BLACK SABBATH in 1971: Master of Reality and the end of innocence.

Written by Andreas Andreou

SATAN, COCAINE, GOLDEN RECORDS, USA: 1971 ON THE ROAD.

During 1970, Black Sabbath released two albums (Black Sabbath, Paranoid) and from small clubs they went on to tour in the United States while their albums met a huge commercial success despite the negativity of critics and the press that couldn't see at that moment what was happening. Reviews of the albums at the time were savage. The key to commercial success though, always had to do with the USA too; if a band managed to tour in the USA and enter the charts, success was in sight.

The United States of America was a completely different world than Europe and England half a century ago, and the 22-year old fellas from Birmingham got to learn about it and even changed their perspective of the world. When you travelled in the USA in 1971, you could see headlines about Ku Klux Klan bombing school buses, a bomb on a plane, a bomb here and there, the Attica Prison riot, and of course the Vietnam War was still raging. But 50 years ago, there were more things that nowadays sound like they don't matter or they're just "old news" and a "stupid thing". In 1971 in the USA, you had the sentence of Charles Manson after the "trial of the century", and you could also see the founder of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey, in the cover of the famous Look magazine. "It's a satanic world", Geezer Butler told Rolling Stone magazine that year, and Satanism was a "thing" back then in the USA. "Satan" was a word mentioned with fear in the society half a century ago. Things were different.

In that world (the USA), Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward met all kinds of weirdos and people who invited them to Satanic ceremonies and black magic gatherings since they had the fame of devil-worshippers. They got praise from followers of Charles Manson, even Anton LaVey himself, who (according to Tony and Ozzy) arranged a black magic parade in San Francisco honoring the band with a "Welcome Black Sabbath" banner. They never really understood it but that was America; A different world. And keep in mind that we're talking about something different: That was the context of the world half a century ago.

Years later, the Church of Satan said that the black magic parade was a myth, but in this world, Black Sabbath was often related with black magic and Satan even if they had just a handful of songs about Old Nick and they always denied every connection with that - they even made fun of it. They had a dark vibe, a presence of an invisible fifth member and the Devil's interval, the tritone, and THE RIFF, but that's all; it just gave birth to Heavy Metal.

However, when Ozzy parted ways with the rest and everyone entered the '80s, things changed, heavy metal music became something different and both parties (Ozzy in his solo career and what Iommi did with the Black Sabbath moniker) embraced the dark image and all those myths. Ozzy became the bat-biting Prince of Darkness and sung songs about Aleister Crowley and Manson's murders, while Tony Iommi wrote riffs about the hill of the headless cross and Satan, even added a red devil baby in the cover of a Sabbath album. Well, they kept wearing crosses, just like those Ozzy's father made for the original 4 in the early days that were supposed to keep them safe from evil eyes and evil possessors but things really changed in the '80s. According to the "image", Tony Iommi made most of the people that entered the Sabbath timeline in the '80s wearing crosses, just like those Ozzy's father brought. That was the '80s, the second decade of cocaine that became the devil's daughter for both Ozzy and Tony who were seduced by her, but let' go back to 1971...

Black Sabbath started writing the first new songs on the road, while touring in the UK (with a short visit in Australia for the Myponga Pop Festival) but they stopped since the management and labels asked them to visit again the USA for touring since Paranoid got its US release by Warner Bros. Records a few months later than the Vertigo UK & European release. The band played in the USA until April, and a few shows followed back in Europe with the last one at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, on April 26th of 1971. The show in Royal Albert Hall was supposed to be during the January British tour but the band was banned because of their image, their lyrics and their music. Promoters were afraid.

 

In just a few months, both Black Sabbath and Paranoid achieved gold status and a third tour in North America was booked starting in July 1971. Black Sabbath had just a few weeks until May to finish their third album and continue touring, in a schedule that nowadays looks unreal and impossible.

 

Before even releasing Master of Reality, Black Sabbath had already performed more than 200 shows (sometimes performing two shows at the same day) let alone all those shows during 1968 and the first half of 1969 before changing name to Black Sabbath. While the first US tour was something like a successful experiment, the following ones and the shows they performed, made them one of the biggest bands of the planet. The audience went mad when Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill were on stage and even if that was just the beginning, they were already old dogs but they never stopped learning new tricks. Black Sabbath continued in North America until late-October 1971. When 1971 came to an end, Black Sabbath had already performed an estimated number of 300 shows. Think about it for a while. And it was not just that. They continued touring supporting Master of Reality in the United Kingdom during January and February of 1972 while in late-February they returned to the USA for more shows until April 1972, adding an estimated number of 50 more shows!

We've said the USA changed the band's perspective of the world. They were already introduced to marijuana and different kinds of pills but in the world of America the hard-line drug-dust came in front of them just like pizza and all those groupies, weirdos and freaks, among the thousands of fans. Tony Iommi must have been the first one who did cocaine while Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne shortly followed during some LA nights. Ozzy was introduced to cocaine by Leslie West of Mountain, a guitarist that was a huge influence for another important person in Ozzy's timeline: Randy Rhoads.

Master of Reality was certified gold from advance sales before it was even released. In a period of two years, from late-1969 to late-1971, Black Sabbath shaped different heavy genres of music, inspired countless people, released three albums and went from small clubs in England to headline shows of thousands in the USA. That was the end of innocence and the beginning of a new era. "I feel the band is getting very influenced by the American trip", Ozzy said to Melody Maker in 1972, when they were somehow relocated in the United States, and influence for every new song was coming from the world. It was just a different new world, so that's what the music was about: the daily life and social chaos, drugs, pollution, war and evil, supernatural and the afterlife. Still though, there were also moments of happiness and love within those songs.

 Black Sabbath at Central Park, NYC. August 15, 1971 (photo by Bob Gruen)

 

WHEN WAS "MASTER OF REALITY" ACTUALLY RECORDED?

The most confusing thing is the period the album was actually recorded. According to various sources, Master of Reality was recorded during February-April 1971 in Island Studio in London, while Tony Iommi wrote in his biography Iron Man (First Da Capo Press paperback edition, 2012, page 94) that the album was recorded in February and March of 1971, and he's also mentioning they had two weeks to record Master of Reality. In the kind of life of people like Tony, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, exact dates are not something that's really certain when they're asked about it.

For sure, the album was recorded in London with producer Rodger Bain for the third and final time, and Tom Allom engineering. But it wasn't recorded during March, since by mid-February until early-April, Black Sabbath were touring in North America. Then, they returned to Europe for a few more European dates in Scandinavian countries with the last one in London, England, on April 26th of 1971. So, the album is either recorded after that date in May or June of 1971, or before February 1971, or just those few days during early April after the North America tour and before the few European dates.

So, when was Master of Reality recorded? Maybe they worked on a few basic tracks after Christmas of 1970 up to early January 1971 but surely entered the studio early-February for a few days. The final recordings were probably in a week during early April and/or completed in May 1971.

The album was released in both the UK and the USA on July 21, when they were already back in the United States for another major tour.

THE ALBUM. THE SONGS. THE LEGACY.

Recorded with producer Rodger Bain, the album is the perfect follow-up to Black Sabbath and Paranoid. Primal and gloomy, heavy and honest, Master of Reality is the end of innocence for the band members before they will move on to more ambitious and experimental albums as established rock stars, without any specific few-days recording limitation from record companies and management, or producers like Bain claiming part of their glory.

Down, down, down-tuned, Master of Reality was the heaviest album on earth upon its release. The heaviest thing the world witnessed up to that moment. It was the year where the term "heavy metal" also started appearing in magazines more often and found its true meaning in describing that specific genre-defining album that became the blueprint for all-things heavy, different sub-genres and music styles that followed years (even decades) later. Master of Reality was the heavy metal music of its time.

