Black Sabbath – Headless Cross – 1989
Building on the success of the surprise hit, The Eternal Idol, Iommi and Martin (and Brian May on a guest solo on “When Death Calls”!!!) come back harder, stronger and even more impressively on Headless Cross.
It’s as though they decided not to try to reinvent themselves any more than they had to. THey didn’t really need to do any “re” invention since they created the black metal goth sound 20 years earlier. They just lost their way a bit. Cocaine, success, ego and pride will do that to you.
This is as good as The Eternal Idol, in fact, in many ways, its more cohesive and a very worthy successor to Heaven and Hell. I can do without the “radio-friendly” attempt on “Call of the Wild: but that’s picking nits.
Excellent.
Grade: A
ASide: When Death Comes, Headless Cross
BlindSide: Devil and Daughter, Nightwing
DownSide: Call of the Wild
