Semi-Dayley dose of METAL

[anarky]

I decided to go through as much Black Sabbath, Ozzy, and Dio as possible, chronologically. I'm hearing a lot for the first time, and quite a bit that I'd listened to once or twice and dismissed as crap.

I'm in the middle of Dehumanizer, the brief 90s Sabbath reunion with Dio.

A few takeaways so far:

Ronnie James Dio is king. Not only is he the most talented singer to front BS, but there's not a bad note on any of his albums, with either BS or Dio. A few songs are a tad dated, but nothing subpar.

RONNIE JAMES DIO IS CREDITED AS PLAYING TRUMPET ON 60s BUBBLEGUM GIRL POP HIT "MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK"?!?!?

RJD's pre-Rainbow band, Elf, is a solid but unremarkable blues rock band. It's kinda shocking they didn't have at least one hit.

The number of connections with Deep Purple is insane. In addition to Dio coming from Rainbow (Ritchie Blackmore's side project), two DP lead singers fronted BS for exactly one album each. (And a third, David Coverdale, was reportedly considered to replace Dio until he re-formed a new version of Whitesnake.)

The two DP-fronted albums are both pretty good, with two of the worst covers.

I didn't realize there was one BS single prior to their debut album. It's not bad. But hardly essential.

Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! get a bad rap. They're both great. Just absolutely not consistent with the earlier stuff. I'd say they're better than Sabotage. All three are drug-fueled messes. But Sabotage seems to be trying and failing to capture the earlier magic, whereas the other two experiment.

Tony Martin's tenure is actually rather good. I know Forbidden stinks, because I listened to it for the first time only a few months ago. But the earlier albums? No clue why they're not appreciated more. Just a pissed fandom because he wasn't Ozzy or Ronnie?

[anarky]

Because Bruce Dickinson is so fucking cool, they let a Brit sing the national anthem....