BORN AGAIN

Ian Gillan joins Black Sabbath and actually does a great job!

"Trashed" is a great number and a great opener for the new "Born Again" Sabbath with Gillan giving a great performance and showing he still has what it takes! "Stonehenge" sounds like it could be off the album "Mob Rules" but is fairly short so it is OK. 'Disturbing the priest" is where the album suddenly becomes tacky and cheesy with too much emphasis put on their evil image. Great screams from Gillan, but a really corny track. "The Dark" is another E5150 type instrumental.

On "Zero the hero" things lift up again with a grinding bassy riff. One thing I noticed on this album is the different tone of Iommi´s guitar, I preferred his tone on Mob Rules and Heaven and Hell. "Digital Bitch" is a real energetic monster of a song which makes one want to get up and headbang!

"Born Again" has great vocals and very good guitar work, the only problem is the horribly overdone evil lyrics which spoil the song IMHO.

"Hot line" is an average rocker, followed by "Keep it warm" which is a much stronger track.

In a nutshell:A very mixed album, great vocals yet bad lyrics and great riffs yet bad guitar tone!