Black Sabbath – Born Again (1983)
My favourite of the Sabbath 80s output. Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan is a bizarre choice to succeed Dio, and whilst these two worlds collide awkwardly, it results in the most interesting post-Ozzy album I’ve heard thusfar.
There are no stand-out tracks for me, per se, but rather Iommi’s guitars have real weight to them once again, and Gillan’s warble adds a quality that has been missing since Ozzy. I’m not an Ozzy fanboy at all, but most of the post-Ozzy output has left me feeling rather wanting for more.
I do love however how thick and muddy the production is on this. Born Again sounds as evil as the record sleeve looks. The only real let down is a fucking shambolic performance from Bill Ward on the drums, but there we go, you can’t win them all.