Hate metal all you want. But you convince me Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman aren't brilliant

[Taverner]

Come on - these albums defined rebirth

Ozzy, fresh off the bandwagon of Black Sabbath, gets together a who's who band of the LA Metal scene at the time, and puts out some seriously insane albums. And by insane, I mean - you couldn't help but NOT like these albums. I knew New Wave Technofans who loved these albums. I had friends who loved Einsterzinde Naubaten. These guys still had room in their vinyl collections for these two.

Of course, the real hero of these albums is Randy Rhoads. Not the Progressive Radio Fighter (although she said she chose the name based on him. Surly she knows the genius of these albums. I'm sure they were cassettes in her walkman during her AF days.)

He is a guitar genius, who was the one to bring Classical styling to the Metal Guitar Solo. If there were no Randy Rhoads, there would be no Yngwie, no Slayer, no Hetfield. No Lamb of God. No nu metal.

Yeah, I know Eddie Van Halen 'invented' that in Eruption. But that was one lick, versus an entire GUITAR STYLE. Most of his stuff was pure pablum.

Randy Rhoads was the real deal.

[MrSlayer]

1. Rhodes was a god.

Taken too soon.

[Skittles]

2. I'd agree with that

and yes, Randy was indeed the real deal

[LostInAnomie]

3. Here is what I will say about Ozzy...

... he's a legend, he's made some great music, but he is personally responsible for almost none of his success. Throughout his career he has had an amazing knack for having amazing musicians backing him up. Iommi, Rhodes, Wylde all were amazing guitarists that made Ozzy. Also, if it wasn't for Sharron, he wouldn't have been shit after Sabbath.

[Steerpike]

5. Ha!

I guess being a Rock Legend just means being in the right place at the right time. Man, I wish I had just a drop of that kind of luck.

[Dave Reynolds]

4. I love metal.

I mean, I have a lot of shit made out of it.

[JCMach1]

6. Seminal metal to understand 1980s heavy metal... Groups like Iron Maiden et al

would not have made it if it weren't for these early '80s albums.