However, a few people and writers are often confused and believe that Tony Iommi down-tuned his guitar for the album but that's not really correct. Iommi did it in just three songs: "Children of the Grave", "Lord of This World" and "Into the Void". "They were played with guitars detuned three semitones to sharp C", an expert - musician would say, and I guess that's the exact musical term for what Iommi did. But why did he do it? After countless live shows and days on stage, the pain in his chopped fingertips was constant. The sound was already heavy but with the down-tuning he reduced the string tension and that was easier for him to perform the mammoth riffs. Then, Geezer Butler also down-tuned his bass to match the Riff Master and Ozzy started singing higher to balance everything.

Today, there are many audio engineers and people in the music industry, and when something (very) heavy and sludgy appears, sometimes, someone will say "it's not properly recorded", while others are lost in overproduced albums that you can't really listen to all the instruments and music elements properly. Labels didn't change Black Sabbath's music, and "social media experts" of the modern age was something that didn't exist, but it would be fun to have them back then speaking about "a bad production", "average vocals" and "sloppy playing". Thankfully, 50 years ago nobody affected Sabbath's sound and the history of music changed. With all its "faults", the "you can't do that!", and "maths" that are not right; because simply, music is not just maths and it can be something more. Frank Zappa once explained it better. In the end, Black Sabbath really did everything their way. With weird riffs for the time, different changes, sounds and tempos "that's not going to work!" even within the same track. They made it work. Thankfully.

 

There wasn't any single prior to the release of Master of Reality. "Paranoid" (the song), a last-minute track requested by the label for the previous album, was a huge hit, but Black Sabbath had a different perspective and they never repeated it or looked for it in the '70s; the "hit", a label wanted. They even talked to the press about those pop "screaming kids" you could see in mainstream acts. "We don't need those fans. And we're not changing our act just to please kids who bought the single", Sabbath's comment was in the Disc and Music Echo magazine.

Inspired by the "It's the sweetest leaf" slogan of Sweet Afton cigarettes from Ireland, "Sweet Leaf" begins with Tony Iommi's echo-coughing after a big joint offer by Ozzy and taped in the studio. The blueprint song for the '90s heavy and stoner rock music is a love song but it doesn't involve people, just the love for marijuana ("I love you sweet leaf"). Just like "Sweet Leaf", "After Forever" was also a song raising controversy with lines like "would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope - do you think he's a fool?" but the song is not against Christ and God, it is just a song criticizing the Catholic Church and the "people like you that crucified Christ". Geezer Butler, a raised Catholic, writes "they should realize before they criticize, that God is the only way to love" giving also one of the first lyrical contents to '80s bands like Trouble but also white (or Christian) metal.

"Embryo" just serves as the intro to "Children of the Grave", "a little classical thing to give it all a little space and create some light and shade" as Tony Iommi writes in his autobiography. Of course, while Sabbath was all the time on the road and with all previous song ideas used in the first two albums, they have limited time writing new songs, so those small instrumental parts, besides sharing a similar purpose, the out-of-the-box light in darkness and gloomy vibe, were bits that extended the album's tracks. And then, you have one of the most iconic Sabbath (and heavy metal in general) tracks, "Children of the Grave". Arriving from a working-class life at the height of the Vietnam War, Black Sabbath echo the world of late-60s and early-70s from the eyes of the youth. In the first verse, Ozzy sings about children who start to march against the world in which they have to live, and in the last verse, he talks to them: "Show the world that love is still alive, you must be brave, or you children of today are children of the grave". It's a warning to the children of that era, the kind of song that the youth of the early-70s was connected with, felt and loved, despite the criticism of the media against Black Sabbath. Having a Hammer Horror vibe, this song is a work of genius, from Iommi's galloping riff that influenced almost everything in heavy, epic and power metal in the '80s, to Bill Ward's overdubbed timbales and Ozzy's desperate "yeah!" at the end of each verse. "Children of the Grave" was revolutionary and besides its music, it was lyrically a huge influence for what followed the next years.

"Orchid" is another Iommi acoustic piece, adding light and colour within the shade and darkness, following the revolution of children of the grave before the devil song; one of the few actually Sabbath wrote in the '70s about Old Nick, Satan, the evil possessor that becomes your confessor. "Lord of This World" was a sinister song for the context of 1971. The riff and the change after a few seconds but mainly Ozzy's performance gave that threatening element, adding also the trademark "yeah" in the end of the first verses. It's one of those Sabbath tracks that Ozzy's voice becomes the soul of the song, playing the role of Satan himself, and after the final verse, Iommi and Butler lead the song to glorious heights proving that the chemistry of the original Sab-4 was perfect and was never reached again in such a continuation.

There was a debate for years about who's really singing on "Solitude". Of course it is Ozzy and that was Sabbath's first true love song including flute and piano by Iommi. Ozzy's pessimistic and eerie performance on lines like "the world is a lonely place, you're on your own" is another shivering moment that gives to Sabbath's gloomy vibe a new dimension adding also an ambient element. That's what made Ozzy the voice of Black Sabbath and no one sang the '70s song better. It doesn't matter who has the better voice because Oz is the character for those specific cuts. His voice became the emotion and the feeling of those songs. He became insanity, the drug, the loss and the depression, the anger, the possessed. You can't control those feelings, therefore you must be them in order to be convincing, and Ozzy was all of them.

And finally, you have the end of the world. "Into the Void", the apocalyptic horror with pollution killing the air, hate and fear bringing mankind to the final suicide, leaving the earth to Satan and his slaves. Just a few freedom fighters escaped the brainwashed minds and those could be the warned children of the world that escaped the grave. Lyrically, this is another song - warning, while musically, it is one of the greatest moments of Black Sabbath with incredible work by Iommi, and Butler matching the riff behind him.

The Sabbath influence and inspiration was instantly spread all over the world and this is recorded and documented. This is one of the very rare cases in the history of music; Black Sabbath was a revolution. When they toured Europe in 1969, people (fans and other bands) already started talking about "those" songs, without even having an album out and when the debut album was released, everything changed. Instantly.

The Flower Travellin' Band from Japan (!) released their debut album Anywhere just a few months after Sabbath's debut in 1970 and they covered "Black Sabbath" (the track) already, while Ronnie James Dio was already covering live "War Pigs" with The Elves. The Sabbath sound-factor was everywhere already. In 1971, when Master of Reality was released and became the heaviest album in the world, they were already an established and influential band, and the Black Sabbath albums were released everywhere. There are pressings of the first three albums, even in territories like New Zealand, Israel, South Africa, Lebanon, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Taiwan and Philippines, released there already until 1971.

 

THE "HIDDEN" SONGS.

The known track list of Master of Reality when it was released from Vertigo is: 1. Sweet Leaf, 2. After Forever, 3. Embryo, 4. Children of the Grave, 5. Orchid, 6. Lord of This World, 7. Solitude, 8. Into the Void. However, in the first US pressings of Warner Bros, the Master of Reality tracklist appears as: 1. Sweet Leaf, 2. After Forever (including The Elegy), 3. Embryo, 4. Children of the Grave, 5. The Haunting, 6. Orchid, 7. Step Up, 8. Lord of This World, 9. Solitude, 10. Deathmask, 11. Into the Void. While there are countless pressings of the Black Sabbath albums, sometimes those "secret" and "hidden" songs look like separate tracks but what they really are?

