THE ETERNAL IDOL

Sabbath had been going through a difficult period through the 80's after Dio had left, with some really poor releases, changing line-ups again and again, none which were worthwhile for hardcore Sabbath fans. However, when Tony & Co hired Tony Martin on vocals, the band seemed to be again in shape for dark, semi-gloomy, heavy music.

Tony Martin is no unique singer as Dio and Ozzy were, however his style could be compared to that from Dio, just obviously, without that unique tone of Ronnie, which makes him such a fantastic vocalist. The rest of the band is solid as rock, a hard-beating drummer, and while the bass players individually are really good, with Sabbath, they are just out of the mix, this being the real issue for me, since Geezer Butler for me was THE sound of Sabbath alongside Tony, bringing jaw-dropping bass lines in every song. Anyways, on the bright side, Tony is back with killer riffs, some share a fair similiarity with 80's metal bands, still they sound great! However, having named the riffs, I must name the other issue, this is, that Tony, I suppose, was quite sick of writing 'elaborated' heavy rock, that of the likes of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, War Pigs, The Writ, etc, so from this album you can really just expect damn good straight-forward metal/hard rock without that unique elaboration from the Sabb's.

I can't find a weak hard rock/metal tune in here, they all feature pretty good riffs, some of them with that ol' gloomy aspect that characterized the 70's Sabbath so much, also there's that heavy drumming I mentioned before, from ex-Kiss drummer, Eric Singer, as well as some pretty good guitar solos, though by no means as memorable as those from the 70's Tony did.

3 stars: Good addition to your Hard Rock/Metal collection. Those 70's Sabbath fans might find this appealing for the fact of the strong riffs and good vocals, even if they may sound a bit cheesy or even cliche from other metal acts from the time. Certainly, The Eternal Idol, alongside Tyr, are the strongest albums from Sabbath after those that came from Ozzy and Dio.

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