Another from my record shelf that I spun the other day...
However, Warner Brothers records and Iommi's manager convinced Iommi to make the album a Black Sabbath release rather than a solo effort. As some sort of bizarre-ass compromise, the album was billed as "Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi: Seventh Star." Fucking well HOPE he's 'featured' considering he basically WAS THE BAND at that point. What resulted was 1986's Seventh Star.
Fans had no idea that this was supposed to be a solo album, so many were taken aback by the huge change in the band's sound. This record is bluesier...less in-your-face, and definitely less dark. Another ex-Deep Purple member, Glenn Hughes, handles the vocals on this record. To be brutally honest, speaking as a big Black Sabbath fan...none of the tracks really jump out at you, none of them are terribly memorable. There are some truly impressive solos on this album, but that's about the only real redeeming feature. I did enjoy "No Stranger to Love" which I believe was the only single from the album, but even then, it was a slower ballad that really didn't fit the sound you associate with a Sabbath record.
Still, this record did serve some purposes: first off all it introduced keyboardist Geoff Nichols, who would be a key Sabbath member in the following years. Eric Singer (the current Kiss drummer) played drums on this album as well as the follow-up, 1987's The Eternal Idol.
I think more than anything, what this album proves is that while Iommi is an awesome player and a great musician who can write some great riffs, he needs a strong lyricist and fellow musician to help him out to truly achieve something dynamic. Geezer Butler (and to an extent, Ronnie James Dio) was the man for the job in the 70's and early 80's. But when left to his own devices, I think Iommi's own lyrics were too simplistic to even inspire HIM to write memorable songs around them, if that makes sense.
Butler, Dio, and later, Tony Martin, really helped Iommi to craft the later Black Sabbath sound. This record is more of what happens when he's left to tread water by himself, and it's not that great. It pains me to write sentences like that, especially since The Eternal Idol and the MONSTROUS follow up, 1989's Headless Cross were just fucking dynamite. In my opinion, Headless Cross was the best Sabbath album of all time, and it came because Iommi and Tony Martin collaborated to put together some truly epic songs.
Don't know what I'll review next, but stay tuned. I'm trying to go through the metal section of my records and see what I can turn up.
Later, and be excellent to each other.
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