Heaven & Hell vs Blizzard of Ozz

[bucky]

Both albums came out the same year...which do you prefer? ...What band do you prefer?

[Frank]

I'll go with H & H by a mile. But.... Blizzard is a master slab of music. I prefer BS over Blizzard. But only the RJD lead version. That's the best version of Black Sabbath EVER

[Jesse]

Heaven And Hell. Ozzy's voice always got on my nerves after a few songs. Dio was just what Sabbath needed IMO.

[Trexx]

Hmmm... Ah. Uhh... Well, ... Yeah... Hmm...


I'll have to get back to you on that one!

[bucky]

I definitely think Dio fit in perfect with Sabbath and my first thought would be to go with Heaven & Hell but when that Blizzard of Ozz album came out I was really blown away. I was 17 at the time and I was still hanging on but losing my faith in Kiss and Alice Cooper both taking different routes in their genres. Then Ozzy comes out with the Blizzard of Ozz which totally filled that theatrical void of rock/metal that kiss and Cooper had abandoned at that time. It was like they left the door open and Ozzy walked in especially with the young hot shot guitarist in Randy Rhodes.

For me it's very close especially because to me both albums have four or 5 standout tracks (Neon Knights, Die Young, Children of the Sea,Heaven & Hell, & Lady Evil for Sabs and for Ozz there's Crazy Train, I don't Know, Revelations,Suicide Solution, Mr. Crowley, & Steal Away the Night) but I prefer Ozzy

[spacel0rd]

H&H. It's in my top five albums of all time.

[Trexx]

I've thought long and hard on this offering of choices.

I'm going with Black Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell". Two reason tilt me in it's favor. One, is there is absolutely zero "novelty" or fluff tracks whereas Blizzard of Oz has the exhibition-esque "Dee" and "No Bone Movies". Don't get me wrong. I love those, but when compared to Heaven & Hell, they weaken the standing. The other reason is that, by the time I was 17 I had been a major-general Rainbow fan for years. I had admired Ronnie James Dio's singing for a good, long stretch prior to him getting onboard with Black Sabbath. My overwhelming delight at the prospect of him fronting Black Sabbath was only surpassed by the mighty content of the entire album. When I first heard that album, I was completely stunned at the amazing quality. Indeed, I was completely "Blown-Away". That characterizes the sentiment nicely.

[bucky]

This has nothing to do with choosing Sabbath over Ozzy or Ozzy over Sabbath but the one thing I did find odd (don't know how it was in other cities), here in Buffalo, NY...Average Sabbath fans didn't seem to know that Ozzy was no longer in Sabbath. I seen the famous Black & Blue tour with BOC & Sabbath and a majority of the crowd seemed to be yelling out "Ozzy!!!" Throughout the show. It almost seemed like the crowd was at the show and realized there was no Ozzy so they kept yelling his name out. The same thing happened when I went to see the Black & Blue concert film at a midnight showing at a local theater. I actually found it really annoying with the crowd constantly yelling out "Ozzy!" as I was well aware Dio was now the singer of Sabbath and I loved his stuff with Rainbow so I was psyched especially as I loved the Heaven & Hell album. On a side note I know I posted a couple times here how BOC blew away Sabbath that night but I may have been disappointed with Sabbath that night but the following year I seen Sabbath with Dio and they was incredible

[Speedy]

H&H by a huge margin for me. I never listen to BOZ but spin H&H all the time.

IMO the only thing that makes BOB worth owning is RR. Diary is a much better album.