Yep a obvious one but why the hell not !!

Why did you not include the post-Dio's period albums in this vote ?

Ok, I would surely not choose one of them ...but Tony Iommi made pretty good stuffs during this period (and the worse albums too)

I really enjoy Born Again with Gillian, and I'd say that Tony Martin is also the best singer that Sabbath has ever known.

Well, you can put up 10 options in a poll on here and the 10 mentioned are the most well known and most influential so that is why i picked those ten. Can't agree with you on Tony Martin, i owned every single album under the Black Sabbath name and the Martin era albums are the ones i like the least out of all of them. I also have seen Sabbath live with Ozzy, Dio, Gillan and Martin and again, the Martin show was the worst. Just my take on the subject however. By the way the worst thing ever released under the Sabbath name for me was Seventh Star. I just hate every second of that album. Worst with Ozzy was Never Say Die.

For me Never Say Die is the worst album ever made by Sabbath during their whole career...

I've never seen Black Sabath live, all I can say about Tony Martin is based upon videos I watched on YouTube. I found him quite good on the performance of Ozzy's period tracks, even better than Dio sometimes.
I'd say that The Headless Cross is not so bad at all too.

Another question can be asked too: Should Black Sabbath be definitively splited after Mob Rules album ?

The first 4 albums are the best , as recording styles changed they soften , Now the moment Sabbath grab me was watching them play Never Say Die on Top Of The Pops , i loved it and got me into them , trouble is they have put out a lot of cheddar !

More people need to vote in order to make this poll interesting! there's no popular vote yet they're all great haha

Only 5 votes have been cast and its 5 albums with one vote each. Sabbath fans have always had diverse opinions on the albums and this poll is already showing that. Still pretty lame that only 5 people have bothered to vote but that is forums for you. People join up and then disappear.

Does this mean only 5% of the members come back?! You must spread the hand of Doom and get more members Ed haha

Perhaps the other members don't like Sabbath ?

It is pretty rare when you meet a person into Doom Metal who doesn't like Sabbath but they do exist. I am spreading the word on this forum but forums have always been hard to make work. Most forums usually have the same 5 or 6 people posting and the rest don't even sign in. I check here every week to see who sign's in and or doesn't and its less than 10% who regularly sign in and even less who post anything but give a few more months and it will get better.

Yeah I know what you mean about forums. I also post on the message board for this anti-horror remake hellion front that writes an online magazine for horror nerds like myself. The forum is open to the public and anyone can submit their own articles and movie reviews. They try so hard to get the word out about the group yet I'm one of the only people who still post on the forum. Then they actually banned me for a couple weeks for getting into a heated argument with another member on the subject of Charles Manson and the family. I hate pretentious forums where open minded opinions are prohibited.

Yeah, been there and had that happen to me too. Forums are a great concept but often ruined by narrow-minded people or the lack of discussion. I am a member of one forum that has over 1000 members and still only has 3 or 4 regular posters. Forums are great when they work and you have the right people as members but there is always someone that will try and ruin it for everyone and sometimes its the moderator. I wont mention any names but there is one real well known forum that has been around for years that i don't have nothing to do with anymore because of the arguments and the bitching that goes on.

Hard decision for me, but in the end, I picked "Master of Reality" because I think that was their heaviest and doomiest album. Guitar sound was thicker than molasses in January on that record. A close second for me was "Mob Rules". I'm one of the few who prefers that album to "Heaven and Hell", the songs just stuck with me more.

As for Tony Martin, I saw him play with Sabbath in the early 90's and he was far better than Ozzy was on the Sabbath "comebacks" in the 2000's. A great voice and pretty good presence, but he lacked the anger that Dio could put in his voice. As far as range, though, very impressive singer. I would rate "The Headless Cross" pretty high amongst Sabbath albums..."When Death Calls" was a true classic.

Its weird but i like the Tony Martin albums a little more now than when they were first released but one thing that bugs me about them is the production. It just sounds dated to me, even early 70's Sabbath sounds fresher to my ears.

I pretty much like all Sabbath. I would say my favourite albums are Master Of Reality, Sabotage & Born Again. I don't find there is much between the Ozzy era albums. They all offer something a little different from each other and are all excellent in my opinion. From the Tony Martin era i really like The Eternal Idol and of course all the Dio albums are fine.

So i would probably give my vote to Master Of Reality for its pure doomy goodness.

I would go for the debut just because it remains unparalelled in terms of legacy and inspiration...though I am a keen fan of all Sabbath eras...they all have their merits...Heaven and Hell for example for me remains a monumental Heavy metsl album, Headless Cross too...and I'm also a huge fan of both Seventh Star (with Glen Hughes) and even more so Born Again...which is perhaps Sabbath's most obscure and dark albums (Zero the Hero, Disturbing the Priest, Born Again etc). the Iommi-Gillan-Ward-Butler combo had a lot of unrealised promise IMO.

I'm a fan of the Gillan era too, i think Born Again is a very underrated album. I think its true there was a couple of average 80's Hard Rock tracks in there especially Hotline and Keep It Warm has always sounded a bit dull to me but the rest of the album especially all of side one of the original vinyl was killer. People complained about the muddy production but i like it, its one of their darkest albums.

I love Born Again. I think the production suits it well.

