Well since the discussion of Ozzy vs Dio were cool I thought I'd start this thread as a natural progression. Sorry if I'm stepping on anyones toes.

Ozzy Osbourne : Bark at the Moon . Not a bad album but no comparrison to the 1st 2. The title track is the only classic song. Ozzy 1st introduced the world to Jake E Lee, who shined brighter on Ultimate Sin IMHO.

Dio : Holy Diver. Ronnie introduced Vivian Campbell. Great Album with many classics... Holy Diver, Stand Up and Shout, Rainbow in the Dark (whoever thought Keyboards would be so cool)

Black Sabbath : Born Again. 3/4 of the original lineup returns with Deep Purple's Ian Gillian on vocals. Very underrated album with great songs like Trashed, Zero The Hero, and Disturbing the Priest. Give it another listen.

Why...Claude Schnell did. Even if they made him play behind a curtain.





Voted for Holy Diver, but there's some stuff on Born Again that I really dig. I even spent a shit-ton of money on an import CD of BA back in the early 90's.

Not much good to say about the Ozzy album , though. And the first two Ozzy solo albums were among the first I bought with my "own" (paper route) money, and I was a huuuuge fan.

I've got to go with HOLY DIVER on this one.

For my money Holy Diver is among the 10 greatest Heavy Metal albums of all time. It is an absolute classic. The songs are great, the performances are fantastic, and the production is perfect (even today the guitar, bass, & drum sounds hold up VERY well, and the mix is really, really good).

Born Again is a very good, if uneven album (marred somewhat by a bad mix and a horrible cover).

Bark at the Moon has 2 great songs, 3 or 4 good ones, and some crap. The mix is crappy, too. Jake E. Lee does a great job, but the song selection should have been better. "One up the B Side" was stronger than 3/4 of the album, and "Spiders" is stronger than at least 3 or 4 of the songs on there.

So this is a fairly easy choice for me.

DIO - HOLY DIVER

Easily Holy Diver. Bark at the Moon has four decent songs, four crappy ones. Holy Diver is strong all the way through.

And sorry, I can only do Sabbath with either Ozzy or Dio. That's just my personal thing.

Easily "Holy Diver".

"Born Again" was a great album though, if you could get over yet another singer for the band. At the time, many considered it Sabbath's "comeback" album.

Couldn't stand "Bark At The Moon".

Holy Diver is one of the all time great metal albums. Every song on there kills. Bark At The Moon's title track is unforgettable, but the rest of the album is. I've never even listened to Born Again. The only two non Ozzy/Dio Sabbath albums I own are Eternal Idol and Headless Cross.

I think too many people lump Born Again with the later albums with revolving lineups. As I mentioned before, 3/4 of the original line up is there (though Bev Bevin toured with them on drums) and its the last album with Geezer until the Dehumanizer reunion with Dio. (and Geezer has always been the primary songwriter in Sabbath)

Holy Diver, no doubt. Classic metal album. Solid throughout. Not much more I can say.

I voted for Holy Diver. I like Bark at the Moon alot, but Holy Diver is much better. Born again was pretty good but the production was crap. That one could use some remastering.