Nothing new. Those are actually "ghost" titles. Mostly appearing in North America pressings, Warner Bros. Records wanted more songs because of their publishing deal, so Black Sabbath needed to have a minimum of 10 songs/titles per album in order to reach the publishing agreement. Those "extra" titles were never part of the original recordings and were added afterwards. "The Elegy" is the intro - first section of "After Forever" that also reprises within the song, that's why it is mentioned as "including the Elegy". "The Haunting" are the last seconds of "Children of the Grave" with the whispering echo voice of Ozzy, "Step Up" is the intro riff of "Lord of This World" and "Deathmask" is the first part-segment of "Into the Void".

The most interesting part is that those "secret" songs were mostly added on the vinyl labels and not on the albums' sleeves while they somehow disappeared from later US pressings. Back in the day, those "extra" and "secret" songs reached a mythical status confusing most of the people for a while but reality was something different.

 

THE MISTAKES.

When the album was released, the instrumental tracks ("Embryo", "Orchid") and "After Forever" were credited to Tony Iommi alone for the first time, while the rest five tracks were credited to all of them (Iommi/Butler/Osbourne/Ward) just like before. However, everyone knows that Iommi never wrote lyrics, nor did one tell Ozzy how to sing the vocal melodies, even if during the Sabbath years, many times he sung upon the riff. It is known that the lyrics of "After Forever" were written by Geezer Butler but we don't know why this song was credited to Iommi alone in the beginning. That's what most people say, right?

Well, the credit to Iommi-only could be a mistake of Vertigo Records that handled the UK and European pressings, since in the US pressings of Warner Bros. the credit is correct and includes all names. In different pressings of the album in recent years, the credit has changed to all of them.

A few first pressings had the title on labels like Masters of Reality and that was corrected in future pressings. Among the first pressings with mistaken labels were US, Canadian and German versions, while in German early pressings, they also forgot to add "Embryo" on the labels.

The "hidden" songs also added a mistake that kept going for decades, especially on vinyl pressings. While "Into the Void" was split in two in the early pressings ("Deathmask" and "Into the Void") in the subsequent pressings, the time duration of "Deathmask" (the first part of "Into the Void") was added in the time duration of "Solitude", so the ballad appeared as an 8-minute song. That mistake kept going to many different vinyl pressings even until 2011. Of course, when the vinyl records or compact discs were playing, the time separation between the tracks was correct and the mistake was only mentioned on labels.

The mistakes on names and artists is very common, so there are many early pressings with wrongly written names.

US Warner Bros. Records' first pressings with wrong title (Masters of Reality), "ghost titles" included and "After Forever" correctly credited to all (Iommi mentioned as "Ioomi")

 

 Early German pressings with wrong title (Masters of Reality), missing title ("Embryo") and "After Forever" credited to Iommi.

 

 

 US Warner Bros. Records' early pressings with corrected title, no "ghost titles" (except "The Elegy" that remained), "After Forever" correctly credited to all, and wrong running time for "Solitude".

 

THE MANY FACES OF THE ALBUM.

There are already around 400 different versions of Master of Reality since July 1971 all over the world, making it one of the most-times released Sabbath albums. The most known cover versions have the purple band logo and the album title in black letters, or black letters with white border, or black letters with purple border. But there are more. Much more than you can imagine and probably we will never see them all.

First vinyl pressing had the Vertigo swirl label on side A and tracklist on side B. Vinyl was in a Vertigo poly-lined inner sleeve and there was also a poster. Instead of a regular cover sleeve, there was a laminated sleeve in the form of a box-envelope opening from the top and bottom. Band logo and album title were embossed on the front cover, while on the back there were printed lyrics and credits. That was also the first time that Black Sabbath lyrics were printed in an album since the previous pressings of Black Sabbath and Paranoid didn't include the lyrics.

 

EPILOGUE: KILLING THE HIPPY DREAM - A NEW ERA RISES.

The original Sab-4 (©) were raised in the urban and industrial area of Birmingham and when they released the first two albums in 1970, they presented what is considered the beginning of heavy metal. With the third album, Master of Reality, they became the inventors of Heavy Metal and the world of music changed. It was the music, the name, the aura, the lyrics. They had them all, but most important, they also had the RIFF. In those first 6 albums, they played all the riffs that built heavy music offering inspiration for thousands of variations of their riffs that shaped heavy and metal music with all their sub-genres in the '80s, the '90s, the '00s and beyond.

In 1971, when Master of Reality was released and Black Sabbath presented heavy metal in a full primal form, society started changing and Black Sabbath were there to get and return that vibe, the soundtrack of war, nuclear destruction, social struggle and evil. The era of flowers and innocence was gone and critics hated Black Sabbath for "killing the hippy dream". The Woodstock generation and the dream of a better society failed within society itself.

Jimi Henrdix died in 1970, The Beatles broke-up in 1970, a new era started and it's not just "love and flowers". Before Black Sabbath, there was soul, pop, psychedelic rock and the flower pop movement; things the magazines presented. Then, Black Sabbath came and presented something new in its full form. That wasn't just a random heavy riff, one song in one album, just a cover or an image; they had a continuation. And since it wasn't just one element or just a few "heavy" moments or just a song, critics and magazines didn't know how to handle them. There wasn't anything alike before, so this new, heavy music, was considered a "mistake". Critics mocked Black Sabbath but this "mistake" was something really new and revolutionary that youth loved and was taking over everything the critics previously adored.

A new era began and half a century later Master of Reality is among the most important cornerstones of everything that followed in hard, heavy and metal music. Decades later, there are still countless musicians, bands and producers, who’re trying to reproduce the music, the feeling, the performance and the sound of Master of Reality and what the original Sab-4 did in the ‘70s. You can’t beat that.

 

 

Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny: The story and the influences.

Recorded during November - December of 1975 and released on March 23rd of 1976 by Gull Records, the second studio album of Judas Priest is one of the blueprints of heavy metal.

by Andreas Andreou

Having the same business arrangements just like the first album Rocka Rolla (a recording budget of £2,000), the band entered the Rockfield Studios in Wales, with producers Jeffrey Calvert and Max West, while Chris Tsangarides was listed as co-engineer. The band was very happy when Rodger Bain was brought to produce Rocka Rolla in June - July 1974, because they were fans of Black Sabbath and having the producer of their first albums was something important for them. However, the result didn't meet their expectations but it was an eye-opening learning experience. At that point, the recording line-up was Rob Halford (vocals), K.K. Downing (guitar), Glenn Tipton (guitar, piano), Ian Hill (bass), Alan Moore (drums) and the band were listed as "co-producers" convincing the producers to add in the new album tracks that were previously rejected by Bain.


Things were ready for the next level and there was going to be a departure from the Rocka Rolla sound but those years, where music terms were abstract, they didn't really want to be labelled as a "heavy band". "We don't like to be called heavy. We'd rather be thought of as a dramatic band", Glenn Tipton said to Sounds magazine in May of 1976.


Before the recordings of one of the most important albums of their catalogue (and the last one for Gull), the band visited former singer Al Atkins to sign a contract so they will include parts he wrote in the album. Those parts were added in "Victim of Changes" and "Dreamer Deceiver". However, Atkins doesn't really remember which part was included in "Dreamer Deceiver" (and if any was used) so in a few later pressings of the album his credit is discarded. "Victim of Changes", a song with a heavy influenced Black Sabbath riff, is a combination of the older "Whiskey Woman" track written by Atkins and Downing, and Halford's "Red Light Lady".

Read about the formation of Judas Priest.

