both can be called the grandfater of heavy metal, but which really rocked harder and stayed true to their metal roots?

Dio has a much better voice but isn't known as well as Ozzy

Dio has a much better voice but isn't known as well as Ozzy

totally agree. My ab-fab song is Rainbow in the Dark. I even like Sabbath's stuff better with him as the singer. Not that Ozzie is bad, but Dio just, for me, really hi that musical spot on me.

Dio never turned into a reality show parody of himself unlike Ozzy.

Dio never turned into a reality show parody of himself unlike Ozzy.

lolllllll. And THAT alone is enough to vote for Dio.

Dio was a much better singer, plus he never recorded shitty ballads like "Dreamer" (correct me if I'm wrong, though). But I prefer Sabbs with Ozzy. I'm not a fan of heavy metal, and Sabbs with Ronnie were a regular heavy metal band. With Ozzy their music was more like hard rock.

Difficult one...

From a technical point of view, Dio was by far a much better singer.

But Black Sabbath with Dio, as Qball says, was just Heavy metal, while in the Ozzy era their sound was darker, they were heavy, but in a different way (a "stoner" way maybe: slow, dense, low guitar tunings, etc).

on the other hand, Dio leaded the best years of Rainbow.

And since we're talkin' about Ozzy and Dio, and not about Black Sabbath... I voted Dio

100% of the votes for Dio so far R.I.P.

was Dio really the harder rocker? Honestly I don't care, I just voted for Dio as my preferred singer even if

neither Ozzy nor Dio sang on my fav. Sabbath album, which is Headless Cross with Tony Martin on vocals.

But throughout his career Dio did so much great stuff (tho don't know how Elf was), for Rainbow and his solo career as well as for Sabbath (Heaven & Hell!, Dehumanizer!!! albums) and even the Sabbath succcessor Heaven & Hell had a cool album with The Devil You Know!

So overall Dio deserves the vote, still Ozzy did well on many Sabbath recordings and put out a few hits while solo, such as Crazy Train or Bark at the Moon etc.

I think both of them can be consider as the father of heavy metal. But yeah, Ozzy is more popular than Dio. But when it comes to music they're both my favorite.

Harder Rocker? Dio had a better voice. I like his two sab albums and holy diver better than anything by Ozzy, but Ozzy started with Sab. Rainbow kills Sab in the mid 70's though.

Harder Rocker? Dio had a better voice. I like his two sab albums and holy diver better than anything by Ozzy, but Ozzy started with Sab. Rainbow kills Sab in the mid 70's though.

there are three albums of Sabbath w/ Dio:

Heaven and Hell

Mob Rules

and Dehumanizer

Ozzy lived the Sex Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle while Dio was always more of a dreamer type guy. As a former nerd myself I related to Dio more in the '80s but later in life when I had fun I wanted to some of the things Ozzy did...well maybe not urinate on the Alamo!

and Dehumanizer