UMUR "Forbidden" is the 18th full-length studio album by UK heavy metal act Black Sabbath. The album was released through I.R.S. Records in June 1995. After the short reunion with Dio and the subsequent release of "Dehumanizer (1992)", Black Sabbath reunited with the man Dio had replaced. Namely Tony Martin who was ready for another stint with the band. The first release was "Cross Purposes (1994)" which showed a more contemporary side of Black Sabbath and "Forbidden" is the successor to that album.

The music on "Forbidden" is heavy rock/metal as on any album by Black Sabbath but while I found the music on "Cross Purposes (1994)" of decent quality yet a bit mediocre, the music on "Forbidden" is downright bland and uninspired. The 7th track on the album, which has a bluesy feel to it, is called "Sick and Tired" and that actually says it all. This is most definitely a tired and trivial affair. Not only is the instrumental side of the compositions weak and filled with clichés but what´s even worse is that the vocals by Tony Martin are almost unacceptable at times. He sounds tired and hoarse. I expect much more from a vocalist of his caliber. I´m very disappointed about his performance here. But the vocal lines does have to take some of the blame here too. Again bland and uninspired. The inclusion of guest vocals by Ice T (Ice T, Body Count) on "The Illusion of Power" also comes off as rather embarrassing and what could have been a creative input just ends up in a song length of cringe worthy material. The sound production isn´t that well sounding either. It lacks punch and the sound on the vocals is odd.

I´d like to say something positive here but this is simply one of the worst albums recorded by Black Sabbath and while I was initially going to give it a 2 star (40%) rating I´ve thought it over and my rating has crawled down to a 1 star (20%) rating. Artists that can´t help it who release bad albums can be forgiven but established artists like Black Sabbath who release an album like "Forbidden" should not be let off the hook. "Forbidden" easily ranks along side "Seventh Star (1986)" as the worst album in Black Sabbath´s discography.

bonnek Well this was a disappointment. The Martin-formula was completely depleted by then. Sabbath sounded directionless and even pathetic in their attempt to win some street credibility back by bringing in Ice-T and by applying production values that were probably meant to sound rough and contemporary but that come off flat and dry. Or is that due to the uninspired performance here? Hard to say what is to blame most.

This still has a few ballads that are listenable: Can't get close enough, I won't cry for you (damn those cheesy titles alone…) and one decent classic metal track Kiss of Death. Rather 2 black holes then 2 stars.

SouthSideoftheSky “How many tears must we cry before learning, things that we have they’re for real and we’re losing”

Forbidden is to date the last Black Sabbath studio album and followed one year after Cross Purposes which had seen the return of singer Tony Martin. For Forbidden, drummer extraordinaire Cozy Powell also comes back as well as bassist Neal Murray which means that this is the exact same line-up that did TYR five years previously. In terms of quality and style however, these two albums are as far away from each other as you can imagine. While TYR belongs to my all time favourites, Forbidden is one of the least good Black Sabbath albums ever! Still, I don’t think it is quite as bad as many people say. There are some nice moments here as well but hardly enough to stop this from being a rather sad ending of Black Sabbath's recording career (but let’s hope there will be further albums in the future).

While I have the greatest respect and admiration for all of these people here including keyboard player Geoff Nichols and, of course, Mr. Black Sabbath himself Tony Iommi, I must say that this is a very weak final statement by one of my favourite line-ups of one of my favourite bands. It is particularly sad to note that this album was to be one of the amazing Cozy Powell's last recordings ever before he passed away in 1998.

The album opens with Illusion Of Power which features a guest spot by Ice T that depending on your definition might perhaps be characterized as something of a “Rap”, but it is really best described as a spoken word passage. Regardless of what you call it, it is a bit out of place here. Forbidden is not the first Black Sabbath album to feature a guest artist. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath featured Rick Wakeman of Yes on keyboards on one track and Headless Cross featured a guitar solo by Brian May of Queen on one track. The nature and pedigree of each of these guests pretty much represents the credentials of the respective album they participated in! From the greats Rick Wakeman and Brian May to Ice T indicates how far the band had sunk at this time and how desperate they were to fit into the contemporary musical climate of the mid 90’s. They brought in Ice T’s band mate Ernie C to produce the album.

Shaking Off The Chains, Get A Grip and Illusion Of Power all have respectable riffs. Can't Get Close Enough is slower and has more memorable verses; this is one of the album's highlights for me together with the closer Kiss Of Death which features a strong vocal by Martin and characteristic heavy drums of Powell. I Won't Cry For You has a surprisingly anthemic chorus for Black Sabbath and this is another pretty good song but hardly something out of the ordinary. It is with songs like Guilty As Hell and Sick And Tired the album sinks below average with generic riffs and middle-of-the-road sound. These songs are quite dull and wholly standard Hard Rock songs without any redeeming features. Rusty Angels picks things up slightly with a half decent chorus, but the lyrics are rather cheesy and there is nothing really memorable about the song. The title track is decent, but again totally unremarkable.

Like with the horrible Born Again album from the early 80's the weaknesses of Forbidden lies both in the uninspired song writing and some misguided musical ideas. However, there are a few decent moments here and I actually rate this higher than both Born Again and Dehumanizer. Still, this album is for fans and collectors only, but some of these might enjoy some moments of this album to some degree at least.