ABlairican Pie's Record Review Restrospective: Black Sabbath

[ABlairican Pie]

By the end of the 80's, Black Sabbath appeared to have established a solid lineup with Tony Martin as vocalist. He fronted the band as the lead singer on 'Headless Cross', released in April 1989. The title track is considered one of the biggest signature songs by the band in the absence of Ozzy or even Ronnie James Dio.

By this time the band had been dropped by its longtime record label Warner Brothers but was picked up by IRS Records headed by Miles Copeland, brother of Stewart Copeland of The Police. Copeland encouraged the band to keep on with what they had become famous for doing: "You know how to write albums, you know what people want. You do it and I'm fine with it." As a result, Tony signed with their new label.

However, there were clashes with the former lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne, over titles that were too identical: A song called "Devil's Daughter" had to be renamed due to a song by Ozzy with the same name. Interestingly, Geezer Butler was asked to join the band, but he opted to join Ozzy's new lineup.

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The album focused entirely on themes of Satan and the occult, staples of the band's lyrics for nearly twenty years by then.

The album opens with 'The Gates Of Hell', a minute-long instrumental setting the tone of the album with haunting effects. The song segued into the title track, 'Headless Cross'. The track was similar to 'E5150' and 'Stonehenge' in an opening track. Many metal songs in the 80's had an opening track to set the tone for the main song, such as "The Ides Of March"/"Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden and "Hellion"/"Electric Eye" by Judas Priest.

"Headless Cross", the title track, was one of the most memorable songs by Black Sabbath, even if most fans did not remember, nor care to remember, this lineup of the band. This was ironic, since the Tony Martin era lasted in fact longer than even Dio's tenure with the band, and even almost as long as Ozzy's stint with the band. A video of the song was made which aired on MTV. Tony Martin's vocals were powerful, captured perfectly, and Tony Iommi's guitar solo was top-notch. Cozy Powell opens the song with a thunderous drum beat. One standout lyric was "There's no escapin' the power of Satan". A catchy lyric in that it was so goofy and cliched. Black Sabbath, who had initiated the trend of dark, macabre lyrics about themes of the devil at the beginning of the 70's, had now become trite and predictable as almost every metal band was doing it--and the tide was now turning as newer metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth were discussion "real world" social themes in their songs. At the same time this was a signature song for the band, it still felt that it had that predictable, polished 80's sound and sheen to it.

The next song was "Devil And Daughter", whose title had to be re-written as Ozzy had a similar song title on his latest album. The song was a little more uptempo with a jump-y beat and rhythm. The song was another familiar track about Satan, with some sort of "evil woman" theme common in Black Sabbath songs thrown in ("Lady Evil", "Gypsy", and the pre-debut single from 1970, ""Evil Woman Don't You Play Your Games with Me", a cover by the band Crow). The song was good, but really broke no new ground, as it suffered from the glossed-over production and composition. Black Sabbath was falling pray to the commercial sameness which dominated so many bands in the late 80's.

The final track on side one, "When Death Calls", opens with an intriguing bass line courtesy of Laurence Cottle, a studio musician hired on to fill the now-vacant bass slot due to Geezer Butler's exit. The song also features a cameo appearance by Brian May of Queen, who was friends with Tony Iommi for years. May was the only guitarist with whom Iommi had a working collaboration outside of Sabbath. The song had the dark heaviness that was an improvement over their most recent offerings of sameness in metal. Tony Martin's vocals fit the Dio vein without sounding too identical. He had the perfect how and edge.

Black Sabbath in 1989 featured drummer Cozy Powell, Tony Iommi, Tony Martin, and bassist Laurence Cottle:

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The second side begins with "Kill In the Spirit World", a predictable 80's metal song with lofty undertones. Not bad, but the thing about Black Sabbath was that they always seemed to defy conventions in music when they made their mark. Which was not always the case as we have seen. It was not terrible, but not particularly groundbreaking.

The next song, "Call Of the Wild", was not a bad song either, but seemed little more than space-filler for fans craving a Dio-soundalike. Had Black Sabbath become a cliche of itself after all this time?

"Black Moon", the third track on the second side, appeared to have a different sort of "swing-y" feel to it, and it was not a bad song. But did it match Black Sabbath's standards of heaviness and innovation? This was a song left over from 'The Eternal Idol' that made it to the latest album.

