust yourself and the first six Black Sabbath albums”. It’s an amusing sound bite but I’ve got something to say about that.
Sure, for many Sabbath ceased when the Double O got fired. The Dio years cannot be denied though. I’d put it to any serious metalhead that both Mob Rules and Heaven And Hell are superior music to almost all of Technical Ecstasy. I’d also put anything on the ‘Ozzy has returned’ final album 13 over TE.
Sure I get it that other singers in Sabbath aren’t very Sabbathy. While Tyr, Born Again, The Headless Cross and The Eternal Idol might be interesting metal albums they’re basically Toni Iommi and Friends not Sabbath. I hear that.
13 though. That’s a great record. You know what is not ‘typically Sabbath’ and yet totally Sabbath?
An entirely flamenco Space Opera about a dying space ship floating in the void forever.
Ozzy’s vocals are some of the best he’s recorded. Geezers lyrics are simply beautiful and Iommi’s guitar work is mesmerising.
“Astral engines in reverse I’m falling through the universe again, down among a dead man’s vision faded dreams and nuclear fissions span”
Trust this. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Steve For The Deaf 
This is one where they need a “love” option. I’ve been off getting kids back to school and taking my first break from writing in more than a year and a half, and this is the first time I’ve really taken in something from WordPress in almost two weeks. What a triumphant place to return. For me, Sabbath is like scotch, pizza, and sex, in that at its worst it’s pretty damn good. Love the tune, the album, these men. Just love it all. What great friends these blokes have been to me these last 40 or so years; my life would certainly be less if I hadn’t known them. Thanks, Steve-o; these dudes might be worth a week of their own at some point. Peace.
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Beautifully put Paul
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Izzy Sabbath is my favourite Sabbath. There’s just something very specific about the sound.
Anyhoo, great pick. I was pretty underwhelmed by 13, but it’s an album that’s grown on me a good bit over the years.
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I like 13, it’s not Paranoid but it’s good enough. Like the track “God is Dead.”
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God Is Dead is awesome. I really love 13. Not a bad track on it in my most humble. End of the Beginning and Loner are favourites too
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I agree, not a bad track and those two you mention are good ones too.
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I’ll admit I boycotted Sabbath for a while after Ozzie got the boot (which fairies wear, ya know). I denied the Dio years until I was a much older man. I still prefer to think of the Dio Sabbath as Heaven & Hell, though.
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They’re different bands in my mind too
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I like to think of Sabbath as one big happy pile, with lots of facets and sounds and different approaches and singers. Sometimes one pleases me more than another, then another day it’s something else. Fine by me! Great track, this, too!
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Love that approach makes them like QOTSA/Desert Sessions/Post Pop rather than just Ozzy’s old band
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