BORN AGAIN

In a "Hit Parader" magazine from late 1983 or early 1984 I read an interview done with Black Sabbath, and among other things they talked about how Ian Gillan joined the band for this album. Gillan said that they went to a pub, they drank a lot, they talked about him singing with them, and the next day he realized that he had joined the band. A story which for me sounds a bit funny and that maybe wasn`t as true as it was told, but anyway, Gillan joined the band for this album and later toured with them with then ELO`s drummer Bev Bevan replacing Bill Ward. Well. This album seems to be loved or hated by some listeners, but in my opinion isn`t as bad as I have read in some reviews and in some websites.This album is a very good Heavy Metal album, sometimes noisy, but good anyway. Maybe the problem is that Gillan`s great voice is very related to Deep Purple`s sound, and even his "legendary shriek" (as Tony Iommi refers to it in that interview) is "very Gillan" and very related to Deep Purple too. Another problem maybe is that the album is not as "dark" as other albums from the band, and even there is some good humour in some songs ("Trashed", "Disturbing the Priest") which maybe was one of the influences that Gillan also had in the band. So, for me it was an interesting combination of two styles of Heavy Metal even if the final product didn`t convince very much the fans or even the then members of the band themselves. Maybe Gillan joined the band only to have some fun with his friends in Black Sabbath, or maybe only to make time unitl the rumored reunion of Deep Purple could be a reality (a thing that happened in mid 1984, so Gillan left Black Sabbath to join that band again). The sound of the album is a bit saturated, very heavy, but still good. Drummer Bill Ward plays very well in each track, and I don`t know why he didn`t tour with the band for this album (maybe it was for health reasons). Iommi`s guitars sound as good and very heavy as always, and Butler`s sound and playing is also very good. The cover design has been criticized a lot, but for me it really is a funny cover which made me laugh the first time I saw it because it seems to me to be like taken from a scene from an horror movie. In conclusion: this album is good. It was a good "experiment" that maybe didn`t work very well as a Black Sabbath album, but Gillan sounded very well as lead singer in this album which maybe could have been better appreciated if it wasn`t released as a Black Sabbath album but under the name of a new band. In 1983-84 Heavy Metal was very popular in some FM radio stations in my city, but some bands were more in the Glam Rock / Arena Rock / Corporate Rock styles in image and sound. Black Sabbath with this album sounded and looked then as a more authentic example of the Heavy Metal style in that time. They were one of the pioneers of that style anyway, like Gillan when he joined Deep Purple.