"Victim of Changes" is by far the most-times performed-live song of the album, followed by "The Ripper". Sad Wings of Destiny is heavily influenced by Black Sabbath (who already had released 6 albums at that point) since a few Priest members were listening to Sabbath even during the writing and the recordings of the album. From the riffing of "Victim of Changes" up to more melodic arrangements, even lyrics themselves, and from the "Children of the Grave"-influenced riff of "Deceiver" (with a touch of "Under the Sun"), just like Rocka Rolla, this album is also dominated by Black Sabbath, mainly from the albums after Master of Reality. The heavy, progressive and diverse vibe of albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is all over Priest.

The late Chris Tsangarides has told Martin Popoff, "They (Judas Priest) started writing lyrics that kind of set the way forward for most of metal, doom, gloom, that kind of thing, the odd demon here or there, but it was mainly that. They loved the Sabbath. In fact, they (Black Sabbath) were recording in the next studio to us and we would talk with them and go in there, listen to a couple of hours and whatnot." Chris Tsangarides, who worked again with Judas Priest for the Painkiller album, added, "Definitely Black Sabbath was the band that they liked and loved very much".


But it wasn't just Black Sabbath. This was the key influence, but there was also Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Queen. Queen and Freddie Mercury had the biggest impact on Halford who was impressed when he saw them live at the Birmingham Town Hall before Priest recorded the debut album, and when an early manager tried to nickname him, he gave him the awkward, Rob "The Queen" Halford, something that didn't last for a minute.

"Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin, I was a fun of those bands'', Tipton noted, while Downing wrote in his autobiography, "As proud as I was of Sad Wings of Destiny, I could see  the influence of other bands slowly creeping into our songwriting on what was a very important album" and he is very correct. An album blueprint for heavy metal, is actually a masterpiece that's balancing between their influences and the search of their personal style. A turning point where Judas Priest were still searching for their own identity and vision, even if it is considered nowadays as one of their best albums. For example the strong Queen influence that is all over Sad Wings of Destiny wasn't really present in the albums that followed.

From that point on though, Sad Wings of Destiny took the torch and influenced more people and bands, leading to the next albums where Judas Priest finalized their own unique heavy metal style. Added to that, the huge leap from Rocka Rolla (a Bottom-5 Priest album) to Sad Wings of Destiny (a Top-5 Priest album) is probably one of the biggest gaps in the catalogue of all major bands.


The album wasn't an instant success. Actually, it took a few years to be recognized and that's why its influence wasn't instantly, just like Black Sabbath's albums.

The original track list was
Side A:
1. Prelude
2. Tyrant
3. Genocide
4. Epitaph
5. Island of Domination
Side B:
1. Victim of Changes
2. The Ripper
3. Dreamer Deceiver
4. Deceiver

but Gull Records pressed the vinyl by putting side B before side A, even if in the back cover of the first pressing it was written as intended to be. Actually, the original idea makes more sense (who would put a "Prelude" track in the middle?) but that mistake is how we learned the album and what's considered correct in the history of Judas Priest. After all, the history of music itself has many stories of mistakes which later considered as the "normal" because that's what was presented by the labels or the artists or the press.


There is a diversity that might be considered as a flaw in the track list and the final recordings, something like the track list of Black Sabbath's Vol. 4 or Sabotage, where it is uneasy for someone that listened to those albums for the first time having in mind what followed. "Prelude" probably makes no sense before "Tyrant" and it was scrapped from a few later album repressings, while "Dreamer Deceiver" and "Deceiver" sound better as one track with the first part being the "dream" ("followed the dreamer through the purple hazy clouds") and the second part being the "deception" ("all is lost, doomed and tossed").  For some people "Epitaph" sounds out of place and equally different in the flow just like Sabbath's "Changes". K.K. Downing felt the same and didn't like the song but it ended in the album as a Tipton composition and a homage to Queen who Halford loved.

And finally, you have the fade-in at "Victim of Changes", a criminally editing decision that's corrected in the live versions of the track where you listen to the twin guitar harmony of the intro in its full glory. The intro of "Victim of Changes" had many incarnations, from the early stages of "Whiskey Woman" up to the unreleased track "Mother Sun" whose beginning was also considered. But let's remember that Judas Priest were experimenting those years, looking for their identity between their influences and their raw talent, shaping the foundations of heavy metal.

The "Fallen Angel" cover art was commissioned for the album by Dave Howells of Gull and created by Patrick Woodroffe, also known for his work on Budgie's Bandolier, Pallas' The Sentinel and Stratovarius' Fright Night. Around the angel's neck, we will see the Devil's Cross, a symbol adopted by Judas Priest, while the band's gothic-style logo was used one more time in the next album Sin After Sin before it would be replaced by the band logo on Stained Class. The iconic cover art is an undeniable link to the lyrical, dramatic and mournful side of Sad Wings of Destiny.

Speaking of Sin After Sin, the cover of "Diamonds & Rust" song (originally written and performed by Joan Baez) was supposed to be included in Sad Wings of Destiny after Gull Records's suggestion (a version of the track was already recorded in those sessions) but finally ended in Sin After Sin. At that point, Judas Priest broke the contract with Gull, losing all the rights of those two albums, and joined CBS. They became full professional musicians and quit their daily jobs. Judas Priest also had the opportunity to fill the gap other major British acts created after Deep Purple's disbandment in 1976 and Black Sabbath's inner problems after Technical Ecstasy. It was a period where everything worked in favour of the band and they grabed every chance creating the albums that helped shaping heavy metal music.


Just like a few more Priest albums, there is not a track with the album title, that is mostly used as a statement for the content and the aura of the music and lyrics. In the album Winter Ethereal of Arch / Matheos (released in 2019), there is the track "Wanderlust" with the line "so whimsical and she'll be no angel falling, sad wings of destiny won't carry her away" that sounds like a beautiful and poetic reference.

Sad Wings of Destiny is one of the most important heavy metal albums and one of the best Judas Priest releases. Decades later, its influence is a huge part of the metal history that led to Priest's iconic style.

 

Behind a thin disguise: Savatage in the '80s & the Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne connection; Jon Oliva remembers.

A view in the '80s era of Savatage, the albums, the events and the record companies. A clear view in the Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne connection with Savatage, the influence upon Jon and Criss Oliva and a new exclusive interview with Jon Oliva remembering Black Sabbath, his meeting with Ozzy and the Black Sabbath audition that never happened.

written by Andreas Andreou

Starting in bands like Tower and Alien, and recording the obscure Metropolis (also known as Metropolis USA) 7" single Let's Get Rowdy / Take Off With The Crowd, it was the year 1979 when brothers Jon (Johnathan Nicholas) and Criss (Christopher Michael) Oliva ended with the band name Avatar. When Avatar released City Beneath the Surface 7" EP (including the same-titled track, "The Whip" and "Sirens") with the line-up of Jon Oliva (vocals), Criss Oliva (guitar), Keith Collins (bass) and Steve Wacholz (drums), there were already a few other bands claiming the rights to the name so they changed to Savatage, something unique that no one would claim since no one knew what it really is! Jon, Criss and Criss' longtime girlfriend Dawn Hopkins (later Dawn Oliva) just came up with it one day playing with words... Avatar - Savatar - Savatage!

LET THE BATTLES OF STREET LIFE BEGIN

Dan Johnson of Par Records, a short-lived record label of the early '80s in Florida, already had signed the band for a brief record deal. The first two Savatage releases, the album Sirens and the mini-album The Dungeons Are Calling, were recorded at the same session that took place in one and a half days at the Morrisound Recording Studio. Produced by Dan Johnson and engineered by Jim Morris, those recordings were finally split in two and released in different years.

