472. Black Sabbath / Headless Cross. 1989. 4/5

For many listeners to heavy metal music, Black Sabbath between the years of 1982 and 1992 is Black Sabbath in name only. The dissolvement of the Mark II line up after “Live Evil”, until its reintegration with the “Dehumanizer” album, left a revolving door of artists who came in and out of the band during that decade. Some came and went without even having been involved in the recording of an album, such was the speed of ins and outs. Tony Iommi was the only constant throughout, which often became the problem, as on several occasions he had wanted to simply record a solo album under his own name and not have it attached to the band that he had helped create, but the several recording deals made sure that it was the Black Sabbath moniker that was plastered over the front cover of each album – essentially to make the album sell. Of course, the end result was that falling sales for each subsequent album saw Warner Bros, their record company, drop the band from their label in 1988 after the release of “The Eternal Idol” album. Perhaps, just perhaps, if he had been allowed to release the album under his own name, it would have attracted more interest rather than a Black Sabbath album with only one of the original members still in the band.
To continue forward, Iommi and Black Sabbath needed a new label, and perhaps a revamp. Iommi solved the first problem when he met and conversed with Miles Copeland, former manager of The Police and brother of their drummer Stewart, who had formed his own record label called IRS Records. According to Iommi in his autobiography, the discussion was amicable and positive, with Copeland more or less saying that you know how to write music, and you know what fans want, so you write me an album and I’ll release it for you. On the basis of this, Iommi signed up with IRS Records, and Black Sabbath avoided sinking once again.
The band however needed some stability, with people that Iommi could trust. “The Eternal Idol” had had at least two different vocalists attached along with three bass guitarists and other assorted musicians. If this was going to work he had to have the right people. His first recruitment was Cozy Powell on drums, a veteran of the industry who had been in several high impact bands over the years. He and Iommi began writing material with Tony Martin, who had sung on “The Eternal Idol”. Apparently Iommi had been thinking of asking a high profile vocalist to come on board, such as David Coverdale or a return of Dio, but it was Cozy who pushed him to retain Martin in the band. Along with session bassist Laurence Cottle, the band was set, and with the most solid formation of the band over the past five years in place, the end result was this album, “Headless Cross”.

The album gets off to an interesting start, once the opening strains of the intro instrumental “The Gates of Hell” segue into the title track “Headless Cross”. Without fail, every time I hear the opening 8 bars or so, I think it is about to break into Van Halen’s “Running With the Devil”. Go on, listen to it again, and tell me you don’t hear exactly the same thing. It is a little off putting I can tell you, before it finally turns the corner and heads off in its own direction. But once it does, it takes hold of the flame and starts driving the album immediately. “Headless Cross” is a great opener, and also the lead single from the album, though at the time you were hard pressed to find it or hear it anywhere. “Devil & Daughter” (that had to have its name changed because of its similarity to a song released by former lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne’s album “No Rest for the Wicked”) and “When Death Calls” are both good follow ups, the latter of those two songs also containing a guitar solo by Brian May, who is a long time close friend of Iommi’s.
The second side of the album continues along in the same vein, and look, if you aren’t desperately trying to listen for signs of the band circa 1970-1975, this is still really enjoyable. It’s a different time, a different age, and a different band. And while this has sometimes been described as Iommi trying to be commercial, well I don’t think that’s the case, which I’ll address shortly. “Kill in the Spirit World” and “Call of the Wild” both rely heavily of simple Iommi riffs with Powell pounding those drum skin, and Martin’s wonderful soaring vocals. And, as with the following two songs, “Black Moon” and “Nightwing”, all have moments in the song where they seem to be just moving along in their tempo, and then have a part where the song really switches on, with great riff or solo and a pick up in the tempo and energy to kick the track into another gear, if even for 30 seconds or so.
“Cloak and Dagger” is the bonus track to the original release of the CD, and perhaps for a reason as it has always reminded me of a heavier version of a Joe Lynn Turner era of Rainbow, indeed the way Martin sings this song is very reminiscent of Turner in his prime. Perhaps the band realised this and consigned it to B-side single status. Again, I like it, but I like that version of Rainbow as well.
So this mightn't be what you would consider an atypical Black Sabbath album, and yet in some ways it is one of their heaviest releases of the intervening decade between 1982 and 1992. The addition of Cozy Powell to the writing duo of Iommi and Martin and therefore including his hard hitting drums brought a new, modern 80's metal sound to the music, and it is a joy to listen to. It isn't the 70's ground breaking sound, it is a mix of what was happening in metal at that time, anchored by Cozy's drumming, Martin's amazing vocals (that are so underestimated even today for his work in the band at this time) and more importantly some brilliant guitar licks and riffs from the master Tony Iommi. It is really a sign of the times and the place that the name of Black Sabbath was at this point in time that it isn't better regarded because even with the brilliant metal albums being released at the time this still carries itself high and holds its own.
But there is a reason why this is sometimes mistaken for not being as heavy as some other releases by this band and why it is so maligned, and it isn’t because of the soaring vocals of Martin as some have suggested. The reason why many people don’t consider this a heavy album, or a Black Sabbath album, is because it is missing Geezer Butler’s bass sound. Honestly, and not having a crack here at Laurence Cottle because he is a good musician, but his bass work does not hold a candle to Geezer, and that bass sound is not as high in the mix as it could be, or probably WOULD have been if Geezer had played on this album. And that is where this album misses a trick. Cozy’s drum work is always so powerful because of the way he plays and hits those drums. But the bass is mostly missing and, in some places, even overshadowed by the keys and synths, which for me are far too evident here. Black Sabbath, while many might argue, is really that amazing contribution between Tony Iommi’s Guitar and Geezer Butler’s bass. That is the sound of Black Sabbath. And as much as I do enjoy this album, and believe it is a great heavy album, that missing component does make it hard for some people to take this in. And I really do understand that.

