Down on the Slab
This is the section where I discuss what I think is a contentious album that came out in the year and will fall under one of the following highlighted. 1) An album that a large section of musical followers (critics and fans) rate highly and despite not seeing the album as bad, I still don’t really get the attraction. 2) A hugely significant album that was highly commercial but not really good enough for the main list, but still worth a mention. 3)
Basically an album that’s a pile of crap and the artist really shouldn’t have released it.
Black Sabbath Born Again 1983 (Vertigo)
Heavy Metal
Sounds like a fun weekend at Gillan's townhouse!
Verdict
Born Again is often seen as one of the genuine metal lowlights of the 1980s metal scene, so the question here is it really as bad as it’s made out to be? Just over a year earlier Black Sabbath fronted by Dio had been on top of the pile with the classic
Mob Rules album, but disagreements on the
Live Evil album had seen both Dio and drummer Vinnie Appice leaving Sabbath and quickly going onto form the seminal Dio (see review) This had now left Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in need of two essential band members in order to continue. Luckily original drummer Bill Ward had dried out and came back to the band, and new band manager Don Arden suggested that a big name replacement for Dio was needed, after an unknown Michael Bolton had been passed over. Three of the biggest vocalists of 1970s hard rock were considered in Robert Plant, Ian Gillan and David Coverdale, despite the fact that the latter here was making big commercial in-roads with Whitesnake. Firstly Robert Plant would’ve been a disaster, his sexy bluesy mumbling was a world away from either the evil sounding humour of Ozzy or the vocal power and clarity of Dio. Secondly Ian Gillan and his trademark shriek may have sounded impressive on paper, but in reality his laid-back bluesy style may have fitted Deep Purple, but seemed totally out of place in a Sabbath environment. In fact only David Coverdale of the three had the necessary credentials here and could’ve at least followed on from the Dio approach to the band, as he had a voice that had now been clearly shaped for commercial success, after having lost much of his bluesy accent. Finally the band met with Ian Gillan and after a heavy drinking session the ill-fated pact was sealed for all those involved. As for the album cover, Black Sabbath entered into the realms of disaster with
Born Again as the drawing known as the ‘baby photo’ may well have been drawn by an artist, but it sure as hell looks like it has been finished by a school kid, who has just scribbled in the colours which in themselves are a shocking contrast, a red Satanic baby on a blue background and with yellow as the third colour, but I guess some might like it! So once getting past the album cover and taking out the old inner sleeve of the vinyl record (normally was white if no album lyrics were included and just protected the record) the listener would’ve put the record onto his/her turntable and after the usual scratchy intro (depending on the quality of your needle) the listener would’ve been greeted with what is probably one of the album’s few decent tracks in “Trashed” which is followed by the keyboard driven instrumental “Stonehenge” which is not bad and with a space rock vibe, even though some reviewers describe it as being pointless, as they do with the other instrumental “The Dark”. But it’s from here that the album really gets its bad rep on tracks like the embarrassing “Zero the Hero” which lasts an astonishing 7.35 minutes (btw it goes much better with its video as it's a great video for the time and actually sounds like a different song when watching the vid) and the sub-standard “Digital Bitch” and both come across an immature workings for artists of this standing and experience. The title track “Born Again” is a pointless effort, as it drags and it's messy and belongs being sung live in a smokey club and not on a Black Sabbath album. “Hot Line” brings us back to simple fare and “Keep it Warm” is just boring album closer. Overall the album’s main failing is not really in its overly simplistic and bland material, but it has more to do with Ian Gillan sounding like he never wants to be in Black Sabbath, as he’s made no concessions in his vocal approach to fit with his new colleagues and Black Sabbath for their part, seem to know deep down that this is never going to work, so let’s just get the album out of way. Even with this in mind, there were a number of critics back in the day that actually liked this album, both for its heaviness and its unifying of some of the biggest legends in just one band, almost like a supergroup I guess. Now despite slagging the album, there are some things I really like such as the glorious “Disturbing the Priest” track which I think showcases Ian Gillan in all his glory and the track oozes something special and I also really dig how heavy the album is, even though its muddy sounding production might put a lot of people off, but I like sounding muddy production. Finally the supporting tour was such a disaster that I’d recently read that the Stonehenge stage set ended up being an inspiration for the Spinal Tap film. After this Ian Gillan would feature on the Deep Purple comeback album, which is another that never did much for me, albeit for very different reasons to this album.