During that period in the United States, with the huge commercial success of European acts like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne, who also influenced the current (then) American metal scene, even a few major labels started looking for heavy metal bands. Among those bands that joined a major label, was Savatage. While there were already a few labels that became interested in Savatage, the band signed with Atlantic for a multi-album deal.

Joining Atlantic Records, was the first career-defining moment and as it happened many times in the '80s, a representative of a label saw that band on stage or just heard about their energy on stage. In the case of Savatage, a show supporting Zebra after the release of Sirens with their energy, the performance, the songs and of course the crowd's reaction was the key; a key element for all the A&R's - "if the crowd likes them, we like them". And that was it. Most of the time it was like that. If you couldn't deliver live and impress those A&R rep's that visited (sometimes incognito) those shows, you probably wouldn't join a major label. American bands like Armored Saint and Twisted Sister are another example. And both are in the top list of the very best US metal bands on stage.

The Morrisound Recording Studio In Tampa, Florida, the birthplace of Savatage, became one of the most iconic studios in the history of metal music in the coming years, with a huge list of recording artists in a wider metal field (death metal included). But during those early years, and after joining Atlantic Records, that "one and a half day" recording session of Sirens / The Dungeons Are Calling seemed like a pre-production procedure. Personally, I love that raw sound of those early releases and cuts like "Sirens", "Scream Murder", "The Dungeons Are Calling" and "By the Grace of the Witch", but when Atlantic let the band record a few demos for the upcoming album at Morrisound, they didn't really like the quality. Those demos included tracks like "Washed Out", "Fighting for Love" "No More Saturday Nights" and "Stuck on You", produced by Rick Derringer. However, Savatage were already in deal with Par Records but Dan Johnson "traded" the release of The Dungeons Are Calling and Savatage were allowed to record those demos for Atlantic.

Savatage and Metallica

It is widely known, and also mentioned in many interviews, that Jon Oliva (besides The Beatles) was a huge Black Sabbath fan. He was even performing Sabbath covers like "Iron Man" and "War Pigs" in his early years. On the other hand, Criss Oliva was heavily inspired by the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums and Randy Rhoads. In the October 1993 issue of the Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine, Criss Oliva mentions his dream band line-up. Of course, Randy Rhoads is his favourite guitarist, while he also adds Don Airey on keyboards for an extra flavor of Ozzy's early albums' influence.

The irony is that on October 17th of 1993 (the month when that magazine came out), Criss passed away and it's a pity that up to that point he wasn't mentioned in most of the famous guitar magazines.

Criss Oliva and his wife Dawn were driving north on their way to the Fourth Annual Livestock Festival held in Zephyrhills, Florida. An oncoming car of a drunk driver crossed the median and struck Oliva's car. Dawn survived the crash but Criss was killed instantly. The drunk driver survived with minor injuries and was later found guilty of "driving under the influence" manslaughter, serious injury and vehicular homicide. He served only 18 months in prison of a five-year sentence.

Criss Oliva is one of the greatest guitarists in heavy metal music with a unique and recognizable sound, unmatchable tone and feeling. A truly devoted musician and at the same time, the most underrated in the metal universe.

Back in 1985, Atlantic didn't really like the production quality of the Savatage demos recorded by Rick Derringer and the band was joined with producer Max Norman for the recordings of Power of the Night. A producer known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne and albums like Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Criss must have felt very happy recording with Max Norman, the producer of his favourite guitar player and the early Ozzy albums, that heavily influenced him in his early recording years, something that is more than obvious in songs like "Out on the Streets" or that cool orchestration in "Unusual".

No matter how we mostly (probably) prefer Sirens / The Dungeons Are Calling over Power of the Night, Oliva brothers sometimes refer to Power of the Night as their first proper album, since they had the time to record it as they wish and not in a "one and a half day" recording session. With a budget of 100,000 USD and staying in a "haunted" house during the recordings, Jon, Criss, Keith and Steve were living for a few weeks somewhere between a house full of weird things and Bearsville Recording Studios in New York, completing the album Atlantic wanted to present as "the first real Savatage album".

In the album, most of the songs are credited to Criss and Jon Oliva with the contribution of bassist Keith Collins to a few of them and while Criss was inspired and influenced by Randy Rhoads and Ozzy, in the lyrical part, Jon stated (taken from Clay Marshall's liner notes for the album's CD reissue of 2002): "I've always had an infatuation with the dark. At that time, I was very into Sabbath, and into the dark side". Also at that time, before the recordings of Power of the Night, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton was asked to join Savatage but he declined, staying in a Florida bar band with a fixed fee, performing Journey and Bryan Adams covers.

With a new album in a major label, Savatage joined the international music industry, attorneys, booking agents, managers and the Monsters of the Universe Tour, all of them leading to 1986 and the period of the Fight for the Rock album. Savatage had an international record deal and Johnny Lee Middleton was still playing covers in bars but the second time he was asked, he decided to join Savatage and after a few weeks' rehearsals, the band flew to England to record the new album. However, the band felt in a difficult spot and Atlantic had a different idea wanting the Sava-boys to follow a commercial path, leading to an artistic disaster. Even including two covers, "Wishing Well" of The Free and Badfinger's "Day After Day", the children of the metal movement felt in a trap where the supposed heavy metal songs didn't sound metal at all and the commercial tracks sounded like a different band.

The tour that followed the album's release and the post Chernobyl disaster wasn’t disastrous at all, since they joined Ted Nugent and Motörhead on the road and their performance was always on the edge. The sales though were poor and the band was somehow dropped by Atlantic. They almost broke up and thought the end was near... 

JON OLIVA AND THE BLACK SABBATH CONNECTION

When Black Sabbath's Born Again Tour was completed in 1984, Sabbath were on the edge of nothingness and Tony Iommi started working on his first solo album Seventh Star. During an era where record companies were more powerful than you can imagine nowadays, it was said to Tony Iommi that according to his contract, he owed the record company another one Black Sabbath album and they wanted this one. And so it happened. Record label executives and managers wanted to name it "Black Sabbath" no matter how it was recorded and who performed. Seventh Star was released in January 1986 under the name Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi, with Tony alone on the cover sleeve; exactly as a solo project. When touring started, there were times when singer Glenn Hughes was unable to perform, so after just a week of touring as Black Sabbath  (he also didn't like performing Sabbath songs since this wasn't supposed to be Black Sabbath), Hughes was replaced by Ray Gillen and the tour was a commercial failure while many shows were even cancelled. Tony Iommi couldn't do something else, so he continued using the name "Black Sabbath" without any other member of the classic line-up(s). The record company's decision to release his solo album under the Black Sabbath moniker served as a continuation for the rest of Sabbath/Iommi's 80s course, something that probably would't happen eitherwise.

Managers and executives were the people of the music industry that suggested ideas or just took decisions that had different kinds of impact to the artists related. Negative or positive. And there was also a huge amount of ideas that were never materialized.

When Atlantic technically dropped Savatage because of the poor sales of Fight for the Rock, Jon Oliva had the chance to claim the position of Black Sabbath's lead singer. There are many rumours over the years but we have the answers and the truth directly from Jon Oliva himself, since he was kind enough to clear the situation. "It was somebody from the management office for Black Sabbath that approached me", the Mountain King said. It would be interesting to know the songs he was supposed to learn for that audition, so Jon was asked and replied: "I did have a set list of songs that I would have to sing at the audition, "War Pigs", "Paranoid", "Sweet Leaf", "Symptom of the Universe", "Iron Man" and the"Black Sabbath" song."

However, that audition never happened and I don't think there would ever be a possibility that Jon Oliva would end as the singer of Black Sabbath during 1986-1987, no matter how interesting that could be. Having Jon Oliva on board for this article, we asked a few more things.

