Black Sabbath – Seventh Star – 1986
Okay, so this isn’t really a Black Sabbath album. It IS, but it isn’t. It was meant to be Tony Iommi’s solo record. Look at that cover. Black Sabbath FEATURING Tony Iommi?
What? Iommi INVENTED Black Sabbath. He was one of the four originals and has been in the band for almost 20 years at this point. Hmmm…jealous, Tony? Ozzy’s a superstar and you’re “part of a band”?
From the outset Seventh Star’s “In for the Kill” has that singular 80s metal sound. Chukka-chukka guitars, anthemic soaring vocals, frenzied lead guitars. And generic as all get out.
The demonic pallbearer sound does appear immediately following on “No Stranger to Love” but, really? This is the subject matter you want to explore, Tony? I think you’re trying to sell records and it’s all coming across as pandering. And the straight up blues of “Heart Like A Wheel” doesn’t even remind one of Sabbath so only adds to the confusion. Plus that’s been done soooo soooo much better by others that it just left me wanting.
Songs like “Turn to Stone” start out promising and, just when you think, yeah, I can get in to this, Eric Singer is killing on the drums, Iommi is in rare form…Glenn Hughes’s Coverdale-wannabe vocals come in, all over produced and doubled and tinny and, it all turns everything to shit. Oh, and Glenn used to be in Deep Purple, too. Natch!
All of this said, it’s really hard to judge this record in context. Like I said up top, this wasn’t a BS record. They had broken up after the last disastrous album. So given that, if Deep Purple represent the far left of the dial as safe and progressive and Ozzy & Dio are turned tight to the right fighting for the goth-dragon-fighter D&D crowd, this lands squarely in the middle. Not as sexy as Whitesnake. Not as boring as Rainbow.
Grade: D+
ASIde: In for the Kill, Seventh Star
BlindSide: Turn to Stone
DownSide: No Stranger to Love, Danger Zone (Don’t worry, Loggins fans…)
