Just discovered Sabbath, why did i wait this long?

Symptom of the Universe

Someone give me a brief overview of the Ozzy/Dio thing

Who decided to leave and how were the Dio years received?

Every time i hear the song Black Sabbath i cant help but imagine myself as a 17 year old hearing that for the first time. It makes me want to go buy a black light and smoke a bowl.


Hell, I'm 67 years old, and it still does the same to me.

Sabbath was so ahead of the times.
They laid the heavy metal foundation for all.
Glad you found them again. Enjoy the library.
Just picked up some Geezer Butler pickups for my micro bass and they are awesome.

Yeah I just turned 40 so I’m ready for my mid life crisis

I’d like to just take a month and get an Airbnb alone up in Colorado and grow a beard

meditate for a few hours a day and listen to a stoner playlist.


Need to run that by my wife and kids and I’ll get back with everyone.

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Stupid music guy question, how the hell do you make a guitar sound like that? And why can’t anyone else duplicate that?

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The tuning is standard as Tony didn't start downtuning until the third album Master of Reality.

I can't be sure but I think he is likely using his 65 Gibson SG "Monkey" guitar (it has a sticker of a monkey playing a fiddle on it).

He used a modified Dallas Rangemaster treble booster at the time. This is also what his good pal Brian May used. And he was using Laney LA 100 BL amps.

But the key is this. There are two guitars, left channel and right channel.

The left guitar is pretty standard Iommi distorted tone. The right channel is played with a Wah pedal. Reportedly it is the Parapedal Wah from a company called Tychobrahe. This was a pedal designed by Jim Gambale and has some design differences from the standard Cry Baby or Vox wah. (Tycobrahe was a company started by Bob Bogdonavich, brother of the director Peter Bogdonavich).

To really hear the difference between the parts, play the track but turn off the right speaker. You will hear the left guitar is pretty straight. You will also hear how much finger vibrato he puts on many of the stressed notes. This is another key to the sound. The vibrato is wide enough to sound similar to a half-step trill but not as uniform.

Now reverse the process and listen to the left side. In the main riff you will hear a lot of wah in sync to the notes played. During the verses, the wah is still on and he does move it but it is much more subtle.

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Someone give me a brief overview of the Ozzy/Dio thing

Who decided to leave and how were the Dio years received?

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Ozzy did quit the band at one point in 1977. He was replaced by Dave Walker until Ozzy returned in early 1978. By this time they were all completely messed up on drugs and booze. In 1979, Tony decided to fire Ozzy and got Bill to tell him.


The daughter of Sabbath's manager introduced Ronnie, who had recently left Rainbow, to Tony at a party in 1979. The manager was Don Arden. The daughter was Sharon Arden.

Don Arden asked Sharon to go to California to look after Ozzy as he had just signed him as a solo artist (with the suggested name of Son of Sabbath) to Jet Records (or in hopes of him going back to Sabbath, it's kind of unclear). At some point they started dating and she eventually became Sharon Osbourne.

When Dio joined Sabbath, it really reinvigorated the group. At the end of the Ozzy era, they had all become tired and were using way too many drugs. There is the story of the 1978 Sabbath tour where they were blown off the stage every night by a new young band out of Pasadena, CA called Van Halen.

The approach to the lyrics and melody were different with Dio. As Tony stated, Ozzy sang to the riff, Ronnie sang across it. The albums with Dio are classics. In the history of metal it is hard to put them above the early Ozzy era albums simply because those records were writing the blueprint, but Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are considered killer records, with some preferring them. (Dehumanizer is also a great record but I feel it suffers from some 90s production)

Ronnie would leave Sabbath over some infighting, primarily over the live album Live Evil. It seems to me some of the drug issues were never solved and it led to paranoia (ironic...).

As mentioned above, this period (80-83ish) was really a great time for heavy music. You had Dio with Sabbath, Dio solo, Ozzy's records with Randy, Iron Maiden's classic period with both Di'Anno and Dickinson, Priest's British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance, Van Halen's Women and Children and Fair Warning, Scorpions Animal Magnetism and Blackout, Motorhead's Ace of Spades, Crue's first two records etc.

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Symptom of the Universe

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Exactly what I came ITT to post.

OP...what the hell have you been doing with your life to this point?


You want filthy man....listen to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. SBS

Dont fast forward, listen to the entire song. But at 3:18, you want to know why Black Sabbath is cited as the band that began heavy metal....well....there's your riff my man. It doesn't get much fricking heavier than that breakdown.

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The tuning is standard as Tony didn't start downtuning until the third album Master of Reality.

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This is not entirely true. After Tony chopped the ends of his fingertips off, he was forced to tune down and switch to a lighter string gauge to compensate for the pain.