CL: I am sure that a Black Sabbath album with Jon Oliva would be great. But having in mind that period, would it be easy for you to work under the command of Tony Iommi? And having in mind your addictions in the mid to late '80s, would you escape the "dark side" even if you would enter in the dark side's band, Black Sabbath?

Jon Oliva: "I would have loved to do an album with Black Sabbath. I think my voice would have fit them very well and it wouldn't bother me that Tony Iommi was in charge because he is the riff master. What you're going to say... I would have just sang my ass off but again, you know, the '80s were very weird for me. I did have a lot of problems but it is what it is and I'm glad that Savatage was able to continue."

CL: Have you ever met Ozzy Osbourne or Tony Iommi in person? And what can you recall?

Jon Oliva: "Yes, I have met Ozzy Osbourne. I actually had dinner with him at the Lakeland Civic Center here in Florida. I doubt he remembers because he was totally wasted... It was very interesting and very funny. I was with a group of people who won a radio contest and that's what the prize was, to have dinner with Ozzy. I remember he came out in an evening dress and was totally wasted, one of the funniest things I've ever seen and it didn't last very long."

"I met Tony Iommi in Spain when we were all doing a festival and they were called Heaven and Hell with Ronnie. I met him backstage and got to talk to him for a little while. He was a very nice guy, he was one of my heroes."

CL: I wonder if you and Criss Oliva ever saw live Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne in your early years and what do you remember?

Jon Oliva: "I saw Black Sabbath at the California Jam in 1974 and it changed my life. I saw them again at the San Diego Sports Arena for the Sabotage Tour. Criss never saw Black Sabbath but we did see Ozzy with Randy Rhoads and that was awesome. We ended up working with Max Norman for the Power of the Night album and he produced the first three Ozzy albums so it was very cool."

CL: I've read that Paul O' Neill was a friend of Tony Iommi and Paul even let Iommi listen sometime in the 80s his main idea of "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" but told him something like "the world is not ready yet for this song". Is it true, and did Paul had this huge thing that followed in both later Savatage records and mainly Trans-Siberian Orchestra already by the mid '80s?

Jon Oliva: "I know Paul knew Tony Iommi but I'm not sure if he ever let him listen to "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)". As far as I remember that song was put together during the writing for our "Dead Winter Dead" album and I was the one who put the drums and the heavy power chords to it. At first I didn't like it and Paul asked me if I could make it Savatage and that's my memory of things. I demoed up some drum parts and some guitar parts and then we worked on it together and finished it with Al Pitrelli."

SOMETIMES YOU GOT TO BELIEVE

On the edge of darkness, Savatage were lucky enough to meet Paul O'Neill, the "x-factor" that took them by the hand and led them to a brighter future. Paul encouraged Criss and Jon Oliva to start writing new material and so they did. This time, the band composed without any label or management interference and once the material was ready, Savatage entered the studio and completed the album with Paul O'Neill. As Johnny Lee Middleton has mentioned to Crystal Logic, "Never give up on what you believe in and do not be afraid to struggle and suffer through the tough times because quitters never win and winners never quit".

In the beginning, Paul was approached by the same Atlantic A&R rep who signed Savatage to the record company, to consider helping them return in full form. Paul went to see one of their last shows during the 1986 tour without even listening to Fight for the Rock. Paul O'Neill couldn't believe how such a great band almost reached the end. He knew they shouldn't, he knew he wouldn't let them and he only needed to take their hand and lead them through their metal roots, to the future. Paul convinced Jon and Criss Oliva that they're not "fucked-up" because of that one last album and because the management made them change their sound. Paul already had a budget so he paid their pending bills and more or less, told them only to focus on writing new music with him producing, while they also changed management. Paul O'Neill cared for them and that was probably the first time something like that happened so powerful and with such a passion and vision for the future. Paul, already an established professional in the New York music scene, was also a visionary with ideas and manuscripts that served as a template for future Savatage songs.

Hall of the Mountain King, released on September 28th of 1987,  is one of the best heavy metal albums ever, from one of the greatest metal bands ever. An ageless masterpiece with top notch musicianship. Raw, insane, solid and emotional at the same time. Two music video clips were shot, one for "Hall of the Mountain King" and one for "24 Hrs. Ago" with the same titled track getting a lot of airplay at Headbanger's Ball TV show, something that was very important at the pre-internet era and helped the sales and band's exposure.

There is one special guest at that album, singer Ray Gillen, brought in by Paul O'Neill who was his manager at the time because he needed another kind of voice and harmony to serve as an instrument in the chorus of "Strange Wings". That was one of the first recordings of Gillen who previously had performed even punk rock before entering the hard rock and metal scene. During that period, Ray Gillen had replaced Glenn Hughes in Black Sabbath and recorded vocals for The Eternal Idol album, before they were also replaced by Tony Martin's voice in the final release. Paul O'Neill produced (and helped write) the debut album of Badlands, fronted by Ray Gillen with ex-Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee but also Eric Singer who among others also performed with Black Sabbath. Bob Kinkel, a keyboardist and music engineer, a regular partner of Paul O'Neill, also helped in the debut album of Badlands that was released in 1989 but most important, he was introduced to Savatage during the recordings of Hall of the Mountain King with additional keyboards. Kinkel will be a key person in the following years of Savatage and the formation of Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

During 1988, with a major label supporting the band, Hall of the Mountain King had become Savatage's best-selling album and a world tour followed, including support shows with Megadeth and Dio. At that point and after O'Neill's suggestion, Savatage added a second guitar for the live shows to keep the rhythm playing during Criss' leads. Criss had a few thoughts about it in the beginning but in the end, they did it and Chris Caffery stepped in. The tour started with power and success despite being the opening act. Dave Mustaine even thought about the possibility of Criss Oliva joining Megadeth according to Sava-sources. However, Jon Oliva went a "little too far" during that tour, living the "rock n' roll life" just like one of his idols, Ozzy Osbourne and it took no long until he entered a chemical rehabilitation program. This situation stopped the band since they had to cancel a scheduled tour, including the European dates. The future was different for the band and it took them a few more years for a big commercial success, under a different line-up...

AND THE ORCHESTRA PLAYS

When Jon Oliva completed the rehabilitation program, he started immediately writing new songs with Criss. He already had a few lyrics written in rehab, so they completed tracks like "Target", "Living on the Edge of Time", "Metalhead", "Stranger in the Dark" and "Before I Hang" but none of them made it to the next album... Those five demo songs surfaced as bonus tracks to the 2002 silver anniversary collectors edition reissues of Sirens and Dungeons Are Calling from Metal Blade Records. When the Oliva brothers met Paul O'Neill again and started writing the follow-up album to Hall of the Mountain King, it was like writing again from scratch even if few ideas were reworked.

In every Savatage album including O'Neill, there is an element of progression; a step further exploring the talent of Jon and Criss. There was always a piano in young Olivas house since their father was a piano player so Jon was always messing with that. There was also a few keyboards moments in previous Savalbums and songs like "In the Dream" and "Lady in Disguise" but this time, Paul wanted to explore Jon's talent deeper.

When Savatage started writing the songs of the next album, one of their idols was about to enter rehab but he already released his album titled No Rest for the Wicked. During those recording sessions, there was also a track named "The Liar" that made it only in the 12" single version of "Miracle Man". That Ozzy Osbourne track, somehow foretold the future of Savatage but sounded out-of-place for that Ozzy record. Savatage kept that direction in the next album that was finally named Gutter Ballet.