With all of the amazing and incredible albums that were still being released in and around 1989 and 1990, I can freely admit that “Headless Cross” was not an album that was on my radar at the time. One of my best friends, the Black Sabbath obsessed individual who not long after also became my brother-in-law, was the only person I knew who had this album, and I did have a copy recorded on cassette for me through him... but it really didn’t gather much attention from me given everything else I was listening to at that time. I had enjoyed “The Eternal Idol” but wasn’t so excited that I was happy to continue the journey into the next album.
Flash forward... well... 25 or 30 years really. Copies of those Tony Martin helmed albums are not easy to track down, so I simply hadn’t bothered to try to listen to them at all, and even when streaming becomes a thing, those albums are nowhere to be seen. I had eventually downloaded those albums that I didn’t have copies of, and burned them to CD, including this one. A few cursory listens had me thinking “yeah, this is okay” before it went onto the shelves. Then covid hit, and suddenly the world is looking for ways to keep itself amused when locked away. One of the things I do is start ranking bands albums from worst to best (in my humble opinion of course), and so I choose Black Sabbath as my second band to do this (after AC/DC). That means pulling out all the albums, and giving them enough of a listen to determine where they should fall. And out comes “Headless Cross” ... and for probably the first time in my life, I actually give the album a good, hard listen. And then I do it again. And again. And before I know it... I find I really like this album! I mean, it is actually heavy in places, more so than you might expect. And the more I listened, the more the album grabbed me, and I found myself listening to the other Sabbath albums for the ranking list I was doing, and then come back and play this again. And believe me, I was more surprised than anyone.
Pulling it out again this week for this review, I was really looking forward to it. And while my super high opinions seemed to have cooled a little bit since that covid ranking in 2020, I still find this immensely enjoyable. The first half of the album in particular is excellent and much better than it is given credit for. And sometimes it just becomes a matter of perception. I mentioned in my review of the album “Cross Purposes” earlier in this season of this podcast that if the albums recorded with Tony Martin on lead vocals were all released under a different name, say the band name Headless Cross rather than Black Sabbath, then they may well have achieved a better status in the music world, having been released of the stigma of trying to be a Black Sabbath album.
Nothing will ever match the first six Sabbath albums, and the three albums from the Dio helmed era. Of the other ten albums that were released under the name Black Sabbath, I believe this is the one I would rank highest. I never would have believed that five years ago, but here we are.