SEVENTH STAR

As Sabbath albums go this one is quite different. Gone is the density of Iommi and Butler; gone are the mystical lyrics of Dio; gone are interesting rhythmical interplays and gone is anything resembling Sabbath at all really. None of that means that this is a bad album but it is easy to understand the Sabbath faithful when they reject it. As metal goes this is an acceptable piece of work, it isn't Sabbath but it is still the output of some talented musicians adept at creating and performing metal.

Iommi has completely changed his personal style here; he obviously spent too much time with Van Halen because there are occasions where he clearly tries to adopt the Van Halen style - big mistake. Van Halen is Van Halen and no one is going to accept imitations even if the guitarist is just as talented. There are also tracks where Iommi seems to be moving towards the heavy rock of bands like Free. All of which means that the music is filled with strong vocal and guitar hooks but there is very little of anything else, most especially there is nothing here for the prog fan although with those leanings this particular incarnation of the band is certainly playing to their strengths

This is a fairly good 1980s type metal album, verging on hair metal in places and as such the tracks mostly stand alone leaving the album as a collection of mostly decent songs but without any real need for them to be in the same place at the same time. There is little passion to this album other than those few sections where either Hughes or Iommi push themselves to squeeze a little more out in the vocals and solos. Neither of them really does well enough to lift the listener and so there are no tracks that really could have made it to regular playlists on the radio. I do expect that one or two of these tracks achieved air time in the USA where heavy rock and metal were far more mainstream than in the UK and Europe which, were dominated by pop in the 80s. No Stranger to Love would be a good example of one track that you might expect to hear on the radio methinks - no idea if it was released as a single but I wouldn't be surprised.

Lyrically, this stuff becomes very annoying very quickly with the overuse of repetition in the vocal hooks in order to make the listener believe this is truly great stuff when it really isn't. After 2 listens I start to get the feeling that I want the songs to be over so I am very glad that there is nothing over 7 minutes and only 2 tracks over 5. Having said that the production is very strong although I don't like the newer guitar sound that Iommi is using, the vocals are good too but the drum work is too 1980s for me. The whole thing does remind me of Ian Gillan era Deep purple but only the higher tempo filler tracks that those guys used to throw into their work; in fact there are parts of the Perfect Strangers album that sound very similar to some of this stuff. There is a vague nod to prior Sabbath work with the minute long sound effect that is Sphinx as intro to the title track which seems to have a very familiar chorus. Accessible it certainly is but there isn't a progressive note in earshot unless you want to count Sphinx in which case 1 minute out of 44!!

In all this is a passable metal album but entirely irrelevant in the context of progressive music. If you want progressive metal then please ignore this album. If you are Tony Iommi's mum you will love this.

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to Bovver
• Report this review (#3166654)
• Buy BLACK SABBATH music online with PA partners
• Show all BLACK SABBATH MP3/Stream
• Go to BLACK SABBATH page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Seventh Star page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for BLACK SABBATH related discussions