Both are great. But Dio was the much better vocalist for Sabbath. Better range. I also think Sammy Hagar is /was 1,000 x better than David Lee Roth. Van Hagar was the best version of Van Halen. What do you think ?
wrong on both… \m/
Ozzy and absolutely DLR >
Objectively speaking Dio and Sammy are “better” vocalists but the magic of Sabbath and VH were with Oz and Dave.
Cool story… a friend of mine dated Dave and was banging Eddie. I have a vm Eddie left her. I get to listen to his voice. I live for old school VH and Sabbath
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That’s awesome !! I’ll concede DLR had better MTV music videos.
Ya… hearing Eddie’s voice is surreal.
The deep cuts on those early records
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Agree.
An amazing thing at that time though was the depth of misical talent. You could plug and play Ian Gillan Ronnie James Dio, and many others interchangeably depending on which line up needed what.
Like Randy Rhodes. I think he came from sessions and Quiet Riot. There were tons of mix and match lineups at that time.
Hagar and Dio seem(ed) to have way more self control, stable personalities and steadiness than Ozzie and Roth.
Like Hagar and Dio deserve a lot of respect for their hard work and overall achievements. And the Solid work they did stepping into big shoes.
Vs Ozzie and Roth who are kind of embarrassing in their personal lives and destructive to their bands.
But Joe Dirt totally took out Van Hagar and I can’t even name a Dio/Sabbath song.
I don’t think of them as the same band. Sabbath with RJD are “Heaven and Hell” in my mind. Both are fantastic.
And Ozzy was underrated as a vocalist. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath & Sabotage era Ozzy could sing his balls off. There’s a reason they couldn’t play those songs during the reunion tours.
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Sabotage is my fav Sabbath record
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I consider Dio the greatest metal singer ever, and I had the pleasure to see him live during the Last in Line tour. He sounded just as great as the record. While I grew up listening to Black Sabbath with Ozzy and they made some classic songs, the Heaven and Hell album with Dio is one on my “desert island” albums. It was kind of a game changer for me.
As far as Van Halen, I agree that Hagar is a far superior vocalist, but I always felt they lacked the same chemistry they had with Roth. Yes Roth is narcissistic idiot, but that band really captured the essence of teenage rebellion in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The songs with Hagar never really spoke to me, they felt a bit too “formulated” to me.
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Symptom of the Universe is like, transcendent.
It’s so metal, other bands are Elevated when they play it.
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That whole album is foundational to metal.
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Ozzy is quintessential Sabbath to me. Master of Reality being my favorite album of theirs.
I can’t decide! It’s like two great bands in one.
I agree upon Sabotage, being my fave album of the Ozzy era. That said, my 6 year old me was blown away when my neighbour first played Mob Rules to me (back in 1981 I think).
When RJD died, I reinvestigated his contribution to Sabbath, and realized it held up well over time. Not forgetting his most recent work with Heaven and hell, where “Bible black” and “The devil cried” are excellent songs.
But, there can only be one original singer…
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I always thought a big difference between the two versions of Sabbath was that, when Ozzy sang about fairies, he was really singing about skinheads whereas Dio, was singing about literal fairies.
I have a 2 disc live Sabbath CD… Symptom is super heavy on that one
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What is that live album called?
Past Lives
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Man, I just knew of Sabbath as like “greatest hits” and the handful of songs you hear on the radio. I’ve never really sat down and listened to any of their albums start to finish. Or back to back (to back…).
I was missing out. Thanks for this dumb thread!
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You’re welcome ! Listening to Black Sabbath brings back many memories of when I started lifting in 1978. I would imagine the same for a lot of others through the years.
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When I went to the 5th grade in a different town, I moved into my grandparents. My uncle had already left home, so I got his old room. He left his gigantic LP collection, which consisted mostly of artists from the 60s and 70s.
Lots of Beatles, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Paul Simon, Alan Parson"s Project, Credence, Mike Oldfield, Abba… you name it. If it was published during those decades, he had it.
One day I put on Sabbath’s debut, and it blew my fucking mind. When Black Sabbath (the song) started, with the bells, the rain, and then the guitar… and that voice, it was the most haunting thing I had ever heard.
I mean, I had heard Changes on the radio before though, even if I didn’t know who played it.
So yeah, Ozzy for me. I like Ronnie and his nerd metal shit alright but come on. No comparison.
I have to say I had never heard anything heavier than than 80s hairbands by then.
Regarding Sammy Hagar, well, lets just say, better him than Gary Cherone.
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