Discussion
There is no question that technically Dio has the better voice, but Ozzy's suits that kind of music much better. The thing about Dio that I'm not keen on is that he tends to prolong the ends of words/lines (reminds me of the dreadful Mariah Carey). Having seen both of them in the last 6 months or so, my vote would go to Ozzy.
Dio in Rainbow MkI & II, then Sabbath post Ozzy then Ward and then his own band with albums becoming steadily more self indulgent and latterly unlistenable to and I speak as a huge fan. Even so, it's a blue chip CV for a top job on the board of Chief Metallicists Inc, by any measure.
Old RJD was very much Blackmore then Iommi's John Harvey Jones, being at the epicentre of some of heavy rock/metal's definitive meisterwerks: all his Rainbow efforts are just sublime whilst Heaven & Hell then Mob Rules just blew my socks off and frankly, all the cobwebs which had built up during Ozzy's difficult period with the Sabbs. Holy Diver remains in my Top 10 albums.
Both Ozz and Ron were seminal influences for the genre but the daft Brum will always hold more sway with the masses becuase of his comedy value and unfortunate populism in the post MTV epoch.
The Elf's lot was always going to be more underground and the musos hated the mystic wizard fetishism which although painful by say, Sacred Heart in the mid 80s, was the stuff of legend back when and helped inspire some of the most profound melodies ever penned. Gates of Babylon, for instance: a metal gold standard and technical tour de force, anything else before or since was just blue collar, support material.
Bloody great.
Old RJD was very much Blackmore then Iommi's John Harvey Jones, being at the epicentre of some of heavy rock/metal's definitive meisterwerks: all his Rainbow efforts are just sublime whilst Heaven & Hell then Mob Rules just blew my socks off and frankly, all the cobwebs which had built up during Ozzy's difficult period with the Sabbs. Holy Diver remains in my Top 10 albums.
Both Ozz and Ron were seminal influences for the genre but the daft Brum will always hold more sway with the masses becuase of his comedy value and unfortunate populism in the post MTV epoch.
The Elf's lot was always going to be more underground and the musos hated the mystic wizard fetishism which although painful by say, Sacred Heart in the mid 80s, was the stuff of legend back when and helped inspire some of the most profound melodies ever penned. Gates of Babylon, for instance: a metal gold standard and technical tour de force, anything else before or since was just blue collar, support material.
Bloody great.
This is a tricky one - both are rock gods. I loved Dio in Rainbow and his early albums up to Dream Weaver, but then i think he lost his way a bit.
Ozzy on the other hand has done some great Albums, but also some pretty nonedescript ones too. But then he has his Black SAbbath years too, so i think overall Ozzy wins it for me
g
Ozzy on the other hand has done some great Albums, but also some pretty nonedescript ones too. But then he has his Black SAbbath years too, so i think overall Ozzy wins it for me
g
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