BLACK SABBATH — Born Again (review)

BLACK SABBATH — Born Again album cover Album · 1983 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
1.5/5 ·
Stooge
This album had the ingredients to be special. Ian Gillan was one of the greatest voices of 70s rock and metal. Adding him to the Sabbath trio of Iommi, Butler, and Ward, this sounds promising indeed. From a song perspective, there is some stuff here that isn’t too bad. “Trashed”, “Disturbing The Priest” and “Zero The Hero” have their moments, but this is still a rather challenging listen.

The mix has got to be one of the worse there is. Aside from Ian Gillan’s possessed-by-a-demon delivery, the instrumentation just blends together in a bit of a mess.

You always hear about Seventh Star not being a true Black Sabbath album, but Born Again is certainly a different album from what the metal godfathers would churn out. The best way for me to describe it would be that so called classic Sabbath would set such a dark and disturbing atmosphere but it felt pretty organic, whereas Born Again sounds like it’s trying to make a scary record but in a cliché fashion. I guess it could scare a child, but kids are easy to frighten.

I usually forget about the second side entirely except for the fact one song is humorously titled “Digital Bitch”. The second side actually sounds like a completely different approach. Gillan’s voice sounds a bit more natural, and the hard rock style of the songs is a better fit for him. Like I said though, I usually forget the second side.

This is one of those albums that I have to be in the right mood to listen to, which doesn’t say much for it. I’d save this for the die-hard fans of Ian Gillan and the members of Sabbath.
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