Black Sabbath, Headless Cross (IRS-1989)
As a big fan of this band I as all fans love the Ozzy stuff and for a great reason. But all those albums done very well and sold quite rightfully in their million is America and beyond.
Next singer was again a favorite in Ronnie James Dio. But again that was a very successful era in the band. After the second 'Dio' album many fans seem to slowly move on. Some may have felt the constant lineup changes making that once fantastic band seem a little corporate and well stale. But by the time the band got to the late 80s the band was very different. New deal with IRS was signed and a real idea for a change in direction.
A great help for me in this album is Cozy Powell, what a fantastic drummer, he played on many other bands but notable for me Rainbow and on the 'Rising' album. He as ever plays a blinder on this album. And thanks to him a new singer was recruited in Tony Martin. The plan by Tony Iommi was to bring back Dio but Cozy suggested Tony Martin. The idea was to have him on rehearsals and well it all went so well this album was made with the three of them and like the old days all writing credits between the band.
There is an air of AOR on this album but it for me it is in that 80s feel, little bit of a hair metal sort of vibe. But those are all quickly trampled on with guitar from Toni Iommi, easily one of the geniuses of music. Great playing and some nice solos here. Not so much a big riff album but an all round classic rock structure.
The classic inro track really shows what this is all about, Occult and Satanic lyrics and references all over the album. There is also a nice mix of all out metal songs and the classic doom style the band invented in ‘Kill in the Spirit World'. one of the first things I heard about this album was the track ‘When Death Calls’ and I never knew the solo was by Brian May, again amazing stuff and it really expands on everything the band used to be but moving it forward to 1988. As I say the bands at the time were hair metal and slowly there was the grunge thing in the early 90s so it is a nice album in the middle of all that. There are some nice touches of keyboards that give the album that occult vibe from Geoff Nicholls and I think his best work with the band.
Produced by Powell and Iommi it shows how much creativity they had and I am glad that there was no others in the studio as the sound may well have been watered down for that 88 sound.
For me the best Sabbath albums are the first six then this one then the Dio stuff so there really is some great quality here. Well receved at the time by critics but on IRS it really never sold bundles or even got people buzzing at the band. If you are a fan of Sabbath or like many a big fans of the Ozzy/Dio era and and have not heard this it really is a cracking album and fully deserves to be in your collection.
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