Judas Priest's Rob Halford Ranks His Favorite Black Sabbath Albums

(Radio.com) "The world's metal community knows that I love Black Sabbath for everything the band stands for and has achieved," Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford told Radio.com last week ahead of the legendary band's final concert last Saturday their hometown of Birmingham.

Halford's band came up in the same industrial area of England, just a few years behind the Sabs: Black Sabbath's self-titled debut was released in 1970, while Priest's Rocka Rolla came out in 1974. Halford is also friends with the guys in the band; in fact, at Ozzy Osbourne's first "final" show -- he first "retired" back in November of 1992 -- he invited Black Sabbath to open for him for two farewell shows. They agreed to play, but their then-singer, Ronnie James Dio, bowed out. So Rob Halford got the awesome gig and filled in for two shows. Over a decade later, in 2004, the reunited Black Sabbath and Judas Priest toured together on Ozzfest, and at one of the dates, Ozzy was under the weather and Halford once again fronted the band, the ultimate gig for the massive Sabbath fan.

"Like every Sabbath fan, I have listened to all the music they have made," Halford says. "Each album does something for me, but here, I'm going to stick to the albums that Ozzy did. I've been asked to put these in an order of my favorites, which is hard. Like most Sabbath fans, my choices change. Anyway, here they are!"

1 Black Sabbath (1970) - "This album, recorded in a day, is magic for me. It captures the roots of what they are in the truest sense. You feel like you are in the studio with the lads. The sound of Sabbath resonates in every aspect here, and when the world heard the way Tony Iommi made his guitar sound, the way Geezer Butler made his bass sound, along with the way Bill Ward's drums were mic-ed and tuned, and the voice of Ozzy Osbourne� well, the response at the time was mixed. They were denounced by some idiots, in their closed minded ivory towers. But for me, and so many other fans hearing them for the first time, we were hooked." See the rest of the list here.

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