Black Sabbath: New Album (Rick Rubin)

[Nuno Filipe]

I am not a black sabbath fan but I understand why headless cross didnt get much attention. First time I heard a song from this album, I thought, fuck this is sabbath? Ironically, it´s probably the only album I heard from the begining to the end but let´s face it, this album it´s classic hard rock, early sabbath never was radio friendly with catchy riffs. I even say more, if I didnt knew and if somebody showed me war pigs song and then the headless cross I would think that wasnt the same band.

 

[Max Morton]

Any other love out there for the Martin era albums?

I fucking LOVE Tony Martin era! Amazing singing and brilliant songwriting make these albums my favorite. Just the same as you, I love classic Sabbath in a different way - the same way I love stoner/doom bands. But even Dio era does not deliver what Martin era does (for me!).

It's funny but I just had one of these periods of re-listening Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Cross Purposes and Forbidden, as well as some of their live bootlegs. Damn, what an atmosphere! Iommi is the real mastermind and the real leader. He has perfect taste, and just one genre of rock music was not enough for him, that's for sure.

...Wish they'd do another LP with Martin, with bombastic production, not that pathetic excuse for "vintage vibe" they have on "13". It has nothing vintage and nothing vibey in it. Just dry and dull. IMO.

 

[Jind]

...Wish they'd do another LP with Martin, with bombastic production, not that pathetic excuse for "vintage vibe" they have on "13". It has nothing vintage and nothing vibey in it. Just dry and dull. IMO.

While I'd love to see another album with Martin, unfortunately I think that ship has sailed.

With that in mind, and if this reunion album with Ozzy is simply a one off (truthfully I'd be fine with that), I'd love to see Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler find a singer more in the vein of a broad ranged Tony Martin, RJD type talent to move forward, someone that could cover the whole range of the Black Sabbath back catalog as it's been disappointing that as a general rule Dio would only sing Dio era music and Ozzy (probably thankfully) only sings Ozzy era music, while the whole Martin era goes unrecognized live (really a shame in my opinion).

I almost think it's be better to find a talented, relatively unknown, vocalist without the need to lock them into subsets of style associated with the well known singers that have been in Black Sabbath.

Perhaps some would see this as heresy when it comes to Sabbath, but it would work for me.

 

[DanLights]

Tony Martin is my favorite Sabbath singer, to me Cross Purposes, Headless Cross and Forbidden are brilliant albums.

No love for Born Again? I really think Gillan did an excellent job on this "barely Sabbath at all" album, with Disturbing the Priest and Zero the Hero the only songs at least trying to sound like classic Sabbath, but it's a damn good Hard Rock album, along with Seventh Star and Eternal Idol. Damn, Sabbath has so many awesome albums that were and still are overlooked because they're not with Ozzy or Dio.

This said, I still haven't heard 13, I'm performing a real prowess by exercising my willpower, it's in my house, my wife bought it for my birthday (shhh, I'm not supposed to know) which is next Monday, and I'm not even gonna listen to it on Spotify until I have the actual CD in my hands.

 

[Jind]

Tony Martin is my favorite Sabbath singer, to me Cross Purposes, Headless Cross and Forbidden are brilliant albums.

No love for Born Again? I really think Gillan did an excellent job on this "barely Sabbath at all" album, with Disturbing the Priest and Zero the Hero the only songs at least trying to sound like classic Sabbath, but it's a damn good Hard Rock album, along with Seventh Star and Eternal Idol. Damn, Sabbath has so many awesome albums that were and still are overlooked because they're not with Ozzy or Dio.

This said, I still haven't heard 13, I'm performing a real prowess by exercising my willpower, it's in my house, my wife bought it for my birthday (shhh, I'm not supposed to know) which is next Monday, and I'm not even gonna listen to it on Spotify until I have the actual CD in my hands.

I like Born Again for what it is. As you noted it and Seventh Star are the not so Sabbath Sabbath albums but still decent music. Ian Gillan was always a odd fit for Sabbath and from my understanding the pairing of Gillan with the three remaining members of Sabbath was supposed to be a supergroup of sorts that never materialized, eventually morphing into Born Again under the Black Sabbath moniker.

Similarly Seventh Star was supposed to be Tony Iommi's solo project but pressure from band manager Don Arden let to being labeled "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi" - as if Black Sabbath could ever not feature Tony?

PS - Happy Birthday dude! My birthday is also next week on Friday - I've just probably had a few more than you

 

[Pman]

Tony Martin fans, check out this unusual cover.
Tony featuring on greek band Giuntini's cover of Megadeth - How The Story Ends (Endgame)

 

[Skyweaver]

Ray Gillian was definitely my fav Sabbath singer, followed by Dio, followed by Ian Gillian

 

[Max Morton]

No love for Born Again?

Disturbing the Priest has the most sinister laughter EVER! Great album!

Happy Birthday, man

 

[dan weapon]

Another vote for Tony Martin here!

Headless Cross is my favourite Sabbath album - absolutely class.

 

[dan weapon]

Reviving this just to give some props to something from Black Sabbath's back catalog that never gets the respect it deserves - that being the pinnacle of the Tony Martin era, Headless Cross.

This latest release from Black Sabbath has had me listening to most of their back catalog over the past several weeks and I realized how much I absolutely love this album. Perhaps it's my disappointment in some of the production values of 13, perhaps it's the fact that I really am a child of 80's metal, but Headless Cross brings out the teenage metal lover in me.

Sure it's only Tony Iommi from the classic Sabbath lineups, but with Martin on vocals, the great Cozy Powell on drums, Geoff Nichols on keyboards, and jazz-fusion bassist Lawrence Cottle, he produced, at the time, one of the most modern sounding Sabbath albums. It had huge sounding drums dripping with big room reverb, Tony's guitars might have the most effects he's ever used added onto some crushing riffs - it all adds up to just a big sounding album. Add to the mix the utterly underrated but incredible vocals of Tony Martin soaring over the mix and it's seriously in contention with my top Sabbath albums.

And therefore I agree with all of this!

I know what I'm listening to on the way home from work now.
If anyone looks in my car when I'm driving to this album they must think I'm an utter bell-end. I sing the whole album word for word in a rubbish OTT falsetto with one hand gripped in the fist-pump position. Tony's vocals are just so pro. METAL AS FUCK.