though Paranoid is probably my fave Black Sabbath, i feel that the highlights on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath are quirkier and certainly more enjoyable - e.g. A National Acrobat, Killing Yourself to Live and Spiral Architect

so i'll be objective and go for SBS

Paranoid - 1
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - 1

Paranoid by a mile.

Paranoid - 2

Sabbath Bloody - 1

There's only really one song on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath I enjoy, the title track.

Paranoid- 3
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath- 1

One day I will vote for Paranoid. It's an awesome album. But I gotta go with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It's about as consistent as Paranoid, so there aren't any wasted songs that would be easy to point at. I guess I like it better because it's more diverse than Paranoid. I love Paranoid's doominess, but Sabbath Bloody Sabbath combines their doomier early days with the diversity of Vol 4 that just makes for a more complete, mature sounding record. And it rocks as Sabbath has never quite rocked before. Might just be my fav Sabbath record. Either that or the debut.

Paranoid - 3
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - 2

Both albums are absolute classics and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is their most mature effort ever in terms of songwriting. The band built off the diversity of Vol.4 and combined it with their traditional dark metal sound and even by 1973 they were still the best metal band around.

It was almost impossible to choose, so I decided on which album I had preferred over the longer time period and SBS won, as my love for Paranoid has been far more recent.

Paranoid -3
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath -3

I love how the made five pure classics in only THREE years time. They were definitely on one hell of a brilliant creative streak.

That's the sort of thing bands did in the 60s and 70s. In the space of of 3 to 4 years bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult were able to put out a string of classic albums in such a short space of time.

I'm kind of shocked in my own choice, but I'm siding with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. It seems at this point in time, the classic tracks off of Paranoid (aside from Electric Funeral, ****ing love that song) seem a bit tired to me. The broader range of sounds on SBS is just more interesting to me right now. So...

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - 4
Paranoid - 3

Wow Paranoid's under pressure!

Just going to say this now, nothing will stop Master of Reality . That album is the Smaug of the Sabbath discog whereas the others are just dwarves.