Better news came with the release of the album “Headless Cross” in 1989. Retaining the services of Tony Martin on lead vocals gave the band some credibility, and the recruitment of legendary drummer Cozy Powell an experienced musician to help compose and record with. The album was a return to form, and had featured a guest slot from Iommi’s mate Brian May as a part of the process. Despite reaching 31 on the UK charts, the band’s tour of the US was cancelled after just eight shows due to poor ticket sales. The European and Japan tours were more fruitful, while a 23-date tour of Russia with Girlschool gave them the distinction of being one of the first western bands to tour the country.
The band looked to strike while the iron was moderately warm and get back into the studio to record the follow up. Neil Murray, who had done some of the touring for the previous album, was now on board as a member of the band, and along with keyboardist and longtime Iommi friends and music partner, completed the line up for the new album. What was to come was something out of the box, and almost complete change of mindset. “Headless Cross” had arguably been the heaviest album by the band since the early 1980’s, and with lyrics that followed along that path. On the album that became “Tyr”, the music does not have the doom environment that the band had formerly invented. Here is an album that eschews much of that process for songs that have a far more keyboard oriented sound, almost reaching for a sound that mimics power metal without the speed or express synth sound that genre pertains to. And while this beckoned to turn off what remained of the Black Sabbath fan base from the outset, for those that hung around to see what it might hold, it became an album that held far more substance that what most fans know.
When it came to this album, the title, along with the name of several of the songs on the album, are based around Norse mythology, which led to many critics and fans believing that this was a concept album, something that Neil Murray discounted in an interview in 2005. He was quoted as saying that while some of the songs appear loosely related it was never written nor intended to be a concept album. However, the album’s departure from the darker lyrics of Headless Cross was discussed by Tony Iommi in his 2012 autobiography Iron Man, where he said this: “For our next album, Tyr, we went back to the Woodcray Studios in February 1990, with me and Cozy producing it again. On ‘Headless Cross’, Tony Martin had just come into the band and he assumed, oh, Black Sabbath, it’s all about the Devil, so his lyrics were full of the Devil and Satan. It was too much in your face. We told him to be a bit more subtle about it, so for Tyr he did all these lyrics about Nordic gods and whatnot. It took me a while to get my head around that”. It has been said that the album was originally intended to be titled “Satanic Verses” but for the same reason was discarded.
The album opens with “Anno Mundi”, a song that channels different versions of the band through its history. It is true that this doesn’t sound like that pure Iommi heavy styled riff from the original iteration of the band, but there are moments when you can almost believe that it harkens from the Dio years. It probably doesn’t harm this thought because of the similarity in voice between Dio and Tony Martin, but the song itself is of an epic type that that era of Sabbath wrote. It acts as a terrific way of drawing you in to the album from the outset, the soaring Martin vocals dominating throughout. This is followed by “The Law Maker”, a more traditional heavy song with the up-tempo speed and vibe, highlighted by Iommi’s riff and solo and Martin’s vocals showcasing his ability to adapt to whatever is thrown at him. The solid rhythm held together by Powell and Murray make this a simplified song but by no means an average one. “Jerusalem” has a very choir backed feel to the track, it sounds almost like it should be being listened to in a church, or at the very least a cathedral. It has that style and substance about it, replete with multi-layered vocals backing. “The Sabbath Stones” continues in the direction that “Anno Mundi” travels in, a heavier and perhaps more traditional epic track that still holds true to what the album opener was pushing as the album’s theme, with the quiet melodic breakdown in the middle of the track before building again to its conclusion. Martin’s vocals again showcase their best qualities while Cozy’s heavy hitting drumming powers forth.
The instrumental open of “The Battle of Tyr” opens the second side of the album by segueing into “Odin’s Court”, in itself a short quiet clear guitared moment that acts as the segue into “Valhalla”. Treating this three song set as one track is probably how most fans would approach it, with the first four minutes of “The Battle of Tyr” and “Odin’s Court” mostly forgettable, and “Valhalla” itself actually proving to be a far more inspiring song. And that is not to say that that four minutes is wasted space or clear air – it's just that even when listening to the album now, you are just waiting for the entrance of “Valhalla” to get the second side of the album to kick into gear. And then, we have what follows.
It is interesting that the band, in particular Tony Martin, has come out as saying that they do not regret putting the song “Feels Good to Me” on the album, and that they indeed like the track itself, but that it is quite different from everything else on the album. In an interview some years later, Martin was quoted as saying that the record company pretty much demanded that they include a song that was of a particular... standard... in order to release as a single. And indeed, that is exactly what it sounds like. It is composed to be a single release. It has practically none of the characteristics of every other song on the album. It doesn’t fit the sound at all, and as a result it sticks out like a sore thumb. It is hugely reminiscent of “No Stranger to Love” from the “Seventh Star” album, another of the top five most unlikely Black Sabbath tracks of all time. Could they not have just released this as a stand alone single? Or the B-side of another song, and let the radio stations just play the B side? Anyway. I don’t hate it, but it is so noticeable every time you play the album, for the wrong reasons.
The album then concludes with “Heaven in Black”, a closing song that lifts the tempo and mood of the album back to where it deserves to be, a faster paced effort that returns the energy to the album to end on a far more enjoyable note.
It may seem like an easy line to draw, but one of the reasons this album has a different sound from what many would consider to be a Black Sabbath sound is the absence of Geezer Butler on bass guitar. That is no slight on Neil Murray who is a brilliant bass guitarist and composer and plays terrifically on this album, but the songs do not sound as heavy because they do not have Geezer’s guttural distinctive tones underneath Iommi’s licks and riffs. It also indulges far heavier in Geoff Nicholls keys than other eras of the band. Now Iommi and Nicholls had been mates for years so it was probably a no brainer that they would eventually have this greater influence in the music, and this era was the best opportunity to do that, as even though the band has the name of Black Sabbath hanging over it, the music that is produced is in a different phase than what most would expect. Yes, Iommi’s recognisable riffs are here, but in the same way that Dio era Sabbath is different from Ozzy era Sabbath for obvious reasons, the same is echoed here.
How many people were actually keeping up with what the band Black Sabbath was doing after 1983? I am assuming not many. But given that my foray into the heavier side of music did not commence in earnest until the final months of 1986, I guess I was one of them. Because I pent 1986 and 1987 going backwards through their discography, that included those albums. I have one of my best friends from high school who eventually became my brother-in-law to thank for getting around to listening to “Seventh Star” and “The Eternal Idol”, because he bought those albums and I was then able to borrow them and tape them to a C90 cassette. “Headless Cross” and “Tyr” however passed me by at the time of their release. There was a LOT of music I was still discovering at this time, and those albums didn’t make the initial cut.
I was eventually gifted a CD of “Tyr” from a friend who decided he wasn't interested in it at all and gave it to me rather than hang onto it for no reason. This was in 1993, a year after “Dehumanizer” had been released, and before “Cross Purposes” was thought of. I remember thinking “Well, The Eternal Idol was good with Tony Martin on vocals. This should be good too!” So by now we had had the onset of grunge, and also that marvellous “Dehumanizer” album... so MAYBE my hopes were too high for this album?...
As it turned out, I enjoyed the album. It has lots of good moments. It just wasn’t one that I thought of to go back to very often. Eventually, it wasn’t until a few years later, when I had wearied of the 1990’s and much of its musical wares, that I began to go back to albums such as this and give them a more thorough workout than they received the first time around.
In amongst the ridiculously great and amazing albums that have popped up in this 2-3 week period I am currently reviewing and preparing podcast episodes for you lovely listeners, I have also had this one out and on rotation. And as I found almost 30 years ago when I first took this album seriously, I have truly enjoyed reliving it once again. OK, so maybe I don’t play it as much as I should, but every time I do, I do enjoy it. A couple of songs excluded. When the remastered vinyl collection came out last year I was the first in line to buy it so I could enjoy it on my turntable as well. And as I’ve already covered, there is a lot to enjoy here. Tony Martin’s vocals are still terrific to the ear, Cozy Powell's drumming is still as brilliant as always, and Neil Murray’s bass guitar is just so underrated. And who doesn’t want to listen to Tony Iommi play guitar any day of the week? Yes, these songs are so different to what has come on albums prior to this, but I don’t think there is any doubt that the band itself sounds marvellous. It may sound facetious to say, given how utterly brilliant “Dehumanizer” is as an album, and that although the reformation of the Mark III lineup of the band didn’t go on to record more albums, it is also a shame that this line up of the band didn’t have more moments in the sun, the chance to write and record a follow up to this album at that time rather than after the “Dehumanizer” effect. The music world changed too quickly at this time, and perhaps it wouldn’t have worked. We’ll never know. All I know is that despite the subtle change to the music and structure with “Tyr”, it is a most enjoyable album, and does present this lineup in the light they deserved to be in. If you listen to this album, and the others that have Iommi and Martin as the basis of the band, under the name of, say, “Headless Cross” instead of “Black Sabbath”, and not have the legacy that that name forces you to think with, then this works better, in the same way that the Iommi/Hughes albums “The 1996 DEP Sessions” and “Fused” work. Headless Cross, the new band with Tony Iommi and Tony Martin, Cozy Powell and Neil Murray, and their album “Tyr”. No expectations of doom and heavy metal. Just a band with the great Tony Iommi and other great players, doing something that doesn’t sound like Black Sabbath. Try it. You might like it.
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