193. Black Sabbath / Cross Purposes. 1994. 3.5/5.

From the time Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice left the band after the tour to promote the “Mob Rules” album in 1982, Black Sabbath had had a tough time in the music business. With only band founder Tony Iommi remaining, and for all intents and purposes it being basically a solo project (which indeed is what Iommi himself had hoped for through the mid-1980’s) some solidifying in the band line up and stability in the ranks with the addition of Tony Martin on vocals, Neil Murray on bass and Cozy Powell on drums, had brought some underrated albums in “The Eternal Idol”, “Headless Cross” and “Tyr” to close out the decade. Then had come the return of firstly Geezer Butler on bass, and then Dio on vocals for what was basically a cash grab, an opportunity for everyone to hopefully fill the coffers, given the fact that Dio only signed a one year contract for the role. Cozy’s injury meant the recall of Appice completed the ‘Mark II’ lineup of the band, and the album “Dehumanizer” was the result, bringing with it rave reviews and hope to the masses for a revisiting of more albums in the same vein. Of course, old petty differences and jealousies got in the way once again. With the rest of the band agreeing to open for Ozzy Osbourne on what was claimed at the time would be his final two live performances ever, Dio refused saying that their band should be opening for no one, especially their former lead singer. On the back of this, as well as this coinciding with the end of his contracted period, Dio left once again to return to his own band with Appice beside him, and Black Sabbath the band was again left without a vocalist and a drummer after a successful album and tour.
In Dio’s place, Tony Martin returned. He had never actually been fired or replaced in the band, he had for all intents and purposes just gone off and done his own solo album while the band had recorded and toured on “Dehumanizer”. Though it was a strange situation, he slotted straight back in. With Geezer remaining, the band brought in former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli to take over Vinny’s spot.
The coming together of the album was in a new world for Black Sabbath. With grunge having dominated the popular music of the past two years, the band for the first time really found itself in a position where their genre of music – the one that this band had basically invented – was now one that was unsure of itself, of how it should sound. The direction this album took was always going to be a difficult one to assess prior to its actual release.

From the very start of the album, most Black Sabbath fans will be comforted by the way the band sounds. Because it IS Iommi and Butler after all, and they are the very basis of Black Sabbath’s sound. The opening track “I Witness” starts exactly like you would expect a Dio-fronted Sabbath song to sound, so following on the heels of exactly that with their previous album, it is great to hear. Tony Martin returns on vocals without missing a beat, awesome from the outset, on top of a wonderful Geezer Butler bass line and the ever-present Tony Iommi riff, and that always solid beat of Bobby Rondinelli drums. The song has a great groove and gives the album the start it needs to have the fans know that Black Sabbath is still alive. It’s a great track, and certainly ranks as one of the band’s best post- “Mob Rules”.
“Cross of Thorns” channels the kind of music that Martin had done on previous Black Sabbath albums in the late 1980s with a calmer attitude and a soaring vocal line supported by a soothing guitar underneath from Iommi and Butler. Perhaps it’s a strange place to have the song placed on the album after the energy of the opening track, but still the track itself is not in question. “Psychophobia” immediately comes back in harder and heavier than the previous track. Lyrically it based on the Waco siege involving David Koresh, and once again Martin’s emotionally charged vocals are a star of the show while the drums and bass thump you in the chest as they crush underneath Iommi’s terrific riff.
“Virtual Death” is a problem point, the first acceptance of a change to suit the times. This could almost have been pulled note for note from an Alice in Chains album, and the grungy acceptance of this song on the album might not be a poor song but it is such a change from what has come before that it makes it difficult hold with. Even the doubled vocals give it away. It is a dead set rip off, no matter what the band may protest. Then there are the songs that are caught in the various modes of recent Black Sabbath songs, those that follow the increased atmospheric keys in the background such as on “Tyr”, or the slower heavier style of “Dehumanizer”, or the faster pace of “The Eternal Idol” – or some songs such as “Immaculate Deception” that combine all three in the same song. This is another beauty, the faster paced through the middle and Iommi’s great guitar solo make this another great listen. This is followed by the Sabbath edition of the power ballad “Dying for Love”, which I do like more than I usually would despite myself. Martin’s vocals here are really quite amazing and along with Iommi’s riff that isn’t the full blown power ballad type, and indeed tends to keep the song on a more enjoyable level, does not allow it to descend to the genre of power ballad. It is definitely a change though. “Back to Eden” hovers on the most normal hard heavy rock song of the album, great vocal, good riff, noting extraordinary. So to “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” after a quiet start, then bursting into a trademark Iommi/Butler riff punched along by Rondinelli giving that hard hitting beat. For me the song is only held back by the change from light to heavy a couple of times during the song, which halts the real momentum that is engendered. Great solo from Iommi though, a real heavy rock solo that leads the song out.
Hang on! Here’s a familiar sounding song! Wow, an almost true Sabbath track! “Cardinal Sin” hails back to those other Martin-vocal-helmed albums, with a great crunching riff exacerbated by Geezer’s wonderful bass sound, and Geoff Nicholls atmospheric keyboards again. This is a terrific track, one that really reminds you of the modern Black Sabbath sound, and that it can be really good. The album then concludes with “Evil Eye”, a song with writing contributions from Eddie Van Halen that went unacknowledged on the album because of his contractual obligations. To be fair, they should have finished with “Cardinal Sin” and used the Japanese bonus track “What’s the Use?” as the final track, as it is a better song.

Despite my love of “Dehumanizer” and the belief that Iommi and Butler could still write albums like that without Dio alongside them, I didn’t get this album on its release. At this time I had just moved to Sydney and was unemployed, and didn’t have a job for another three months, so with no money there was no chance of buying new albums. As it turned out, I don’t think I actually bought any albums at all for almost 12 months such was the lack of income. By the time I had gotten into a position to do so once again, this album had disappeared and other albums were more in my field of vision. Along with the less than flattering reviews for the band’s next album “Forbidden”, I rarely thought of this release at all.
So it wasn’t until almost a decade after this album was released that I actually got a copy and listened to it. And though I may not have fallen heads over heels in love with it when I did listen to it, it did make me regret that I hadn’t done so earlier. Because there is a lot of good material on this album that seems to have been ignored or forgotten over the years. Songs such as “I Witness”, “Psychophobia”, “Immaculate Deception” and “Cardinal Sin” are excellent songs, worthy of better attention. And the rest of the album is still of a high quality, even if most will refuse to consider it as Black Sabbath because of the vocalist. But Tony Martin is quite excellent once again here, and at times his vocals are truly amazing. This is the first album that Tony Martin had sung with Black Sabbath with Geezer Butler playing on bass. It really does sound as close to what most fans would consider as Black Sabbath as you can get with Tony Martin on vocals. Perhaps the main difference here on “Cross Purposes” is that the mood of the album moves away from the aggression of its predecessor and finds the middle ground again between true heavy metal and a more commercial bent of listenable harder rock. It is still an album that I think I should listen to more, and over recent weeks having done exactly that, I have really enjoyed the album as a whole. And in the same way as the Mark II era of Black Sabbath eventually renamed themselves as “Heaven & Hell” to release their album “The Devil You Know” not long before Dio’s death, if you consider the Tony Martin-vocalled albums as a renamed Headless Cross band, and ignored the hype around ‘only Ozzy is Sabbath’ rubbish, I think more people would listen to and enjoy this and those other albums as a whole.
Even so, there are enough Iommi licks and solos, Geezer bass lines and Martin vocal screams to lift this above the average. Could there have been more? Absolutely, and there are times you just pine for the 70's energy to come through. But overall, this album still delivers a great punch.