SEVENTH STAR

This album, for me, was a releaf after the previous effort although it is questionable to me whether this was still Sabbath as the only member of the original line up of musicians was Iommi. The Iommi riffs though are instantly recognisable I enjoyed Hughes on vocals here as opposed to Gillan on the previous effort. A thought just occured to me - I wonder what Coverdale would have been like on vocal duties for Sabbath? I do percieve that this album is under-rated here although it isn't progressive - almost pure straight ahead and bluesy hard rock. It rests easy on my ears though and is not a throw away album by any means. Very much stronger imo than "Technical Ecstacy" or "Never say Die" and worlds stronger than "Born Again". To me the best track on the album is "Heart like a Wheel" - a kind of hard rock, bluesy number. Next is "No stranger to love" with it's strong emotive content driven by Hughes's very good vocals. This to me is a three and a half star album raised to four due to the vocals and due to the fact that I enjoy it. Don't expect progressive rock or metal here but go into it with the desire to sit back and listen to some damn good smokey blues hard rock with more than a metal touch.