Illegal Foreign Object

Prior to Black Sabbath releasing Dehumanizer in June of 1992, the feeling surrounding the band was decidedly indifferent. Fans by the millions had stepped off the train, exhausted from far too many years of uneven records and revolving door lineups. Dehumanizer brought a lot of us back into the fold (even if our stay was to be short-lived). For fans of the Dio Era of Sabbath, having him back on lead vocals was a breath of fresh air, and after far too many years of the band being little more than a mediocre Tony Iommi solo project, the return of the entire Mob Rules lineup resulted in the heaviest record the band had released since Heaven And Hell. Though the lineup proved to be unsustainable, Dehumanizer remains the one great album the band released over the last 40 years.

Truth be told, the rise of Grunge may well have breathed temporary life back into the aging dinosaur that was Black Sabbath. I have no proof of this, but listen to the beginning of “Sins Of The Father”, then listen to Soundgarden’s “Searching With My Good Eye Closed”. In 1991, bands like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains were topping charts, filling arenas, and showing up all over rock magazines and MTV. The members of those bands were also openly professing love and admiration for the once mighty Sabbath. Tony Martin was a fine vocalist, and credit to him for singing his ass off for a good many years in Sabbath, but with him on the mic, the band sounded more like a follower of the glam rock trend rather than the god of heavy metal. After a decade of missteps, and undoubtedly feeling a goosing in popularity from these new, hungry upstarts, Iommi and Co. finally got back to doing what they do best: melt faces.

This, of course, was not as seamless as many might assume. Initially, Iommi tapped Cozy Powell to play drums, but when he suffered a broken pelvis after a horse riding accident, Dio suggested AC/DC’s Simon Wright. Iommi raised a big middle finger to that, leaving Vinny Appice as the most logical choice. Iommi might’ve been “playing nice”, but Sabbath was still his band (and he made sure everyone knew it). Not even Ronnie’s gig was safe, as Iommi brought in former (and future) singer, the aforementioned Tony Martin to demo a few tracks. This was after the guitartist had tried to bring Martin back into the fold just two weeks after firing him from the band. Martin has said that after he heard the demos, he told Tony there wasn’t anything he could bring to the songs that the band wasn’t already captured with Ronnie. Dio was less than pleased when he found out about Iommi’s attempted end-around.

Despite it all, the sessions, fraught with tension and mistrust throughout, somehow yielded a sludgy, doomy slab of badassery. For all of Ozzy’s history-making, fame-grabbing ridiculousness, on the best day of his life, he could never hold a candle to Dio’s soaring vocal range and power. I’ll never understand how Ronnie was basically 2’11” and still sang with so much force. I swear his lungs must’ve extended to his shins. In Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice, Sabbath had the perfect low-end duo, and they laid down a foundation of heaviness over which Iommi machine-gunned power chords like a sea of tuned-down Bren guns cutting through hordes of nazis. It is a menacing sound.

“Computer God” grooves while Dio croons. When he spits out “There’s another side of Heaven, this way to technical paradise”, I stink-face in 2023 the very same way I stink-faced in 1992. There’s a viciousness to that vocal that’s just timeless, man.

“Letters From Earth” is similarly sludgy, while “After All (The Dead)” and “Too Late” almost feel like they’re crawling to their respective finish lines with the world strapped to their backs. “TV Crimes” and “Time Machine” careen like runaway trains, the latter getting a nice airplay boost courtesy of the first Wayne’s World flick.

It all imploded, of course. Dio’s contract with the band officially ended prior to the final two shows on the tour. When he was told said shows would be in support of Ozzy, Dio hopped a plane and went to the house, supposedly calling Ozzy a “clown”. Rob Halford, after receiving Ronnie’s blessing, did the final two nights as Sabbath’s frontman. The bootlegs are out there — they’re worth your time. Ronnie wouldn’t sing in the band again until 2006, but for a brief moment in the early-’90s, Sabbath mattered again, and for someone who was too young to have experienced the band during its prime, that was pretty damn cool.

Track List:

1. Computer God 9/10
2. After All (The Dead) 9/10
3. TV Crimes 8/10
4. Letters From Earth 9/10
5. Master Of Insanity 7/10
6. Time Machine 7/10
7. Sins Of The Father 6/10
8. Too Late 6/10
9. I 6/10
10. Buried Alive 6/10
11. Time Machine (Wayne’s World Soundtrack Version) 7/10

Grade: 73