DEHUMANIZER

Black Sabbath #12: "Dehumanizer" was released in 1992 and it sees the return of the Black Sabbath line up of 1980 - 82; Tommy Iommi (of course), Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Geezer Butler on bass, Vinny Appice on drums, and the ever faithful but hardly ever mentioned Geoff Nicholls on keyboards. The last studio album to have this line up was "Mob Rules" released in 1981. So, that's all cool right? But, wait a minute. What happened to who was then the lead singer, Tony Martin? He was invited to come try out the songs, but the band decided to go with Dio. Martin was the 2nd most used vocalist after Ozzy Osbourne, and would continue to be after the tour for Dehumanizer. Apparently Tony was busy on a solo album at the time, and knew that Iommi wanted to reunite the line-up from 80-82, so he was all good with it. Yes, he would come back to Black Sabbath for the album that would come next. The story goes that Martin received a phone call from Ian Gilliam (who did lead vocals of the Sabbath album "Born Again") who said that neither one of them were formally fired, so he thought it would be funny just to go to one of their shows and just turn up on stage ready to go. That never happened though.

Cozy Powell was supposed to be the drummer for this album. In fact, there are demos recorded with him that have been bootlegged. Powell, however, was laid up with a broken pelvis from a horse riding accident. So Appice was re-recruited, and the reunion was complete. What resulted was an album that was rougher around the edges, because the band wanted to capture a live feeling to the album, so there were fewer overdubs and layered vocals. The music is also louder than what it was on "Mob Rules" and even different from the previous album "Tyr". It all sounds promising, right? The famous Dio line-up of before with a heavier and more live atmosphere and less sampling and loops and everything, more organic if you will. Everything was working in their favor. But, overall, it just fails after the first track.

The heavier and grungier sound is apparent from the beginning with "Computer God", which was actually an unused song from "The Geezer Butler Band". Dio's voice is more gravelly, the playing is less polished than a lot of the previous albums as of late, and it seems more earthy. These are all things that should have worked in the albums favor. This rousing opening is followed by a slower, darker and heavier "After All (The Dead)". The track sounds good enough at first, but seems to lose steam as it goes on, even Dio's voice becoming less convincing and the music fading out at the end only cheapens it more. After this, the album falters as the same old "same old" formula goes into effect, the band starts to sound a bit uninspired and Dio's lyrics on "TV Crimes" start to sound a bit cheesy. This track still has the heavy metsl sound, but it is only one singer away from being a pop song. "Letters from Earth" continues with the downward spiral of the album, uninspired playing and singing.

"Master of Insanity" is another unused Geezer Butler Band track. It features a guitar solo written and performed by Jimi Bell, who was the guitarist for the GB Band (and who is now the new guitarist for that pop-metal band "Autograph", by the way). The solo was recorded for the GB Band's use, but Sabbath retained it. Butler promised to pay Bell for the use of his solo on this album, but Bell claims he never saw any payment for it. Honestly, it is a little bit better than the last two tracks, but only barely. In the end, its pretty much gets lost in the almost hilarious sounds of commercialized evil metal. The formula is getting old, and all of the old hooks and inspiration of the Black Sabbath of old is completely missing, even if the line-up is there.

Things only get worse on the last half of the album as the songs continue to sound uninspired, predictable and tired. Even the softer "Too Late" just doesn't add anything else to the album. It's all the same as what we have heard before, just a little bit heavier, but a lot more cheesier, especially in the lyrics department. "Time Machine" could have just as easily been done by Cinderella and not have sounded much different, and that chorus sounds like something Bon Jovi could be singing. You keep thinking that something good has got to come out of this line-up, but it just doesn't and before you know it, its all over and you can't remember anything at all about what you have listened to because nothing stands out. It's all been heard before.

After the contract for Dio expired, he left the band again, even with some shows still left on the tour. The band was able to recruit Rob Halford, lead singer from Judas Priest, to finish out the tour (with Dio's blessing). When the 2 year mark came around again (Black Sabbath at this time was releasing albums every 2 years), Tony Martin was brought back again for the next album, "Cross Purposes". The band had experienced a bit of a rejuvenation from the sales of "Dehumanizer", even though they weren't stellar, they gave the band a slight kick, even though it was mostly from the fact that the Dio lineup had returned. Dio would come back, of course, for the Black Sabbath spin-off "Heaven and Hell", but that spark from the earlier years just wouldn't be there for this album. You are better off just returning to your copy of "Holy Diver" than going with the false hope that this album could be anything close to that.