As a huge fan of Ian Gillan in general i would have loved to have seen a few more albums from this line up of Sabbath. The couple of live bootlegs i have heard sounded pretty good also.

We just watched the new documentary on the making of Paranoid. It was really good, I got goosebumps a few times. Listening to the master tapes was really cool, especially Ozzy's unedited vocals on Planet Caravan gave an interesting take on the song.

I was lucky enough to see the Gillan fronted Sabbath live while visiting cousins in Canada. Its true his image wasn't in tune with the Sabbath image but his on-stage charisma is hard to match.

And Lady Leaf - that Sabbath classic albums doco is essential viewing for any Sabbath fan.

The first four albums are my favorite. But if i must pick one it would be the first!!!

I actually enjoy all the Black Sabbath eras, but my favorite is the Ozzy one. The only albums I never listen to, are Never Say Die and Forbidden. In fact, it's been 15 years since I listened to Forbidden. Yes, ever since it was originally released. I ought to revisit it.

As for my favorite release, it's always hard to pick a single one, but it probably has to be the debut. It has an eerie vibe and a "we are on to something here, boys - we have to hurry though, we can't afford a lot of recording time!" quality.

Also, I have noticed that many metalheads (regular ones, not Doom-metalheads ), especially of the old school/true kind, think that Black Sabbath were worthwhile only when Dio or Martin sung. They actually dislike the first albums. "Too 70's rock" they say.

I can understand their point of view, so I don't hold it against them!

I know one young Doom fan who is right into the Funeral Doom stuff thinks Sabbath is nothing more than hippie rock music. Ah young kids, what can you do ha ha.

There is a certain timeless quality on the first Sabbath album, a feeling that its just a band playing live right before you eyes and to a large extent, it was a "live" recording especially Sleeping Village which is pretty much one take.

One more thing, it kind of surprising that Paranoid hasn't received one vote as yet !! Do you people think that Paranoid is overrated. Its without a doubt the most over-played Sabbath album especially War Pigs, Paranoid and Iron Man.

I don't think that Paranoid is overrated, and it actually is the album that turned me on to Black Sabbath in the first place. It was not the first Black Sabbath album I ever herd (the fifth, if I remember correctly), but as you already said, certain songs have been played to death. I consider it as one of my top-5 favorites, but to tell you the truth, sometimes it falls into the 6th position.

Funny side story concerning the Ozzy era: I was talking with the pre-teen American-Greek nephew of a friend of mine, and the kid told me that he was into old-school metal, mentioning Ozzy as one of his favorites.

"That's great. Don't you like Black Sabbath?" I asked.

"Who?"

"Come on, Black Sabbath! Paranoid, Iron Man, Children of the Grave, etc..."

"Yeah, I said I like Ozzy. That's Ozzy."

"No, Black Sabbath is an entirely different band! Ozzy is simply the singer that most people associate the band with!"

"Whatever...", he said as he turned away.

Kids these days. No sense of history, I tell ye!

Yeah i have heard that from people before and it really makes me mad. Young kids especially are very much ignorant of rock history. I even had a hard time recently trying to explain to a kid that Jimi Hendrix died in 1970 ha ha. He seemed to think he was a new artist.

Actually one of my earliest memories as a kid, Was of my dad at the barn cultavating his 5 or so plants of the " Chronic" he had planted. He had an 8 track player in the barn cranked to 12. I listened for a while and asked what he was listening to, he said a band called Black Sabbath ;Pretty cool huh ? At the time i was not sure if I liked it or not. So I said what is the name of the song? He said Black Sabbath. I said no not the band name the name of the song. He laughed and said Black Sabbath. He then said it doesnt get any better than this. I didnt believe him at the time. He was so right!!!

I first heard Sabbath at a cousin's house at age 7, I was sitting in a bedroom when all of a sudden I heard the sound of heavy music with a air raid siren, of course the song was War Pigs. I was already aware of bands like Zeppelin, Purple etc etc as my parents were right into those bands and I thought they were the heaviest bands around, how wrong I was. I confronted my parents with the question, how come you never listen to Sabbath ? Their answer, oh son they are just too heavy !! About a year later i owned every Sabbath album out at the time on cassette tapes. That was 1973 and I have been a fan ever since.

it depends on what day that I answer this...I have to say, for the most part;

Volume 4
Masters Of Reality

my two favs

Still no votes for the Paranoid album, looks like it might be Sabbath's British Steel. You know the album that is mostly loved by critics and but in the opinion of fans - overrated.

I voted for Sabotage, for me it was the absolute pinnacle of their career.

I agree Sabotage is my fave Sabbath album, the earlier albums were darker and heavier but this is Sabbath at their most menacing. Listen to Ozzy's vocal on Meglomania for example.

I voted for Vol. 4 as it's my favourite studio album from Sabbath, but my alltime favourite will be, for sentimental reasons as it was the first one I heard, Live At Last! To me, that's the REAL Sabbath : no frills, warts & all, rough as guts : awesome!!!

I love Live At Last too. That is the only wrong step Sabbath made in the 70's, they didn't make a live album at their peak. 1974 would have been the perfect year to do it, no studio album was released that year and Sabbath was at their peak of tightness. Anyone who has heard the Sabbath live bootlegs from 74-75 know how great they were at the time.