The next song on the album, "Nightwing" was an impressive ballad-y song in the opening song before launching into familiar heaviness.

The final track on the album, "Cloak And Dagger", was a song on the picture disc on the Japanese version of the album. Was it an official release? In any case, it seemed rather predictable with a mid-tempo rhythm. Had Black Sabbath finally mired into redundancy?

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Twenty years into their career as a band, depending on how one defines them as a "band", Black Sabbath had reached a strange crossroads in what could loosely defined as their "career". Only Tony Iommi remained as the original member. Their record label insisted on retaining the name as a means of commercial gain. The problem was not that albums such as 'Headless Cross' were bad. It was that they were created by a lineup that few listeners recognized. Whatever Tony Iommi was doing, he was certainly milking it. The band was certainly past its glory days at the end of the 80's.

The problem was that, when one considered it, Black Sabbath arrived in the late 60's/early 70's at the very tail end of the British Invasion. The whole concept of the British Invasion of the 60's was to introduce individual band members as unique individual figures worthy of our attention (John, Paul, George, and Ringo, or Pete, Roger, John, and Keith), or an interesting pairing of flamboyant vocalist and dour guitarist (Mick and Keith, or Robert Plant and Jimmy Page). Ozzy was eccentric and outgoing while Tony Iommi was quiet and dark. But in the MTV-ready 80's, a strange phenomenon developed where even top bands could trade and fire members to be more "accessible" commercially, or if one musician failed to suit a frontman (case in point Whitesnake with David Coverdale), that member could be replaced at whim. It no longer became a band effort. It was a revolving-door process.

My opinion of the erstwhile Black Sabbath was passable then, I accepted that they had changed and the video for the title song I would see periodically on MTV's 'Headbanger's Ball' that year was good. But for the vast majority of metal fans in 1989, we had moved on from Black Sabbath as the be-all, end-all band of all things heavy and dark. Why be fascinated over the attempts of Iommi & Co. to be "spooky" and "satanic" when Slayer and so many other bands could do it so much better? Geezer Butler was no longer in the band to pen his trademark lyrics, he in fact joined Ozzy's band for the 'No Rest For the Wicked' era. Who was responsible for the cornball lyrics,
"There's no escapin' the power of Satan"? The band which started the trend to all things dark and demonic in rock and metal songs had finally become a caricature of itself.

In a July 1990 interview with Ozzy and Zakk Wylde in 'Guitar World', Ozzy opined, "Tony Iommi needs to stop writing lyrics about devils and bull because it's been done." Ozzy also admitted that he had a rather cold relationship with Iommi then because the guitarist was rather intimidating and was close to being a "bully". Considering that in the streets of Birmingham in the old days when the future founders of Sabbath were rival punks, this was a revealing statement as this adversarial situation continued professionally in Black Sabbath during the 1970's. Ozzy was fired due to his descent into drugs and alcohol by the end of that decade, but Ozzy countered that the entire band being hypocritical for firing him because they were ALL messed up on cocaine, drugs and alcohol. Ozzy just happened to be the fall guy.

Black Sabbath 1989 playing at the end of the Cold War in Moscow:

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The next album by Black Sabbath, 'Tyr', was released in August 1990. This album was rife with concepts related to Norse mythology, a departure from the typical "Satanic" schtick of their previous album. The Norse concepts led many critics to label the record as a concept album, which then-bassist Neil Murray refuted later.

Tony Iommi recalled that incoming vocalist Tony Martin was under the impression that since he had joined Black Sabbath a few years before, that he was expected to write about the usual "satanic" topics. Iommi explained, "On Headless Cross, Tony [Martin] had just come into the band and he assumed, oh, Black Sabbath, it's all about the Devil, so his lyrics were full of the Devil and Satan. It was too much in your face. We told him to be a bit more subtle about it, so for Tyr he did all these lyrics about Nordic gods and whatnot. It took me a while to get my head around that."

The album was the most radical departure from Black Sabbath's traditional sound. Cozy Powell's drums and the keyboards of Geoff Nicholls are prevalent on the album, and many critics felt the record was one of Sabbath's heaviest albums.

The opening track, "Anno Mundi", is a compelling song, one of Sabbath's best. However, it is not a track one would expect to open the album, with acoustic guitar work reminiscent of "Children Of the Sea" with a group of chorus vocals. The song is a vast improvement over the material of the past several releases. It is majestic, yet not fully "dark". The song, whose title in Latin means "Year of the world", hints in Dio-esque fashion the fate of our times in uncertain days, of war and misfortune.

