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Heaven & Hell?
Yeah right… Black Sabbath it is!
There’s two ways
to approach this album. You can measure it up to Heaven & Hell
(the album), in which case it’s bound to disappoint because,
let’s face it, that one is pretty hard to beat. Or you can judge
it on its own merit. Which is what I’ll be doing.
The overall
mood of the album is doomy. Think Magica or Master Of The Moon
era Dio, only with actual songs and good musicians. Dehumanizer
is the other album by this line up that comes closest. The sound
is huge. The band produced this one themselves and did one hell
of a job. Heavy yet crisp, organic but defined. Production was
what let down Dehumanizer, and it’s good to see the band not
making the same mistake twice.
Opener Atom
And Evil is slow and menacing. You would have expected a
faster song to open the album, but it does a great job at
setting the mood. Fear and Bible Black continue in
the same vein, but for fourth track Double The Pain the
band ups the tempo . It doesn’t get up to Neon Knights speed
though. Pay attention to Geezer’s master class in the
background! Rock And Roll Angel sees a showcase
performance by Dio, coupled to a standout lead from the master
of metal guitar. In The Turn Of The Screw Geezer steps to
the forefront in another faster song. Eating The Cannibal
continues at speed, putting to shame the accusations that this
album is too slow and that all the songs are the same tempo.
This is one of the stand out tracks, which is no mean feat on
this album. Follow The Tears brings back the HEAVY
in a big way. The solo is classic Iommi.
Neverwhere may well be the fastest song of the album, and
needless to say it’s another corker. Last song Breaking Into
Heaven wraps it all up, combining all the typical Sabbath
elements into the perfect closer with a final epic performance
by RJD.
The musicianship
is beyond reproach, obviously. Vinnie Appice and Geezer Butler
are still the same excellent rhythm section they were in the
eighties, laying down a solid foundation and adding flourishes
to keep even the slowest song interesting. Tony Iommi is in fine
form, delivering crushing riff after crushing riff. His leads
add the finishing touch to the songs as per usual. I’ve heard a
lot of criticism of Dio’s performance on this album, and
frankly I’m appalled. The little big man delivers a performance
that puts singers half his age to shame. There are several
lyrical topics and phrasings that we’ve heard before, but
everything is delivered with so much conviction it barely
registers.
This is my album
of the year so far, and something pretty amazing will have to
pop up to take its crown. This album proves that Black Sabbath
are still the undisputed leaders in the field of heavy music. No
matter how they call themselves.
Review by Joost Vlasschaert |
