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Blizzard of Ozz is Ozzy’s first solo album (released in ’80 in the UK, spring of ’81 in the US) and is considered one of the greatest metal albums of all-time. Rhoads’ guitar work definitely made that happen; he’s considered one of the best guitarists ever, posthumously awarded induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2021) and the Hall of Heavy Metal History (2017). Blizzard of Ozz hit #21 in the US and #7 in the UK. I’m really only familiar with the hits from the LP, songs that can still be heard regularly today on classic rock radio. “Crazy Train” was the first single and while it initially did OK in the UK (#49) and didn’t quite squeak into the US’s Top 100, it has since sold and streamed over 400 million streams/copies and is ranked in the top 10 of greatest metal songs/metal guitar solos ever. Rhoads supposedly came up with the main riff while still in Quiet Riot (he joined that band at just 16 years old). “Mr. Crowley” was the second single, its topic about Aleister Crowley (fitting nicely with Ozzy’s Black Sabbath background, the song has an extra-creepy organ intro); it is also ranked as one of the best heavy metal songs with one of the best guitar solos of all-time. Not a single but still heard often, at least by me though not sure where, is the album opener “I Don’t Know” which is a great lead-in to the record. Also of note is the track “Suicide Solution” which garnered a lot of controversy in the early 80’s when Ozzy was sued by the parents of a teen who committed suicide after listening to the lyrics. The parents claimed Ozzy sang “Why try? Get the gun and shoot!” but Ozzy and lyricist Bob Daisley claimed the lyrics are actually “Get the flaps out.” While it was really sad situation, of course, the defense of Ozzy by his wife Sharon is kinda hilarious. She stated “To be perfectly honest, I would be doubtful as to whether Mr. Osbourne knew the meaning of the lyrics, if there was any meaning, because his command of the English language is minimal.” (Wiki)

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Our copy has the title Master of Reality embossed in black making it utterly useless in photographs. “In his autobiography Iommi describes the cover as “Slightly Spinal Tap-ish, only well before Spinal Tap.” (Wiki) Later represses have the title in un-embossed gray, not nearly as cool but a helluva lot easier to read.

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My favorite tracks are also some of the best known Sabbath tracks that include the single and title track “Paranoid” which hit #4 in the UK and #61 in the US, the lead track “War Pigs” (Ozzy said about it in his autobiography: “It was originally going to be called ‘Walpurgis’ … which was a term for a black magic wedding or something. Then we changed it to ‘War Pigs’, and Geezer came up with these heavy duty lyrics about death and destruction. No wonder we never got any chicks at our gigs”), the iconic dark metal “Iron Man” (which went to #52 in the US in ‘72), “Electric Funeral” and “Hand of Doom” (widely considered to be the best track on Paranoid; it’s about Vietnam vets returning home with drug addictions).

Allmusic says about Paranoid, “ Paranoid refined Black Sabbath’s signature sound – crushingly loud, minor-key dirges loosely based on heavy blues-rock – and applied it to a newly consistent set of songs with utterly memorable riffs, most of which now rank as all-time metal classics. Where the extended, multi-sectioned songs on the debut sometimes felt like aimless jams, their counterparts on Paranoid have been given focus and direction, lending an epic drama to now-standards like “War Pigs” and “Iron Man” (which sports one of the most immediately identifiable riffs in metal history). The subject matter is unrelentingly, obsessively dark, covering both supernatural/sci-fi horrors and the real-life traumas of death, war, nuclear annihilation, mental illness, drug hallucinations, and narcotic abuse. Yet Sabbath makes it totally convincing, thanks to the crawling, muddled bleakness and bad-trip depression evoked so frighteningly well by their music. Even the qualities that made critics deplore the album (and the group) for years increase the overall effect – the technical simplicity of Ozzy Osbourne’s vocals and Tony Iommi’s lead guitar vocabulary; the spots when the lyrics sink into melodrama or awkwardness; the lack of subtlety and the infrequent dynamic contrast. Everything adds up to more than the sum of its parts, as though the anxieties behind the music simply demanded that the band achieve catharsis by steamrolling everything in its path, including its own limitations. Monolithic and primally powerful, Paranoid defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history.”

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