Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 60

ARTIST:  Dio
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  Holy Diver
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR: 1983
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Rainbow in the Dark"
NOTES:  I picked this up on the strength of the title track and "Rainbow in the Dark".  At the time, it did not really click with me.  I enjoyed several songs on the album, but the album as a whole was kind of lost on me for awhile.  It is an album that I love now but it took some time for me to get into.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 57

ARTIST:  Black Sabbath
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  We Sold Our Soul for Rock N' Roll
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR:  1975
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Children of the Grave"
NOTES:  A large compilation of songs from Black Sabbath's first six albums.  This quickly became my go-to compilation for Black Sabbath songs as there is a nice mix here.  I picked this one up on the same road trip as the Quiet Riot album.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 48

ARTIST:  Black Sabbath
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  Vol. 4
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR:  1972
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Supernaut"
NOTES:  This is another Black Sabbath album that I always thought was a little bit underrated.  It is not one that you hear much about when people talk about Black Sabbath but it had some absolutely crushing songs on it.  "Snowblind", "Supernaut", "Tomorrow's Dream", and "Under the Sun" are all terrific tracks.  Of course "Changes" is a well-known song and was even re-recorded with Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne performing a duet.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 30

ARTIST:  Black Sabbath
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR:  1973
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "A National Acrobat"
NOTES:  For a long time this was my favorite Black Sabbath album.  It had some heavy tracks, but it also had some of the most ridiculously catchy songs in the band's history.  Notably "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath", "A National Acrobat", "Sabbra Cadabra" and "Spiral Architect" are incredibly infectious, sing-along songs.  There is some filler here of course, but this is still one of my favorite releases from the band.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 29

ARTIST:  Black Sabbath
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  Paranoid
LABEL:  Warner Bros. Records
YEAR:  1970
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Electric Funeral"
NOTES:  This was my first actual full-length album by the original metal band, Black Sabbath.  This is the band's sophomore album and is arguably their biggest album from a popularity point of view.  It features "Paranoid", "Iron Man", and "War Pigs", three of the band's most well-known songs.  This was the album that really put Black Sabbath on the map.