It is said that in the Record Plant Studios where Gutter Ballet was recorded, there was the piano where John Lennon recorded "Imagine" and that was extremely inspiring for Jon Oliva. At the same time, O'Neill, like a master of psychology who knew how to bring on the surface and explore each musician's talent, took Jon Oliva to the Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera. These were key elements in the writing procedure of Gutter Ballet and when the album was completed and recorded in the summer of 1989, the result was something really progressive and experimental for the metal world of the late '80s. Inspired by one of O'Neill's manuscripts written a decade ago, the title Gutter Ballet was supposed to be for a different and complete play but it was adopted for that album, giving also a glimpse of the musical direction of the future and the next album. 

The tracks "Gutter Ballet", "Temptation Revelation" (one of the alternative titles of the album), "When the Crowds Are Gone" and "Silk and Steel" are something like the albums "first act" while the rest, are somehow like the "second act" that was closer to the Savatage known style. However, they decided to move the song "Of Rage and War" as the opening track and what we call as the "first act" completed the vinyl's first side. What made it so unique that "first act" and especially a song like Gutter Ballet, is the Jon-piano Vs Criss-guitar duel that is something genius and unique, equal to the greatest moments in music ever. "Gutter Ballet" and "When the Crowds Are Gone" served as the album's leading tracks and music videos were shot for both of them. That album is a pure masterpiece including also tracks like "Summer's Rain" with one of Criss' best guitar solos and also the Black Sabbath-inspired "Hounds". As it is mentioned in Clay Marshall's liner notes in the Gutter Ballet 2002 reissue in the words of Paul O'Neill, "On certain influences, Jon and I come from different places", O'Neill explains. "I have way more classical and Broadway influences and Jon, on the other hand, has more Beatles influence than you'd ever believe. But by certain things, we're both influenced, and one of those was Black Sabbath. We both have an attraction to that side and you see it on the 'Hounds'".

A funny thing is that among the other album's tracks, there is also "The Unholy" with lyrics written by Jon Oliva but Paul didn't like them, so they weren't included in the booklet of the album's first pressings. O'Neill started penning a big part of the lyrics in a very different style than Jon, so he probably thought that lyrics like "before the birth of Christ lived a race trapped in soul" wouldn't really fit next to something like "when the crowds are gone and I'm all alone, playing the saddest song, now that the lights are gone".

Most of the live shows supporting Gutter Ballet took place in 1990 and among them, there was a part supporting King Diamond along with Candlemass and another one supporting Testament along with Nuclear Assault. In this kind of tour, Savatage needed to bring on stage some of their heavier stuff but that was never a problem since the band's material at that time was diverse but could fit in any occasion.

The '80s ended successfully for Savatage, establishing a respectful name and releasing albums like Hall of the Mountain King and Gutter Ballet that became future classics. The '90s and the future were different and yet so close but that's another chapter in the play...

Black Sabbath - Headless Cross: The story of the album.

Prologue.

Sometime in 1988, Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath were left without a record label after working for years with Warner Bros and Vertigo. Shortly, Iommi signed with I.R.S. Records after the label's owner, Miles Copeland, told him: "You know how to write albums, you know what people want. You do it and I'm fine with it." Later, Iommi asked drummer Cozy Powell to join him and they considered calling Ronnie James Dio but Tony Martin was finally the singer of Black Sabbath. There was a possibility for Geezer Butler to work again with Sabbath, but Geezer prefered to join Ozzy Osbourne's band since he was more successful than Sabbath at that time. Laurence Cottle played bass in Headless Cross, but mostly as a session musician since Neil Murray was brought as a full-time member for the upcoming tour. The song "When Death Calls" has a guest guitar solo by Brian May of Queen, and the titles of two tracks of Headless Cross were changed because Ozzy Osbourne's No Rest for the Wicked album that was released a few months earlier had the same ones; "Call of the Wild" was originally titled "Hero" and "Devil & Daughter" was originally titled "Devil's Daughter". Everyone also knows the story of Tony Iommi, that when Sabbath had the first record out with I.R.S., Cozy Powell and himself went into record stores in Toronto, Canada, and no one carried the album...

All of the above is the kind of information you can find in Wikipedia and all those articles that just copy and share these (known) details from Wiki, so let's dive deeper and try to elaborate more in one of the most underrated albums of the late '80s, the way it deserves it and not by just writing "one more article".

written by Andreas Andreou


Chapter I: Cut the crucifix half to the ground - Before the album.

After the release of Born Again (1983) and the supporting tour for the most disturbing Sabbath album, the band was falling apart and Tony Iommi was left alone, so he had the idea to record a solo album. The result was Seventh Star and you can read about it at Metal Nerdism Vol. 3: Five cases of albums that were not meant to be under that BAND name. "It was supposed to be a solo album. I certainly didn't want to release it as a Black Sabbath album, because I hadn't written it as a Black Sabbath album", Tony Iommi wrote in his biography and Seventh Star was finally released in January 1986 under the name Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi, with Tony alone on the cover sleeve; exactly as a solo project. The recording line-up besides Tony Iommi, was singer Glenn Hughes, bassist Dave Spitz, drummer Eric Singer, keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, and Jeff Glixman was the producer. The supporting tour was a commercial failure and just after a few shows, Glenn Hughes was replaced by Ray Gillen. Tony Iommi couldn't do anything else, so he continued using the name "Black Sabbath" and started working on his next album under the title The Eternal Idol, with Jeff Glixman once again producing. That album was very difficult to be completed with Iommi working like a solo project once again.

Bob Daisley was brought by producer Glixman to help with bass duties and even if the name of Dave Spitz also appears in the credits, Daisley had said that he played all the parts of the album. Daisley also wrote many of the lyrics since Iommi doesn't write lyrics and most of Gillen's parts were reworked because no matter how great his voice was, he was never a songwriter. It is said that Geoff Nicholls also contributed a few ideas but in the credits "all tracks written by Tony Iommi".

Back to the recordings though, they were started with Jeff Glixman and then he was replaced by producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, after Iommi's request because Glixman was very possessive with the project. Ray Gillen recorded his parts and then left the band (we will analyze it when an article for The Eternal Idol will be written). Bob Daisley was never an official member and just helped with recordings, but when he returned to Gary Moore's band, drummer Eric Singer also followed him... So at the end, Iommi was left with a nearly finished album but without a band. At the final stages, producer Chris Tsangaridis was brought to complete recordings and mixing, but most important, to lay down the new singer's performance because there was no chance for Tony Iommi to release an album and then go on tour without the singer of the album... And the new singer was Tony Martin.

Albert Chapman, a lifelong friend and old manager of Tony Iommi, suggested him Tony Martin of The Alliance, a band he was manager of [Read the story of Tony Martin & The Alliance]. Tony Martin recorded the vocals for the songs that were already written note by note in a few days and The Eternal Idol was ready for release. A difficult album, with many changes, a different touring line-up and another supporting tour that was a commercial failure, with just a few dates. Tony Martin's first live show with Black Sabbath was in Athens, Greece, on 21st of July 1987. In a few of the rest shows, Virgin Steele was the opening act.

Chapter II: To the hill of the Headless Cross - The album.

Once the few tour dates were completed, Tony Iommi entered 1988 with a huge uncertainty and without a record deal since Warner Bros dropped Black Sabbath. When he decided to ink a deal with I.R.S. Records, that was a huge step down but only with a smaller record label he could keep doing what he wanted. On the other hand, it was difficult to sign a deal with one of the major labels like Warner Bros because they would definitely want something that would be closer to real Black Sabbath and not something that was closer to a "solo project using the Black Sabbath banner". If Iommi wanted to continue releasing music under the Black Sabbath banner with a major label, he needed to have another major name also with him, something like Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio or David Coverdale.