The next song, "The Law Maker" sees Black Sabbath venture into thrashing territory. The song is about a malevolent figure, like God, but more like a devil or some other menacing entity.

The following song, "Jerusalem", has the band attempt a previous darker feel with a power-metal sound resembling Dio's work. The lyrics seem to speak warning to the famed holy city of Scripture. Is it a thinly veiled social or political commentary on Israel's policies, or is it similar to the prophets of the Old Testament who foretold disaster of the capital?

"The Sabbath Stones" is a slower track featuring a plodding tempo with acoustic guitar thrown in. This is also the third song by the band to mention the word "Sabbath" in the title. The lyrics hearken back to Dio's "mystical" themes of divine direction and the like. The lyrics are never really clear and are best left up to interpretation. The name of the song would later become the title of a future Black Sabbath compilation album.

[opus]

When we getting to Dehumanizer?

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally Posted by opus

When we getting to Dehumanizer?

Thanks for reminding me, because I was about to get to that!

Sorry I've been putting off more posts on this retrospective, but I've been finding some INCREDIBLE information on Black Sabbath that nearly changes everything we've ever thought about the band! And I'll get to that momentarily.

But I haven't forgotten about 'Dehumanizer', I'm glad SOMEONE is paying attention, because people's knowledge of Black Sabbath seems to have dropped off after 1970 (except for ten years later, of course).

So I was discussing the latter half of the 'Tyr' album:

The album continues with 'The Battle Of Tyr", an instrumental, which is part of a song cycle, with "Odin's Court" and "Valhalla". All three songs are impressive with Tony Martin's excellent (yet underappreciated) vocals. This was an album Black Sabbath was meant to make. It was almost a power metal album with its themes, consistent with what Dio was making several years before with the band.

The next song on the album nearly soured me on the record when I heard it on the radio: "Feels Good To Me" was a sappy power ballad, as I figured, nothing particular amazing when I listened to it on the radio in 1990. I think now, yeah, it was the proper space filler needed to make it more "commercial". Now I don't think it's terrible, but it does seem out of place in a series of songs about Viking lore and the like.

The final track on the album, "Heaven In Black", opens with Cozy Powell's drum fills and is a decent up-tempo rocker. Still it feels like filler with lofty power metal concepts on the rest of the album.

Black Sabbath 1990 tour poster:

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Like most albums from that era of Black Sabbath, I had heard very little of it except the track "Sounds Good To Me" which did NOT sound all that good to me, because it sounded so standard. This was the best (the then-current) Black Sabbath could come up with? But then I read in 'Guitar World' that one of the members of Judas Priest said this was the album he wanted for Christmas, so it gave me the idea that there may have been something more to the album than what I heard.

It was interesting that the metal press made so much about the 'Tyr' album being about Nordic and Viking lore and themes, as the Norwegian black metal scene was ready to make headlines internationally in the early part of the 90's with lurid tales of church arsons, murders, and an abrasive form of extreme metal in Scandinavia. Black Sabbath at least did not sound much like that.

Tony Iommi on an import disc 1990:

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The next year, Black Sabbath felt the pinch of declining sales and decided to do something desperate: They needed to get a "name" singer back, and for this, they reached out to Ronnie James Dio to handle the vocal parts on their upcoming release. The strange thing was that current vocalist Tony Martin was never officially fired. Material was in fact done for the new album with Martin on vocals. But the band decided to replace him with Dio regardless.

Tony Martin explained:
"I had already started my first solo album 'Back Where I Belong' – so, when I got the call to go back, I was committed by that point. And in fact it was just a couple of months after they had started the thing with Ronnie James Dio. I was determined to finish my solo thing and so turned them down at that point. We did keep in touch though and I went to some shows. Ronnie wasn’t too pleased, but eventually they had enough and asked me to rejoin again later so it felt like I hadn’t actually left. In fact, I was never formally fired; the phone just stopped ringing. Ian Gillan (Deep Purple singer, and another ex-Sabbath singer) asked me once if I had actually been fired and I said, 'No.' He said, 'Neither have I.' We should just turn up one day and walk on stage!"

