FORBIDDEN

This album is considered the worst of the worst by many critics and fans as far as Black Sabbath goes. This one was ill- fated from the beginning though as the line-up was quite shaky. Released in 1995, it would be the last album the band would release for quite some time, but this was because there were already rumors of the classic Black Sabbath line-up reuniting. However, this album was kind of a reunion album in and of itself. When everything was finally ironed out, the line-up would be the same as it was for the album "Tyr" with the return of Cozy Powell on drums and Neil Murray on bass, who replaced GeezerButler, Sabbath's original bassist. Returning from the previous album, "Cross Purposes", is long-timer vocalist Tony Martin, who was by now a familiar face in the Black Sabbath "modern" line-up since he was only beat out by Ozzy as the most faithful vocalist in the band's history. Also Tony Iommi on guitar was back, or course, and so was Geoff Nicholls on keys.

This album can blame it's poor reception on songs that seem to be less inspired than ever. The band just didn't have any spark whatsoever. Martin claims he knew nothing about the rumors of a reunion of the classic band or of the plans to bring back Dio for the "Heaven and Hell" band. Also, busy schedules and record company restrictions kept the band from rehearsing or writing songs as a team. Only Iommi, Martin and Nicholls were available to jam together and put the songs together. The album only took 10 days to record because of time constraints, so many things were not possible to work out. The album turns out to be one of the most non-cohesive albums of the band's history, but there are plenty of reasons for that. What you end up with is mostly what sounds like half-hearted attempts. Martin claims that the songs actually sounded great in practice, but everything got lost in production. Honestly, I can hear something in the songs that sound like they might have been decent if they had been worked on and developed better.

In the end, there are some okay moments here, so it's not a complete loss, and personally I would rate this album a tad higher than the awful "Technical Ecstasy" or "Never Say Die", but not enough to earn it another star. Again, the songs sound like they might not have been bad if the band was allowed the same conditions to work out the problems. However, the best tracks like "Can't Get Close Enough" and "Shake off the Chains" are ruined by quick fade outs and a feeling of insecurity in their sound. Of course, the next studio album under the name of Black Sabbath would be the one that would redeem the name of the band as it would be the one to unite the classic line-up again in a very successful way, so the band would at least end on a positive note with the album "13" released in 2013. But it would be done at the expense of the loyal Tony Martin and Geoff Nicholls, but that is what we all really wanted, wasn't it? "Forbidden" could have been a decent swan song for this line up, but instead, it turns out being a sad ending for them. 2 stars. Too weak and underdeveloped, most of the time it can't even be considered heavy or even hard rock. It sounds like an amateur attempt instead of a group of talented veterans.