Both Seventh Star and The Eternal Idol were great albums and had a few positive reviews despite the fact that had much less press coverage than the past when Ozzy and Dio were fronting. The poor sales, in contrast to the time it took them to be completed, the money spent for them and the tours that followed, didn't help at all. No one could actually consider them as a "real band" after 1984, since Seventh Star was supposed to be a solo album of Tony Iommi, The Eternal Idol was a record that had a different line-up started the recordings, a different line-up competed the recordings and another line-up completed the supporting tour...

Later in August 1988, legendary drummer Cozy Powell joined as an equal member with Tony Iommi and started working together on a new album. They even discussed getting another (most known) singer, considering Ronnie James Dio and David Coverdale, but Tony Martin was finally chosen for Black Sabbath; a wise final decision that was probably taken mostly thanks to Cozy Powell. David Coverdale was just a name they had in mind (mostly Powell) but he was never officially asked, probably for the better, because there was no way for Coverdale to let aside his successful career at that moment with Whitesnake, especially just one year after releasing the same-titled 1987 album, that sold more than all the latest Sabbath albums combined.



It was Powell also, who brought bassist Laurence Cottle to the project in order to record a few tracks, but in the end he recorded all of the album, since original Sabbath bass player Geezer Butler didn't finally join the Sabs again because he ended with Ozzy's solo band that was slightly more Sabbath-esque in 1988-'89, mainly during the live shows. Cottle was a jazz bass player and he was playing in a jazz club in London, so he completed his parts in just a few days overdubbing mostly. However, he was never meant to be a touring band member, even if he appears in the video clip of "Headless Cross" and is mentioned as a regular band member in the album credits.

The recording line-up of Headless Cross was Tony Martin (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitars), Laurence Cottle (bass), Cozy Powell (drums) and Geoff Nicholls (keyboards), while the album was produced by Tony Iommi and Cozy Powell who had the complete control of the project. The album was recorded in the United Kingdom with pre-production at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham, while recordings started when Iommi met Powell in August '88 and completed until November '88 in different studios: The Soundmill, Woodcray and Amazon Studios.

For Headless Cross, Tony Martin wrote the lyrics using a few Satanic themes in contrast to the older '70s lyrics of Geezer Butler that were more focused in the fear of Satan, society, anti-war themes and the dark future of the world. However, despite the general idea, Martin worked a lot in the lyrics, finding the most suitable words and phrasing that could perfectly fit with his vocal lines. According to what Martin has stated, the album's title was actually inspired by a village close to Birmingham, where it was hit hard by the Black Plague centuries ago. This time, writing credits are mentioned as "all songs by Black Sabbath".

Music wise, Black Sabbath brought many elements of the past, adding also a few new ones and presented a different album in their catalogue, even if The Riff is still there. The same-titled track has a strong Dio aura, even in the way Martin sings "Look through the people and on through the mist..." or "on a night such as this". What you can also clearly listen from the beginning (not "The Gates of Hell" intro...), is the fact that the album is very Powell-driven and also we need to add that Nicholls' keyboards create a perfect atmosphere. "When Death Calls" (with a guest solo of Queen's Brian May, Iommi's close friend) is one of those great epics of the Martin-era Sabbath with a great vocal performance, something that worked perfectly in the studio; so perfect that the expectations were set sky high and weren't easily reached in the live shows. Even "Devil & Daughter" is a very difficult song to perform live... and Tony Martin knows that very well!

The album also had a few more melodic moments that bring to mind even the AOR and melodic metal side of the late '80s, something that you could listen to during the verses of "Kill in the Spirit World". Even another Powell-driven cut like "Call of the Wind" has a melodic aura, something that a few Sabbath tracks had during the Martin-era. This is probably something that needs to be credited to Martin himself since he was also a part of the songwriting process, adding also the fact that he released a melodic solo album himself in 1992 (Back Where I Belong). "Black Moon" is a song that was written during The Eternal Idol sessions when producer Chris Tsangaridis was brought to complete the album. It was recorded as a single b-side and ended on "The Shining" single, just to be re-recorded and added again for Headless Cross. As for "Nightwing", this is the essence of an underrated track that, by the way, was remixed in a different session. "Cloak & Dagger" is another song that was recorded during the Headless Cross sessions and was finally used as a single b-side and bonus track.

Headless Cross was released on April 24th of 1989.

Chapter III: Where all witches meet - After the album.

It seemed that Sabbath were still waiting for the possibility of Geezer Butler joining them for the upcoming tour but in the end, bassist Neil Murray (former member of Whitesnake, Gary Moore and Vow Wow, among others), joined them. It is said that at some point after the release of The Eternal Idol, he was asked to join Sabbath but the first time he said "no". This is also something that should be credited to Cozy Powell since he introduced him to Tony Iommi.



The Headless Cross Tour in the United States started on May 31st of 1989 with Kingdom Come and Silent Rage supporting, but ticket sales and attendance were very low, so after just a handful of shows up to mid-June, all of the rest shows until mid-July were cancelled. Black Sabbath returned defeated in Europe and continued a European Tour (mainly in September, with Axxis supporting) with most dates in the UK and Germany. In October, Sabbath visited Japan for a few shows and later in November and December they went to Russia for more shows, where they played for around 20 dates with Girlschool supporting. It is said that Black Sabbath performed twice for a few days but the correct information is that they performed twice only during weekends, meaning just 4 or 5 days, where the first show in evening was around 60 to 70 minutes, and the next one later at night, was around 1 hour and 45 minutes. There is a rumour that these shows "burnt" Tony Martin's voice but this can't be considered as a fact. After all, it was just 5 dates maximum with a total of performance of 2 hours and 45 minutes for those 5 days. This sounds mostly as an "excuse" for future Sabbath performances where Tony Martin didn't reach the expected performance, according to a few people. Still though, the second longest serving frontman of Sabbath after Ozzy, never missed a show, even if he was sick.

Headless Cross had a better acceptance than The Eternal Idol but Tony Iommi wasn't really satisfied with the I.R.S. Records' distribution in North America (actually the album was released by the I.R.S. Metal sub-label). There is a story of Tony Iommi, who said that when Sabbath had the first record out with I.R.S., Cozy Powell and himself went into record stores in Toronto, Canada, and no one carried the album. However, Headless Cross charted higher than The Eternal Idol, even if none of them entered the Billboard 100 in the United States. And keep in mind, that The Eternal Idol was released by a bigger label but it wasn't easy for Iommi to blame a major label like Warner Bros or Vertigo, a label that even made him release a solo album under the Black Sabbath name. Most likely, I.R.S. was used as a scapegoat for the low ticket sales of the first shows and the cancellation of the rest of the Headless Cross North American tour.


Epilogue.

Headless Cross is a great album, even if it lacks originality. It is one of those perfect '80s heavy metal albums that you're never tired of listening to. For a few people, it is the "best" Black Sabbath album and for a few more among their Sabbath Top-5 albums. Subjectively, anyone can say that this is the "best" (correct word is "favourite") album but objectively it can't be the best Sabbath album, probably not even in the Top-5 Sabs albums, if you have a wider view of what BLACK SABBATH actually is. If the album will disappear from Sabbath's discography, a favourite album of many people will disappear from their lives and memories but the history of metal music won't change. You can't say the same for albums like Black Sabbath, Master of Reality or Heaven and Hell where many things will change in the lineage of heavy music in general.

Along with Tyr, this is probably the best album of the Tony Martin-era and Headless Cross nowadays, seems to be more related with the name of Tony Martin than Black Sabbath (the band) and that's a huge credit for Tony Martin; the man, the voice, the artist.