Black Sabbath
Born Again

THE REVIEW

After Ronnie Dio's farewell to Sabbath, Iommi decided to enlist another monster with superhuman vocal cords for the studio follow-up to Mob Rules, and that is Sir Ian Gillan, to give life to perhaps the most discussed album in the band's history, "Born Again." The fans at the time, in fact, did not take to Gillan, and Iommi did nothing to facilitate the frontman's entry into the hearts of the old guard Sabbath fans, quite the contrary. The continuous disagreements between the two, in fact, led to Gillan's departure after a few dates of the tour following the album. Two personalities too strong to live in love and harmony. A real pity because listening to the album in question, it is evident that if the partnership had continued, Black Sabbath would have surely delighted us with other musical gems.

"Born Again" is perhaps the heaviest and darkest album in Sabbath's discography. The combination of Gillan's voice and Iommi's riffs is compelling and well-matched. "Trashed" is magnificent, a song with a rhythm and hard rock lyrics (it talks about a guy who after surviving a car accident because he was tipsy, goes to savor a whiskey in the nearest bar to recover), wonderful "Disturbing The Priest," a Sabbath classic, the darkest and most sick song written by the band, "Zero The Hero" (another classic) with a very heavy riff, copied by Guns in Paradise City, immensely dreamlike title track, one of my favorite Sabbath songs (including those with Ozzy) where Gillan's voice excels in all its beauty, powerful "Digital Bitch," in the vein of Thrashed. In my opinion, the album drops a bit with the final "Hot Line" and "Keep It Warm," although such a drop doesn't absolutely affect the beauty of this record, too undervalued and in my opinion, it's a true masterpiece. Essential.