I am not the world's biggest Black Sabbath fan. In fact, it may shock many to know that Ozzy was not my favorite singer to front the band. The Ronnie James Dio years are my favorite. To me, those three albums (four if you count "The Devil You Know") are perfect from start to finish. And still, there are entire albums that I have only heard maybe once. The Tony Martin era albums are all albums that I just do not know. So when this box set was announced, it immediately piqued my interest. I could finally hear these albums in a listenable way (I had them previously, but in a box set that I'm not sure is legit at all, and there were some annoying issues with the Tony Martin CDs).
First of all, if I have one gripe about this set, it's the title. First of all, you know that this is the Tony Martin era collection. And yet, "The Eternal Idol" isn't here. It's a record company thing. So I guess it's good that they didn't title it "The Tony Martin Years", or something similar. What they did do though, is give you the years "1989-1995", however they Dio fronted "Dehumanizer" was released in 1992. And even if I knew what I was getting here, there may be folks that don't do their homework, and they may be surprised to find the album not included. Again, a small gripe, and one I find to be just odd.
Musically, I really enjoyed "Headless Cross". There were some great tunes there. I found myself enjoying it far more than any of the Ozzy albums. The music was heavy, and melodic. And vocally, I really found myself enjoying Martin's voice. He sounds phenomenal to my quickly aging ears. By the end of the album, I found myself excited to put in the next one. Some stand-out tracks include the epic "When Death Calls", "Nightwing", and album closer "Cloak And Dagger". That said, I didn't hear a bad track on the disc. Amazingly solid album.
"Tyr" starts off with a song called "Anno Mundi", and I swore I was listening to "Children of the Sea" at first. Luckily it quickly switches gears, and becomes its own fantastic, melodic song. This tune is a great way to start the album. As the album played on, I found myself loving every song. This was such a talented, and fantastic line-up. I wouldn't rank this album above any of the three Dio albums, but I definitely found myself enjoying it more than the Ozzy stuff. "Feels Good To Me", "Jerusalem", and "Odin's Court / Valhalla" (those vocal melodies just give me goosebumps!), however, I might put up against many of the Dio songs. These tunes were just fantastic!
"Cross Purposes" starts off with the title track, and I swear this album never lets up. After listening to "Tyr", I was looking forward to this one. I remember really enjoying it the other time I heard it, even if the disc I had was extremely flawed. This remaster sounds just perfect. "Cross of Thorns" is a heavy, melodic rocker, that immediately hit me as a favorite, and another that could rival some of the Dio years material. How did this line-up not get a hell of a lot more attention? It's just so damned good! "Virtual Death" has such a great Alice In Chains vibe, one has to wonder how the song wasn't a huge hit. "Cardinal Sins" is such an epic tune, and it calls visions of Black Sabbath meet Led Zeppelin. So damn good! In fact, there wasn't a single track that I didn't love here, even if "Dying For Love" was a completely different vibe, I still really enjoyed it (it's a beautiful track). This album is a 10/10.
With "Forbidden", I have gotten a lot of mixed reports on the quality of the album. A lot of people say that this version sounds much better than the original, but I don't know the original. That said, I decided to play this one twice in a row to really soak it in. Sometimes a hated album is just a bit misunderstood. The first play through, I was picking out plenty to love, but I wanted to be sure, so a second play was necessary. Upon second listen, I still think the album isn't quite as good as the previous three in this set, but I still found a lot that I liked. To be honest, there weren't any songs I didn't like. The album is edgier, and the vocals are different than the other Tony Martin albums (at least in some places), but overall I enjoyed "Forbidden". There were even some songs I loved ("I Won't Cry For You", "Can't Get Close Enough", "Guilty As Hell", "Shaking Off the Chains", "Rusty Angels", and the title-track).
Overall, I would say that this box set has definitely made a believer out of me. I liked these albums more than I liked most of the Ozzy fronted albums. This stuff was melodic, heavy, and just a fantastic listen, from front to back. Annoying title aside, this set was definitely a good value for the money. From the four albums, to the poster, "Headless Cross" tour book replica, and the beautiful done book included, this set gets two ginger-thumbs up from me!
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