BORN AGAIN

This 'Black-Purple' period album is a strange part of Sabbath's discography. Of course, Gillan-era Deep Purple is a much loved and revolutionary entity within the Rock world. To have Ian Gillan as lead vocalist for the wonderful Black Sabbath is something of a treat, even if a touch odd. Naturally, I'm in a minority who consider this album as a worthy release, but then again, this was one of my first tastes of the mighty Sabbath during the late-80's. If anything, the compressed and rather synthetic sounding production possibly drags the overall product down a few rungs. I've heard stories of Gillan himself receiving a boxful of 'Born Again' LP's at the time, and he trashed every copy of it, due to what he thought was 'lame' production of his vocals...... You just can't please everyone. Me personally, I've always thought highly of the few brief instrumental links ('Stonehenge' and 'The Dark') as complimenting the dark mood of the album, and, most songs are quite interesting - 'Trashed' being a strong contender for 'hit single' and partially successful at that. 'Disturbing The Priest' should be classed as one of the Sabbath 'Classics' - it's definately heavy, displays a clever sense of dynamics, and features the most chilling sounds of demented laughter since 'Am I Going Insane'..... The title song is one of those mellowish and emotional pieces which features fantastic screams from Gillan - 'Child In Time' eat your heart out !! Iommi shows once again that there's more to his shredding than mindless ego-tripping. 'Hot-Line' could've been a superb Purple single, and 'Keep It Warm', though containing standard verses, shows an interlude which brings the listener back to Sabbath's Volume 4 days . I could attribute the weaker moments to go to 'Zero The Hero' and 'Digital Bitch'. This album 'Born Again', may be a product of its times, though I'm sure that many folks can enjoy it with an open mind, and without any preconceived notions on what Sabbath 'should' sound like. 3.5 strong stars !!