Black Box

I can't believe that this is the second box set that I've purchased this year. I try to stay away from these things nowadays, as I generally find them a big waste of precious shelf space. Still, I needed the Shotmaker box because they are such an underapprciated 90's hardcore punk gem, and then this Black Sabbath box was absolutely crucial.

The Anno Domini box from Black Sabbath finally delivers what hardcore fans have been begging for... the Tony Martin albums, remastered and reissued. Originally released during some of metal's lowest years, it seems that most Sabbath fans look down their nose at those albums with Tony Martin singing for the band. Clowns gonna be "Ozzy or nothing", but to ignore Martin's output with the band is straight up criminal behavior. Of course the Sabbath camp hasn't made it easy to check out those albums as they let the fall away into obscurity, and haven't seen a release since their original pressing in the early 90's... until now.

Headless Cross was the last Sabbath album that I bought on CD before basically abandoning metal throughout the 90's, and I've wanted to pick up the original pressing of the record for years. Owning this box set is good enough for me, and I can stop wringing my hands over having to pay close to $100 to own this.

Tyr was originally released in 1990 and is probably the Tony Martin album that I'm least familiar with. I wasn't completely checked out of metal at this point, but I was on my way out the door... but still, I don't remember hearing a thing about this record when it was released. Ten years later, as I was looking back and catching up on what I'd missed out on, I discovered that this album, plus their next one, Cross Purposes, even existed.

After Tyr, Dio came back to Sabbath and recorded the excellent Dehumanizer, before the line up imploded again. Tony Martin came back to the band and in 1994 they recorded one of my favorite albums with him at the mic... Cross Purposes. Martin tends to have a bit of Dio's sound to his voice, but here, I can really hear it.

Finally, we have Forbidden from 1995. I do seem to recall hearing about this album around the time it was being released, but I think that was only because people were talking about how bad it was. While it is the weakest of the Tony Martin albums, I do still enjoy it... but this is coming from someone that tends to really enjoy universally panned albums like St. Anger or the self titled Warzone record, so take it as you will.

This is a solid box set. In addition to the four records, there is a nice booklet with tons of pictures and information, plus giant Headless Cross poster and a reproduction of the tour program. So glad that Sabbath finally released this!