Both Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio worked out the various issues which led to the singer's departure several years before. Both musicians realized the chemistry was still there and that the reasons for the separation in 1983 over the 'Live Evil' debacle were silly and pointless. So work began on the next album, 'Dehumanizer', which was released in June 1992.

Unfortunately, even though Cozy Powell appears on the cover and credits of the album, he did not join the band on tour as he had a horse die and fall on him, breaking his hip! Dio wanted to replace him with former Dio and AC/DC drummer Simon Wright, but Vinnie Appice was brought back instead.

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The themes of 'Dehumanizer' were of a more sci-fi, "real life", current events series of themes than the sorcery-and-fantasy topics that Ronnie James Dio was known to write.

The album begins with the thunderous "Computer God", a song with the dystopian theme of computers and the internet taking on a religious nature in the lives of its users. Dio appears to be practically prophetic about the power of the internet and cyberculture in an era when such things were still in their infancy as a presence in our world and society. "Love" would also become a vicarious act on the internet with virtual reality. Ronnie James Dio felt that the rising dominance of the internet and computer technology would soon take over humanity. This was a heavy return to form for Black Sabbath, one of their finest in a long while.

The second song, "After All (The Dead)", a doomy sounding track, questions the concept of the afterlife when asking those who passed on, who, of course, cannot answer. Ronnie James Dio, in the repudiation of his strict Catholic upbringing, dismissed the concept of heaven and hell as the ultimate goal of the soul once it departs from the here and now, with him saying that heaven and hell were what we experience on this side of life. His assessment of a life to come remains grim, as he personally did not subscribe to it. Who were we to pass judgment, he seemed to say, on those who answered nothing on it?

"TV Crimes", the third track, more up-tempo, was about a common current events theme in those years, the televangelist scandals of the late 80's. The "crimes" were the shameless pitches on television by jaded, opulent preachers promising salvation to the well-funded and gullible, and the subsequent scramble to avoid prosecution by the authorities. The song fits the theme of similar metal songs including "Leper Messiah" by Metallica, "Holy Smoke" by Iron Maiden, and "Miracle Man" by Ozzy,

The slower-paced "Letters From Earth" is a lyric in the form of a prayer to God for answers to the injustices in the world, and that Dio himself is not free from guilt. What can Dio offer this God but pain and chaos in this life?

The final track on the first side is "Master Of Insanity", perhaps a play on the title 'Master Of Reality' where the lyrics ask us to confront the madman, the craziness, within us all, in spite of our insistence to deny its existence. The song has a sort of fast, off-and-on galloping rhythm.

Black Sabbath 1992, with Vinnie Appice at far left, who replaced Cozy Powell after the drummer's unfortunate injuries from a horse which fell on him:

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Side two of 'Dehumanizer' begins with "Time Machine", a fairly uptempo song which was featured on the 'Wayne's World'. Two versions of the songs were recorded; one which was heavier and contained one set of lyrics, while the other, used for the soundtrack, sounded a little less so while a different set of lyrics were sung in the song. The song is a metaphor for life, that our bodies are a time machine where we choose the input and how we deal with circumstances.

The movie was memorable for the "headbanging" scene in the back of the car to "Bohemian Rhapsody", the second time the song rose to massive acceptance in popular culture. Tony Iommi had musically collaborated with Queen guitarist Brian May and was featured in the Freddy Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 after the lead singer's tragic death due to AIDS.

The next song, "Sins Of the Father", continues with a trudging, doom-filled pace, The lyrics, like "Master Of Insanity", deal with the dual personality living in us which causes crimes and misdeeds.

"Too Late", which follows, features an acoustic melody with lyrics about regret with no time to undo the past. This is the "power ballad" track on the album.

"I", perhaps the shortest title in all of rock and metal, is one of the stronger tracks on the album with a marching beat and excellent guitar work. The lyric consists of the pronoun depicting the speaker in many forms and guises.
As is common with Dio's lyrics, he remains mysterious and leaves the interpretation up to the listener.

The final track on the album, "Buried Alive", is not an exceptional track, rather standard and plods along. The lyrics appear to be about a funeral and the seeming futility of life, as well as death's finality. Quite a cheerful note on which to close the record. Once again, the lyrics remain ambiguous.

Below is a photo of the 'Dehumanizer' demos before Dio was summoned to handle vocals. Tony Iommi, drummer Cozy Powell, then a member of the band, and Geezer Butler are featured in the picture.

