Review by Mandeep Arora on July 17, 2024.

2024's been a good year for me from both a personal and professional standpoint. After all these years of being intimidated of my life goals and not summoning the courage to realise them, I've finally decided and started taking gradual but resolute steps in that direction. Motivation's been at an all-time high after being overwhelmed by thoughts bordering on nihilism that did not allow me to get anywhere substantial. Now I'm making use of a rather taut plan that ensures the next two years are fruitful and rewarding before I take the eventual plunge into my desired career path, completely at odds with what I do currently. I even started writing these album reviews on Metallum, as a hobby of sorts, where I can babble about all of my favourite bands and albums more than one can stomach. I think it's a wonderful forum to articulate my thoughts and feelings on music that I genuinely love and enjoy; something I've always wanted to carry through but stopped at the last moment for reasons quite laborious to explain. So far so good, then...

There’s yet another reason for which 2024 will be a memorable year, although this time it doesn't pertain to just me but a rather sizeable chunk of people sharing at least one thing in common, i.e. being fans of Black Sabbath's Tony Martin-era, shunned for the longest time but never forgotten. When Tony Iommi announced the release of the remastered boxsets at the very beginning of this year, I shuddered for a bit and couldn't contain my smile as I witnessed it getting wider and wider. A truly wonderful sensation that I find hard to describe. Was it really happening after what has been an enormous wait of several decades? I remember Iommi had made a similar announcement last year and we all saw it getting nowhere, largely because there were multiple legal papers to take care of, so I was a bit skeptical even this time around. But, undeniably, it also seemed like a legitimate enough prospect to be (very) thrilled about. Checking the online metal forums and communities that I'm a part of, the excitement was palpable and everyone seemed delighted at the news; long have we yearned for this day, fans of the remarkable Tony Martin-era...

The release happened in fragments where they released the first tranche of singles titled Headless Cross / Anno Mundi and Evil Eye / Get a Grip respectively. Additionally, an enhanced and higher quality music video for Headless Cross was uploaded on YouTube, though not on Black Sabbath's official channel but Tony Iommi's, for reasons you and I are both well aware of. It's a campy '80s rock video with bad lip syncing from Tony Martin but he looks badass donning that all-black outfit in the newfound 1080p clarity. All of the band members do, in fact, looking quite badass while performing the act. If anything, all these together upped the ante and gave us a good glimpse of how the upcoming album remasters would sound like. And I can affirm it's a job well done. Brought to modern standards and adding more depth and grandeur to the album's malevolent sound, the remaster is loud, lucid and quite punchy. The rhythm and lead guitars sound just a notch louder than everything else and Martin's vocals are quite resolute too, but the bass and drums are hardly eclipsed by any of that, being quite perceptible throughout the album's length. In fact, the bass intro of the title track has an almost unabating, fretless feel. It may not be as upstaged or crunchy as on the earlier Ozzy-era records but Laurence Cottle does an amazing job to match his basslines to the album's intensity and demeanour. Same goes for Cozy Powell, who in my opinion is one of the greatest metal drummers of all time. The galloping sound of the bass pedal, the frenzy with which it amasses momentum, and the sheer might of the snares and cymbals going hand in hand with the guitars and vocals is an exhilarating sensation. The bass and drums have a common feeling of muscularity and connection which stimulates you like nothing else.

The consistency and attention to detail is wonderfully deliberate, the whole album having a crafted feel where each and every aspect seems honed to compliment another. The guitar riffs and solos are tungsten-sharp and metronomic in their consistency, as satisfying as anything Iommi's done in his heydays. There's always something thrilling about hearing his riffs build up before the notes thin out and the roaring solos assume control, before subsiding again to the fantastic riffs so easily available at his fingertips. Tony Martin completes everything with his elegant vocals, so wonderfully poised and coherent. This is where he actually started contributing to the band and we can all appreciate how elemental the contributions have been. He may not have the catchet of Ozzy or the widespread appeal of Dio, but he is my personal favourite vocalist in all of Black Sabbath's nearly five-decade long career. He also contributes heavily to the lyrics here, the subject matter being sinister and occult-based and themes mostly touching upon death and satanism. Not that Sabbath's not been dark before but never to this extent; I almost feel like breathing an atmosphere of sinfulness this time, an air of malevolence pervading all and oppressing me. The compositions too are some of the darkest this side of their eponymous opening track on their eponymous debut album - I mean, have you listened to that chorus riff on Kill in the Spirit World? It's easily one of Iommi's nastiest, most ominous...

