BORN AGAIN

The line up of Black Sabbath was very stable in the 70's with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward making up the band for a long time. For Heaven And Hell, Ozzy was replaced with Ronnie James Dio who stayed for two studio albums and one live album before leaving (or was kicked out depending on who you ask, I believe). During that time Bill Ward was replaced with Vinnie Appice who only played on Mob Rules. Ward was once again back in the fold for the disastrous Born Again. The vocalist here is none other than Deep Purple's Ian Gillan!

Born Again is often considered to be the worst of all Black Sabbath albums. This bad reputation is, I think, mostly justified! The reason why this album really didn't work is simple: there are not enough good songs. In fact, there are only three decent tracks in Trashed, Disturbing The Priest and Zero The Hero, the latter two being introduced by short instrumentals. These instrumentals are called Stonehenge and The Dark respectively, and while there is nothing outstanding about them at all, they are actually among the better moments of the whole album! The rest of the album is just weak. Especially the latter half of it with really bad songs like Digital Bitch and Hot Line. The titles of these songs alone should deter any serious music fan! The full lyrics are even worse; 'keep away from the digital bitch, she's so rich, digital bitch' This is just a complete embarrassment! Indeed, a look at the cover should be enough! Almost everything about this creation is awful or weak or both.

Zero The Hero is an interesting song in one respect, though. It might be seen as an ancestor to Rap Metal! Gillan almost raps the lyrics over a groovy bass driven backdrop.

I honestly don't know if the whole idea of bringing Ian Gillan into the band was bad from the start or if they just couldn't write any decent material at this time. Gillan is a great performer and I really like the other bands he has been in including Gillan, The Ian Gillan Band and, of course, Deep Purple. Regardless of what the real reason is behind this abomination of an album, this is for completionists only. These long time fans, like me, can chose between laughing and crying while listening to Born Again! I try hard to do the former, but the great name of one of my all time favourite bands is dragged in the dirt here! I have to cry!

One (and a half) stars!

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