Artists and performers

In the 90s, Iommi became frequent with albums. Forbidden became the fourth in 5 years. And according to the general consensus, by Forbidden, he had run out of steam and got confused, which led to the cessation of Black Sabbath's activity and Tony's five-year inaction, when the album showed the worst sales in the group's history. Only I disagree with this opinion fundamentally. The 18th album of Black Sabbath is on the highest step of Tony Martin's era somewhere next to Headless Cross. Is it Black Sabbath? A question. But the famous and universally beloved Heaven and Hell or the chart-topping Born Again sound even less like albums with Ozzy. What do we have in the instrumental plus? Rigid production based on Iommi's severe riffs, a severe groovy rhythm section performed by recognized masters of their craft, Neil Murray and Cozy Powell, and a singing Tony Martin in one of his best forms. Of course, it doesn't look much like a group, but more like a solo album by Iommi. And if it were one, I'm sure there would be fewer critical arrows, primarily from fans. After all, continuity is important to people, and if you don't observe it, then make a masterpiece. Well, another dangerous step - Ice-T rapping in the opening Illusion of Power. It sounds stylish and evil, but only not for metal orthodoxes. And not in 95. The time for such experiments hadn't come yet. The move was dangerous and worked the other way around. And now cast aside prejudices and compare Forbidden with your favorite hard rock albums of the 80s and beyond. Are there many things of the level of Can't Get Close Enough or I Won't Cry for You? And Get a Grip and Forbidden are good too. Filler songs start after the middle of the album, but they also have pleasant moments. And in general, there are 2-3 of them. Perceive this disc as just an excellent example of hard rock in the vision of a heavy metal genius, recorded as Tony wanted, not the people, and listen again a couple of times. And the presence of choruses became normal for BS back in the 80s. Or explain to me what is wrong here and what is right on other BS records without Ozzy.

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Listening #92

EveryDisc · 4.0 / 5 · · 2017-08-15 18:06:24

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Let critics trample the last BS album without Ozzy into the dirt all they want, but I believe that, firstly, it is recorded by a super-lineup, and secondly, this is a very high-quality hard-rock album, stronger than many similar releases of recognized followers. It's just not BS, but it is excellent hard rock.

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