I wouldn't say the overall sound is too far removed from their classic '70s heydays, but it's different enough and amazing in its own right. It may not be as straight up diabolical as early Mercyful Fate but it's still the most wicked-sounding Sabbath album in my opinion. And in spite of that overarching theme and impression, it's quite dynamic and has a varied assortment of songs - from thumping, medium-paced tunes like the title track and Nightwing to balls-out blistering metal anthems like Devil & Daughter and Black Moon, it seems to have something for everyone. There's even an epic of sorts, by Sabbath's standards at least, titled When Death Calls. It's an unmistakably Sabbath tune and through and through a fantastic song on all fronts, soaring and plummeting meticulously as it frolics for seven minutes straight and exhibits some unreal progression during the course. Brian May from Queen bestows it with one of the best guitar solos on the album, too. There's an added bonus track called Cloak & Dagger as part of this re-release - a rather straightforward number with a sinister main riff and some pounding bass. But it’s also the weakest song here that I've kind of been skipping all this while, though I may end up warming up to it; I eventually warm up to everything Sabbath does.

After all these years of being a fan, whenever I wanted to listen to Headless Cross or any other albums from this era, I had to be at the mercy of shitty YouTube versions with dreadful quality and comments lamenting the lack of their presence, so scarce and inaccessible were they. That all of them are now readily available, both physically and digitally, is a wonderful, almost surreal sensation to behold. I'm really glad and stoked that this astounding period of Sabbath's history is once again getting the recognition it deserves - it was long overdue and we've been clamouring for it for what seems like an eternity now. And if it matters to you, it has actually been doing very well from a commercial standpoint, confirming that the demand was always there. In my personal opinion, all eras of Black Sabbath have had their own appeal and consist of something for everyone; Ozzy's era is apparently the most celebrated and renowned, and it put them on the map, whereas the Dio years brought an overall maturity to the lyrics and sound. The Tony Martin era, harsh as it may seem, is mostly distinguished for being ignored and inaccessible throughout its existence, kind of shrouding the band’s top-notch output from that period. Undeniably though, it has given us some of their most underrated gems like The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr and Cross Purposes; sorry Forbidden, you still remain the oddball miscreant.

Does it ever happen to you that sometimes the music’s just too overwhelming and overpowering and you end up being completely speechless for a few moments with mild tears in your eyes? As a metalhead for over a decade now, I've personally experienced that on a multitude of occasions whenever I'm in the right mood for my absolute favourite albums. Well guess what, I felt the same sensation here when after a kind of impatient wait (after the announcement), I was finally able to listen to this Headless Cross remaster, in the highest of quality, surprised at its very existence and safe in the knowledge that I also now have the option to get my grubby hands on those oh-so-pristine looking vinyls... It's a good year indeed.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 9, 2019.

Who invented heavy metal was the question, right? Honestly speaking, I thought I had to answer Cronos, Paul Speckmann or, when push comes to shove, Joey deMaio. However, one day I found the answer. Nevertheless, Headless Cross has absolutely nothing in common with innovation. Tony Iommi and his almost interchangeable companions recorded a very polished, smoothly flowing album with conventionally designed songs. This doesn't sound very exciting? Well, we are coming to the point right now.

Lead singer Tony Martin knows his métier, but he always sounds too clean, too pure and over-emotional. Although his voice has depth and charisma, he is not the natural born metal vocalist and some hideous background vocals ("Devil & Daughter") are even more annoying. In his best moments, Martin sounds like the unforgotten Ronnie James ("When Death Calls"). Well, I am quite sure that Dio's voice would have make pure gold out of this dramatic and intense highlight, but Martin also does a good job here. Too bad that the band is not able to keep the class of "When Death Calls" during the entire playtime. Riffmaster Iommy presents some generic macho-riffs in the title track. They seem to be carefully aligned with the equally generic artwork and push the painfully conservative number on a solid level. Generally speaking, riffmaster cannot be blamed for offering insubstantial songs under the banner that condemns him to constant top performance. "Call of the Wild", for example, has some really strong sections, not only the somewhat desperate chorus. "A Kill in the Spirit World" also scores with a chorus which floats above the profane things, but it does not go hand in hand with its good time rock verses.

The production walks the thin line between "harsh enough" and "too light". Whenever the quintet pulls out all the stops, the album glitters with a profound heaviness, but the rather emotional parts often fail to generate an appropriate pressure. Of course, all instruments are well-balanced, while the voice stands in the spot light. But I guess a band with that status cannot win with a good sound, it can only lose when confronting the audience with badly produced songs. It might be unfair, but even a flawless mix should be nothing but a matter of course for the leading bands of the genre, at least in my humble opinion.

The lyrics also remind me strongly of Dio. "A kiss in the wind whispers murder, murder" is only one of the lines which fit the lyrical approach of the little man with the impressive vocals. And yes, there is maybe a spiritual and musical connection between this album and the glorious Dehumanizer with Dio's gargantuan performance. But more or less each and every song of Dehumanizer hit the bull's eye, while a few tracks remain pretty faceless and predictable on the here presented work. Perhaps heavy metal would be more exciting if Paul Speckmann had invented it. Or Cronos, Donald T. or Maggy Thatcher - I will discuss this with Tony Iommi.

Rating: 6.7 out of 10