Controversial opinions on metal

[rusty water]

Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne are definitely mainstream acts.

Not in the volume 4 and sabotage era they werent. Only in the last decade or so have they been. In the 70`s they were very much underground.

 

[Internally Deformed]

Not in the volume 4 and sabotage era they werent. Only in the last decade or so have they been. In the 70`s they were very much underground.

 

[Baroque]

Not in the volume 4 and sabotage era they werent. Only in the last decade or so have they been. In the 70`s they were very much underground.

Disagree, even my mom had a black sabbath album back in the 80's. They were well known when I was in high school in the 90's.. A decade, no. Maybe like 4 decades ago.

 

[The Butt]

Their first three are well known. Maybe Heaven and Hell also. You won't find anyone aside from metalheads or die-hard Sabbath fans that have delved into stuff like NSD or Sabotage however.

 

[CiG]

CASSETTEISGOD - Are you talking about personal listening or radio/public events? Cause other than The Wizard or NIB, the album gets played very little on radio.

Personal listening, it was one of the first CDs I ever owned.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Not in the volume 4 and sabotage era they werent. Only in the last decade or so have they been. In the 70`s they were very much underground.

No.

Black Sabbath is the eponymous debut studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath. Released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom and on 1 June 1970 in the United States, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts and number 23 on the Billboard charts.

As you can see, the self-titled album did extremely well on the charts. Not at all underground. Paranoid and their following albums were also successful.

 

[CiG]

"Underground" is a tricky term pre-1980's anyway. All bands aspired to be famous, mainstream and signed to major labels. If a band did release an album, it was most likely through a major label since underground labels didn't really exist yet.

They (less popular bands) were mainstream minded but unpopular, rather than underground.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Black Sabbath was popular in the 1970s, although they were maligned by critics.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

@H.P. Lovecraft No I mean the self titled debut.

I know. I was referring to the comment about the first four.

 

[no country for old wainds]

this page gives a pretty good idea of how known the various sabbath albums are.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

Unfortunately when I was growing up all the adults around me always put on classic rock radio, and songs like Iron Man and War Pigs seemed to be among the only 10 songs these stations ever played, so in that sense I definitely find it to be overrated. I havent listened to radio music in many years, but back in the 90s the rock stations would endlessly play the handful of Sabbath songs to death. My dad also dragged me to lots of biker events like pig roasts, bike runs, hill climbs, etc, and these songs were played so constantly that I eventually got really annoyed with hearing them. I have previously expressed my reluctance to listen to Black Sabbath because of this. If not overrated, id definitely say at the very least that Iron Man (and other select Ozzy-era Sabbath songs) are overhyped in redneck america. Dio-era Sabbath is free from this stigma for me, and ive really warmed up to it lately.

Never listened to the radio awfully much, did most of my music discovery at the local record shops and via magazines, so it never got overplayed for me. Just found Paranoid in a record shop one day in mid '71, thought it looked mildly interesting, bought it, took it home, slapped it on the turntable and got my face melted. Never overplayed it, so the impact of every last song has yet to leave me to this day. Dio-era Sabbath, while different, is certainly a continuation of the glory of the Ozzy era.

 

[MrTagoMago]

Iron Man might be over played but let's be honest while I'm not saying it's the bands best riff in ways it's the most memorable and genius. It's like Smoke on the water in that it's just that kinda riff that immediately feels iconic and you just know this here is a classic song not that I think that's entirely a measure of quality but hopefully you guys get what I'm trying to say. While it might not be the best song by Sabbath it really is one of the better songs to become a staple of classic rock radio.

 

[EspaDa]

Paranoid album is overrated in general. I'd take Master, Vol. 4 or SBS above it any time.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the weakest of the first six albums if you ask me.

 

[CiG]

It's my favourite, sometimes tied with Vol. 4.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

I think that it's good, but it marks a turning point where the band seems to begin to stop believing in themselves and what they do best. Sabotage has some of that too, but it also contains some of the absolutely best and most unique songs in their career.

 

[EternalMetal]

Never listened to the radio awfully much, did most of my music discovery at the local record shops and via magazines, so it never got overplayed for me. Just found Paranoid in a record shop one day in mid '71, thought it looked mildly interesting, bought it, took it home, slapped it on the turntable and got my face melted. Never overplayed it, so the impact of every last song has yet to leave me to this day. Dio-era Sabbath, while different, is certainly a continuation of the glory of the Ozzy era.

I can only imagine the impact that Sabbath left on people from the pre-metal era. Im not doubting the greatness of those songs, but to me they are soaked in bittersweet white trash nostalgia that I just cant get over. Paranoid is a ruined album for life, and I can only enjoy Ozzy era Sabbath to a varying degree. Damn shame because I do recognize that it is great music. Im basically a testament to your overplayed = ruined theory.

Iron Man might be over played but let's be honest while I'm not saying it's the bands best riff in ways it's the most memorable and genius. It's like Smoke on the water in that it's just that kinda riff that immediately feels iconic and you just know this here is a classic song not that I think that's entirely a measure of quality but hopefully you guys get what I'm trying to say. While it might not be the best song by Sabbath it really is one of the better songs to become a staple of classic rock radio.

I agree, Iron Man is the eponymous metal riff (for better or worse). It's basically the reason why it gets overplayed.

 

[MrTagoMago]

I think that it's good, but it marks a turning point where the band seems to begin to stop believing in themselves and what they do best. Sabotage has some of that too, but it also contains some of the absolutely best and most unique songs in their career.

So the issue is that they tried something new?

 

[MrTagoMago]

Paranoid album is overrated in general. I'd take Master, Vol. 4 or SBS above it any time.

It's not my favorite but I can't say Paranoid is overrated at all. It's easily better than Vol 4 and as an album id say it's stronger than Master of Reality even if Master of Reality's best songs are better than Paranoids.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

I mean, Sabbath wasn't the most shocking thing ever to my ears, I'd already imbibed in the rawest stuff I could find up to that point with bands like The Sonics, The Stooges, The MC5, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Blue Cheer, The Kinks, etc. However, it was something of a seismic shift, because I can't remember knowing how to categorize Sabbath initially other than that they were some sort of super mutation of hard rock. It was like they'd happened upon the secret recipe to the most epic and evil sounding coagulation of sound in musical form. Yeah, it's interesting. It seems even amazing pieces of music can be made unbearable if over saturated to a listener's ear or coupled with irksome memories or sentiments.