(The Original) Black Sabbath - The First Six Studio Albums - batch review

First, will everyone please stop using the tiresome term "sludge" to describe this band's sound? Enough with that. It's not even that accurate, just a huge, lazy cliche at this point.

I have Paranoid, because I like it the best, and it seems to be their acknowledged classic. I also ended up getting the debut. Here are the grades/designations:

Black Sabbath - 7 (B+)
Paranoid - 7.5 (high B+)
Master of Reality - honorable mention
Vol. 4 - honorable mention
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - neutral
Sabotage - neutral

Update (July 2026): I ended up with all of these, for reasons that I won't get into. I'd probably up them all a notch from what's above at this point, and have the final two because I am a melomaniac. In fact, all but Paranoid could probably be skipped as #metal, but I don't really consider them that. They seem more proto-punk to me.