Ozzy Osbourne’s Hall of Fame triumph: Ranking his Black Sabbath albums

No. 4 - Vol. 4 (1972)

The fourth effort from Black Sabbath, appropriately titled Vol 4, features a great balance of heavy metal classics, ballads, and instrumentals that see the band firing on all cylinders even while experimenting with these different styles. The band’s soft side came out on the ballad “Changes” as well as the instrumental “Laguna Sunrise” while the band took on familiar territory with the heavy tracks “Tomorrow’s Dream,” “Under the Sun,” and “Snowblind,” the latter an obvious nod to the band’s extensive cocaine use during the recording of the album.

Overall, Vol 4 is a well-rounded record that does a great job of showing the evolution of the band since its founding five years earlier.

No. 3 - Master of Reality (1971)

For most bands, releasing three albums in 18 months would result in a decrease in the quality of composition. For Black Sabbath, this was far from the case as Master of Reality features a bigger, heavier sound than its predecessors. This was due in large part to guitarist Tony Iommi downtuning his guitar 1 ½ steps which gave the music an even darker tone than ever before. Iommi did this to reduce string tension after a freak injury caused him to lose two of his fingertips several years prior. 

Highlights from Master of Reality include “Children of the Grave," “Sweet Leaf,” and “Into the Void,” all of which have become live staples for the band over the years. The band does a great job of tying the songs together with short intros that lead into the following tracks ("Embryo" leads into "Children of the Grave" and "Orchid" leads into "Lord of this World"). All in all, the album does not miss a beat and the deep, dark style helped spark the stoner rock genre and later the grunge movement of the 1990s.