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Above it was mentioned that "TV Crimes" became part of a growing list of rock and metal songs criticizing the televangelist scandals of the late 80's. The song was in fact specifically about one controversial figure who became part of the revolving door lineup of Black Sabbath during the 'Seventh Star' era several years before in 1986: Jeff Fenholt, who may or may not have been a vocalist for the band, or at least was one very briefly, spun a story following his departure from Black Sabbath which turned into a very successful televangelist ministry based on his notoriety of being associated with the band.

Jeff Fenholt first played the title role in the Broadway production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. He then performed on several pop musical projects in the 70's with little success before opting for rock in the 80's. He traveled to Southern California where metal was big and became involved with Tony Iommi's solo album project. He performed on several demo tracks which would later be released with a different vocalist. Iommi thought he was a decent vocalist, but felt Fenholt was not up to the task of doing older material, so they went their separate ways.

Jeff Fenholt:

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While Tony Iommi indicated that "things just didn't work out" with Fenholt, it was not particularly due to musical differences that caused the rift
in a working relationship between the two. Apparently Fenholt met up with Christian construction workers who gave the singer the evangelistic
message of salvation through Christ who could change his life. Seeing that his life was on a downward spiral due to drugs, alcohol, and the usual
degradation associated with the rock and roll lifestyle, Fenholt took up the call to embrace the message offered by his evangelical messenger.
That was at least the story Fenholt gave Iommi as to the reason to his departure from Black Sabbath. Tony Iommi found Jeff Fenholt's sudden
conversion story rather incredulous. One week Fenholt was bragging about a woman with whom he had sex, and the next moment he was going
on about how he had "seen the light" and was going to use his notoriety as a converted metal vocalist as a way to become a major figure in
televangelism to warn of the dangers of the rock and roll lifestyle.

Iommi was appalled, though not particularly surprised that Fenholt's involvement with Black Sabbath would once again be used against the
band now that he had become an overnight sensation in the Christian TV evangelism circles. Fenholt soon had his own show on TBN and would
promote the familiar story that Black Sabbath was "evil" and "decadent", feeding into the "satanic panic" regarding heavy metal. Iommi realized
that his status as a televangelist would add fuel to the fire that Sabbath and metal were "bad" and that the cards were stacked against him because
after all, who would doubt the word of a hip televangelist about rock and metal?

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'Dehumanizer' came at an awkward time for Black Sabbath. While it was refreshing to have Ronnie James Dio return to the fold with the band, the album was not quite the stellar release that 'Heaven And Hell' and 'Mob Rules' were over ten years before. Dio wrote lyrics more about real life issues and dystopian themes than his usual fantasy themes. The album also suffered in sales due to the advent of grunge which had stolen the thunder of metal lately. While Kurt Cobain and Nirvana referred to their music as being influenced by early Black Sabbath, the 80's version of the band with Dio was not a consideration.

There was another factor threatening the renewed partnership of Dio with Black Sabbath: The band was asked to join Ozzy Osbourne on the final dates of his 'No More Tours' shows in Costa Mesa, California in November 1992 as an opening act before their former frontman entered retirement. Ronnie James Dio refused to participate in this. He saw the writing on the wall: He was never a fan of Ozzy and had considered him an ill-mannered clown. It did not help that Ozzy taunted Dio onstage during the 'Diary Of a Madman' tour with a midget he facetiously named "Ronnie" who would be "hanged" to the amusement of the audience. This stunt was to mock Ronnie James Dio in reference to his physical stature. Dio also became aware that a reunion with Sabbath and Ozzy was allegedly imminent, and that things were afoot to oust Dio from the band and replace him with Ozzy. Regardless, Dio felt this event to "reunite" with Ozzy was an insult to the reunion on 'Dehumanizer"; Dio had sacrificed his own band to return to Sabbath, and it was all over before it had even begun.

On the final show with Black Sabbath, Dio had departed but not without a replacement: Rob Halford, formerly of Judas Priest who had left that band to search for a solo career, stepped up to the microphone to sing Black Sabbath songs. The three original members of Black Sabbath joined Ozzy for several songs before going their separate ways once more.

Rob Halford and Tony Iommi live 1992:

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A photo of the (briefly) reunited Black Sabbath at Ozzy's final concert in Costa Mesa, California, on November 15, 1992: