| Black Sabbath Rant |
[Feb. 14th, 2008|02:00 pm] |
Now, this may shock a number of you, but I'm a metal head. "NO WAY!" "GET OUT!" Yeah, it's true. My taste in music is pretty much derivative of 80s hard rock and heavy metal. AC/DC, Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and so on.
And then, of course, there's Ozzy. I used to be pretty into Ozzy, but lately I've rebelled. I still listen to his albums, but I'm much more a fan of who he's playing with than Ozzy himself. Even so, I haven't bought an Ozzy album in nearly ten years. (That's not saying much, because there's hardly been any new Ozzy albums in the last ten years!)
Of course, being a fan of Ozzy for some time, I also became a fan of Black Sabbath. For a while, I had held pretty religiously to the original 8 albums, but after a while, I soon began to notice that I only held half of them in any regard. Some albums, such as the original self-titled release, Master Of Reality, and Sabotage, are actually among my favorites, while albums such as Vol. 4 or Paranoid merely occupied my CD shelf on principle rather than being albums I actually enjoyed listening to. In fact, I'm pretty sure I haven't listened to either of those albums since 1995.
After a while, curiousity overcame me and I did the unthinkable by purchasing The Headless Cross, an album that certainly lacks Ozzy. I was pleasantly surprised that not only was the album good, but the singer, Tony "The Cat" Martin, was actually superior to Ozzy. It was also refreshing not to have to listen to Ozzy's peace and love crap that tended to creep into a lot of later Sabbath tunes. It was dark, moody, and filled with a lot of great riffs. Yeah! Why haven't I listened to this stuff before?!
I also got Dehumanizer, the third and (as of this date) last album to feature singer Ronnie James Dio. (The "Heaven And Hell" line-up will be releasing an album this year, but more on that in a bit.) Dehumanizer is easily my favorite Sabbath album of all, having dark lyrics and Dio's signature wail. ...And that's something, because I'm not exactly a big fan of Dio's solo career. (I do like his Rainbow era, though.)
After that, I ended up buying all of them, including the two that everyone knows not to buy, The Eternal Idol and The Seventh Star. Trust me, there is nothing redeeming anywhere on either of those two albums. But if you really want the crowning jewel of the post-Ozzy era, I strongly suggest picking up Born Again, the Sabbath album featuring ex-Deep Purple screamer Ian Gillan. (Some of you gamers will recognize him as the singing voice from the X-Box 360 game Blue Dragon.)
When it was announced in the late 90s that Ozzy would be returning to Black Sabbath, I was as excited as anyone. But that that excitement started to wane as it became increasingly obvious that no new album would be coming forth. In fact, all creativity in Black Sabbath had come to a hault. Tony Iommi fired singer Tony Martin (for not being Ozzy, as it were) and finished his contractual obligation to IRS Records by releasing a "best of" collection. In the wake of this disaster came a live album (OH JOY!) with two new (and totally lame) Sabbath tunes, performed with Ozzy.
You know, this kind of reminds me of the stupid Kiss reunion from like ten years ago. Remember when everyone got so excited when Kiss did that MTV special, where Ace and Peter came back? Smelling nostalgia, Gene and Paul promptly ditched the excess baggage (Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick) to tour for an eternity with the old line-up. But then they never did anything! Sure, they released Psycho Circus, but that sucked. The album, though, would be aptly named, as Kiss ceased to be recording artists and went about being a traveling carnival act. And you know what? Ace and Paul aren't even with them anymore, and Eric Singer is back on drums. Wasn't that worth it?!
...Well, I suppose if it's worth it to say that you saw the original line-up of Kiss. Me, I'm not nearly as proud of that fact.
Even if Black Sabbath did start recording an album with Ozzy, which allegedly they are, I don't think I could bear to exert any excitement for it. For one thing, Ozzy's ability to sing has deteriorated over the years. So much so that I have to wonder if today's diehard Ozzy fans are either tone-deaf or stupid. And my pessimism is exasserbated by the fact that they actually fired a much better singer just to get back with Ozzy. Fuck!
And how ironic is it that the recent reforming of the Dio era line-up actually managed to pool together enough creativity to record and release new material in a much shorter time frame than the ten-year-old Ozzy reunion? Not only did they release three new and astonishingly good songs last year, but they've thrown the gauntlet to the ground and promised an entire full-length album this year!
The only caveat is that they can't be Black Sabbath, which is total bullshit. They have to be Heaven And Hell. Fine, whatever. When I pick up the album, I'm going to take a Sharpie to it and write Black Sabbath on the cover, anyway.
But to make a point here, let me present three videos that will showcase the three major line-ups of Sabbath. The first with Ozzy, the second with Tony Martin, and the third with Ronnie James Dio.
For the Ozzy and Tony Martin videos, I've selected the same song, so as to allow you guys at home to contrast and compare. I've even gone out of my way to find the best possible recording of a recent Ozzy show, and the best possible performance at that! Still, quality differences aside, I think it's fairly obvious that Ozzy basically drones his way through the song, while singer Tony Martin provides a much livelier performance.
...and of course, Dio smokes them both, even though it sounds like he has cotton in his mouth. (Actually, it might just be his dentures.)
Ozzy Osbourne
Tony "The Cat" Martin
Ronnie James Dio |
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