Of Black Sabbath's first six albums, rank them.

1) Paranoid
2) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
3) Master of Reality
4) Vol.4
5) Black Sabbath
6) Sabatoge

In terms of preference:

Sabotage
Paranoid
Vol. 4
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Master of Reality

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Sabotage is half-and-half for me. A few of the songs I don't care for at all. I do love "Hole In The Sky", "Symptom of The Universe" and "The Thrill of It All". The album is the most inconsistent for me.

Paranoid has some of my favorite songs like "Electric Funeral" and "Hand of Doom". Even for a psychedelic song like "Planet Caravan", they still do it well. Although, the album does suffer from overplay.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath just sounds fresh to me. Great songs and I like the multi-instrumental approach.

Master of Reality was an innovative piece and pretty much their heaviest album to date. I just don't like the repetitiveness/monotonous riffs. But Tommy's sound couldn't be better.

Vol.4 I wish was better produced, though I heard a decent remaster came out recently. "Supernaut" is among my favorite Sabbath songs. Some plodding misses for me, but otherwise an underrated album that stands the test of time. It strays away from their usual doom and gloom quality and becomes more melodic in certain aspects.

And of course their debut is the most sinister of their records. Side one is great, but side two lags a bit. Still a great first album.

I see these as probably the best six albums by any band, in a row that is.

Two of my favorite Sabbath songs are The Writ and Megalomania. Also, really, really love Hole in the Sky, Symptom of the Universe and The Thrill of It All. So yeah, Am I Going Insane and the twisted instrumental (forget its title right now) are pretty weak, but those other five songs are so brilliant Sabotage is my favorite, though it's a near tie with Paranoid. Funny enough, Iron Man is not a favorite at all and Rat Salad is rather silly, but everything else is brilliant. I love Fairies Wear Boots and Hand of Doom.

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is great most of the way through, and it has a crisper, cleaner sound, which works for the album, but I'm thankful they followed it up with the heavier Sabotage. Vol. 4 is great, but it does have some weird filler. But the songs that are brilliant are really brilliant. Their first album I could probably rank higher, but for me at least, it's pretty overplayed.

Of these six, my least favorite is Master of Reality. I know it seems universally loved, but more than half the album comes across as rather tedious. Sweet Leaf is great though. And I do like Technical Ecstasy, though it has a lot of mediocre hard rock tunes, and Never Say Die is pretty awful, apart from the title track. I've only listened to the new one with Ozzy a few times and it's okay, better than Never Say Die, but not up there with their best, and obviously I just haven't listened to it enough to say anything about it.

1) Paranoid
2) Master of Reality
3) Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4) Vol.4
5) Black Sabbath
6) Sabatoge

Like that for me.

I saw them live in '79 (edit: maybe '78 can't remember... right before they broke up) with Ozzy. Great show. Even though Paranoid has the most recognizable tracks for the casual fan, it has a few of my favorite deep cuts as well so I have to rank it first. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (the song) remains one of my go to tracks year after year.

The one tune I can't stand anymore (over play). Into the Void is another go to for me.

I think the Dio years are great too. Saw the tours for Heaven & Hell, Mob Rules and then the weird Deep Purple fusion (Born Again).

Wow...that's the closest rankings to mine from what I've seen here and on another forum. "Into the Void" is my favorite from the album. Then "Lord of the World" and behind it "Children of the Grave".

And yeah...they were great live. Saw them twice and they didn't disappoint.

Actually saw them as Heaven & Hell a few times too.

Have you heard the Nativity in Black tribute album? I'm not a huge fan of Rob Zombie but he does a great rendition of Children of the Grave.

This is my favorite music. I often listen to it before bed and while asleep. Probably pick Master of Reality more than any others.

Also,

Got to hang out with Brown Sabbath in Austin a few months back. They're an official Ozzy approved & endorsed tribute band. Really cool twist on some of the older stuff: