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ExittheLemming 
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 19 2007
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Points: 11420
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 Topic: Black Sabbath: Nicest / ugliest cover art?
Posted: September 08 2010 at 03:46 |
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All their album sleeves suck but we should declare an armistice for the debut (it was original at the time and has been slavishly copied by the contra-moths that inhabit metal ever since)
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Mr. Maestro
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 05 2010
Location: Knowhere, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 918
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Posted: September 07 2010 at 22:33 |
Great: Black Sabbath, The Mob Rules, Dehumanizer
Good:Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Tyr, Cross Purposes
Mediocre: Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4, Heaven and Hell, Forbidden
Bad: Technical Ecstasy, Never Say Die, The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross
Horrible: Sabotage, Seventh Star
You Gotta Be Kidding Me: Born Again
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"I am the one who crossed through space...or stayed where I was...or didn't exist in the first place...."
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Pekka
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 03 2006
Location: Espoo, Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 6442
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Posted: September 07 2010 at 22:13 |
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It's surprising to see so much love for Technical Ecstasy, I've never before heard that someone actually liked it. From the Hipgnosis covers I prefer Never Say Die, and that's not very good either.
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WatcherOfTheSkies88
Forum Groupie
Joined: February 22 2010
Location: Hawaii
Status: Offline
Points: 79
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Posted: September 07 2010 at 16:38 |
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I think the Paranoid album cover gets too much crap. Yeah, it's kind of dumb, but nowhere near as bad as Love Beach or any other awful album covers from great bands. And I particularly like the album cover for "Master of Reality"... it's very simple, but the use of colors and font is pretty cool, IMO.
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20300
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Posted: September 07 2010 at 04:11 |
Not exactly known for their beautiful sleeves
The Sab's best were the debut, Mob Rules and Technical Extasy
The worsts are Paranoid, Reality, Four, Bloody Sab, Sabotage and Born again
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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40footwolf
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 08 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 651
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Posted: September 06 2010 at 19:52 |
Best-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
Worst-Tyr. Incredibly dated, and not in an endearing way either.
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Heaven's made a cesspool of us all.
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seventhsojourn
Special Collaborator
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Joined: December 11 2009
Location: .
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Points: 4006
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Posted: September 06 2010 at 15:31 |
Ugliest - Sabotage... did we really use to dress like that?!
Nicest - Black Sabbath... reminds me of my missus.  |
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Gandalff
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 07 2007
Location: Middle-Earth
Status: Offline
Points: 4214
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Posted: September 06 2010 at 13:27 |
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What the hell is on Sabotage cover? Another kind of travesty? Especially Ozzy and Bill are straightly awful here. Despite of this, the music on Sabotage is one of the best Black Sabbath stuff ever.
Edited by Gandalff - September 06 2010 at 13:29
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A Elbereth Gilthoniel
silivren penna míriel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon!
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Cactus Choir
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 26 2008
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 1043
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Posted: September 06 2010 at 12:09 |
The debut is their best cover IMHO, the perfectly suited combination of visuals with the music on the record. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Heaven & Hell are also great.
 akamaisondufromage wrote:
The cover to Paranoid is a travesty. Although, a funny one! A pink man wavin his shield in the air and a shaky camera. You could almost imagine it being shown to the band Spinal Tap. |
Paranoid truly is an unbelievably bad album cover that makes Love Beach look like the work of Rembrandt. As you say, the 'concept' appears to involve a fat, bearded bloke in a motorcycle crash helmet, wearing purple underpants over a pair of pink tights, waving a toy sword while hopping around in a forest at midnight. The concept this communicates to me is 'Sad Perv' rather than the 'Paranoid' idea which was presumably intended! Hard to believe that Marcus Keef, who did the sublime cover for the first album (and lots of other great covers on the Vertigo label), was also responsible for this atrocity just a few months later.
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"And now...on the drums...Mick Underwooooooooood!!!"
"He's up the pub"
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Finnforest
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Posted: September 05 2010 at 20:12 |
Never thought about it, but looking at those, the debut is the only one that doesn't seem silly and/or cheesy and/or just plain poor. There could be a sub-section of PA to rate and review album covers. For those who wish to burn up more time. 
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The Quiet One
Prog Reviewer
Joined: January 16 2008
Location: Argentina
Status: Offline
Points: 15745
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Posted: September 05 2010 at 17:33 |
Greatest: the debut, no doubt. Though I've always liked the norse-inspired Tyr.
Worst: Dehumanizer and Forbidden, both seem like covers from sh*tty metal bands.
The Heaven & Hell cover is iconic, though.
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Matthew T
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 01 2007
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 5291
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Posted: September 05 2010 at 17:04 |
The debut is the best ............Awful covers . They should have shoot the designers for some of them. Surprisling I like Paranoid too but it is sentimental
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Matt
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Conor Fynes
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 11 2009
Location: Vancouver, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 3196
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Posted: September 05 2010 at 15:51 |
I like the debut album art... very metal!
BORN AGAIN's album art looks frankly horrible... along with some others!
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator
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Posted: September 05 2010 at 06:04 |
akamaisondufromage wrote:
Snow Dog wrote:
akamaisondufromage wrote:
The cover to Paranoid is a travesty. Although, a funny one! A pink man wavin his shield in the air and a shaky camera. You could almost imagine it being shown to the band Spinal Tap. |
It's not a shaky camera it's a long exposure.  |
Ooops. Sorry. In which case I am mistaken Snowy. It is a work of genious. How could I have not seen that? |
No its still sh*t.
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Gandalff
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 07 2007
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Status: Offline
Points: 4214
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Posted: September 05 2010 at 04:58 |
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Oh, Forbidden cover is ugly too. It looks like a very bad comics. The same about Mob Rules.
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A Elbereth Gilthoniel
silivren penna míriel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon!
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akamaisondufromage
Forum Senior Member
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Joined: May 16 2009
Location: Blighty
Status: Offline
Points: 6797
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Posted: September 04 2010 at 14:28 |
Snow Dog wrote:
akamaisondufromage wrote:
The cover to Paranoid is a travesty. Although, a funny one! A pink man wavin his shield in the air and a shaky camera. You could almost imagine it being shown to the band Spinal Tap. |
It's not a shaky camera it's a long exposure. |
Ooops. Sorry. In which case I am mistaken Snowy. It is a work of genious. How could I have not seen that?
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Help me I'm falling!
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Snow Dog
Special Collaborator
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Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
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Posted: September 04 2010 at 14:22 |
akamaisondufromage wrote:
The cover to Paranoid is a travesty. Although, a funny one! A pink man wavin his shield in the air and a shaky camera. You could almost imagine it being shown to the band Spinal Tap. |
It's not a shaky camera it's a long exposure.
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akamaisondufromage
Forum Senior Member
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Joined: May 16 2009
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Posted: September 04 2010 at 14:20 |
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The cover to Paranoid is a travesty. Although, a funny one! A pink man wavin his shield in the air and a shaky camera. You could almost imagine it being shown to the band Spinal Tap.
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Help me I'm falling!
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lazland
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 28 2008
Location: Wales
Status: Offline
Points: 13720
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Posted: September 04 2010 at 14:07 |
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Heaven & Hell remains my favourite piece of Sabbs art and work of art to boot. Close second in both is Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
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Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org
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WatcherOfTheSkies88
Forum Groupie
Joined: February 22 2010
Location: Hawaii
Status: Offline
Points: 79
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Posted: September 04 2010 at 06:40 |
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The cover art for the debut album for Black Sabbath remains my favorite cover art of all time. It's just... perfect.
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Black Sabbath: Nicest / ugliest cover art?
