281. Black Sabbath / The Eternal Idol. 1987. 3.5/5

One of the most interesting parts of the Black Sabbath legacy is that, from “Mob Rules” onwards, once RJD and Vinny Appice had left the band, none of the albums recorded after that were supposed to be released under the Black Sabbath moniker. Each time Tony Iommi and whichever group of musicians he had with him at the time recorded an album, it was supposed to be under a different banner. “Born Again” which featured Ian Gillan on vocals was certainly of that thought. Then the somewhat ill-fated “Seventh Star”, an episode you can find on my other podcast Thoughts from the Metal Cavern, was supposed to be Tony’s solo album. But no, the marketers insisted that Black Sabbath had to be used as the band name, even though the music being written was now not necessarily tied to the vision that fans had of that band’s name.
Glenn Hughes had sung on the “Seventh Star” album, but he dropped out before that tour had begun, and had been replaced by Ray Gillen. When it came time to write and record for “The Eternal Idol”, the constant changing of the guard didn’t stop, in fact it increased to the point of ridiculousness. First it was the producer who ended up quitting, requiring a change mid-stream. Eric Singer had been brought in to play drums, and then bass guitarist Dave Spitz left, apparently for personal reasons. This also coincided with Gillen having trouble with the lyrics to the album. In order to solve both the bass guitarist and lyrics writing problems, Bob Daisley was brought in to the project as a ‘fixer’. With his help, although the album only credits Tony Iommi as the songwriter, all of the tracks were co-written by Tony and Bob, with Bob writing all of the lyrics. Singer and Daisley then recorded all of the drums and bass for the album... and then left to join Gary Moore’s touring band. Another sign of life in the new Black Sabbath.
Perhaps the biggest move of all though came after this, when Gillen abruptly also quit the band, having already sung on half of the songs of the album. Gillen left to form the band Blue Murder with John Sykes, a band he also left within a short space of time. However, it was the new vocalist hired for the album that became an important piece in the Black Sabbath puzzle going forward. Tony Martin was brought in, and then had to re-record the vocals that Gillen had laid down, and complete the other songs on the album as well. Versions of Gillen’s vocals still exist, and show a different platform to how Martin eventually reconstructed the vocals to suit his own style.
All of this took time, and it took over a year from start to finish to have the album ready for release, an inordinate amount of time in that day and age. The problem now was, would anyone buy it?

One of the main things that needs to be remembered when it comes to any Black Sabbath titled album from the 1980’s is this – Tony Iommi wrote the songs. That means that the greatest riffmeister of all time wrote the riffs on the songs, played the guitar and shredded the solos. So dismissing any album of this vintage due to the other players at the time is a really silly thing to do.
Point in fact, the opening track of “The Eternal Idol”. Apparently the riff for “The Shining” had been bobbing around in Tony’s collection from the early 80’s, but didn’t come to fruition until writing for this album. And it is a great song and great opening to the album. Iommi’s guitaring is fabulous, and Martin’s vocals suit it perfectly. It’s the perfect introduction to Tony Martin as the latest lead singer in the band’s discography.
The songs beyond the first track range from mid-tempo to faster, from those with true-sounding Sabbath riffs and more modern sounding riffs (at the time it was released at least). “Ancient Warrior” is a good follow up in the more traditional Sabbath elements. “Hard Life to Love” has similarities to the style of songs on the previous album, but is much better written and performed, with Tony Martin easily holding the centre stage and leading the charge vocally. “Glory Ride” finishes off the first side of the album in a less enthusiastic way despite another excellent solo from Iommi.
“Born to Lose” kicks off the second side of the album and again is highlighted by Iommi’s solo break more than anything else that the song has to offer. This is followed by “Nightmare” which was written to appear in the film “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” and is one of the best tracks here with another great vocal performance from Martin. Its space is the movie is so limited that unless you knew it was there you would miss it completely. An Iommi instrumental titled “Scarlet Pimpernel” leads into “Lost Forever”, the fastest song on the album and arguably almost the best. This harks back to the “Mark II” days with the speed of the song and the joy of the vocals. It’s a beauty.
The album concluding title track “Eternal Idol” has the most Sabbath-sounding riff of the album, also dragging back the tempo to the doom metal that this band is the leaders of. It’s just a little amusing that because of its style, it actually feels right out of place on this album given the songs that have come before it. That doesn’t make it less enjoyable, but it is the one track that stands apart.

I’ve always been a supporter of the different eras of Black Sabbath, whether they should have been called that or not, and this Tony Martin era was no different. When it was announced that this album was being released, our first taste of it was the music video for “The Shining”, which seemed to be on every week on Rage for months. So I was looking forward to it. On a trip to Utopia Records a few weeks after its release, one of my best mates, who went on to becoming my brother-in-law, bought the album, but as we were going to do some other stuff in the city, he decided to leave it in his car while we did so. On our return, of course, the heat generated in the car meant that it had warped quite significantly, leading to hysterical laughter from the rest of us, and mild concern for Joel himself. He did later claim that the sound was not affected by the warping of the vinyl, but that it did induce a bumpy ride. Another of those great stories from the year of 1987.
I always enjoyed this album, and it was the power songs for me that made this so, songs such as “The Shining”, “Ancient Warrior”, “Nightmare”, “Lost Forever” and “Eternal Idol”. And no, when I listen to it and enjoy it, I don’t really listen to it as a Black Sabbath album, but just an album I love. Even though they were only there as hired guns, the drumming from Eric Singer and bass of Bob Daisley give this a different tone from a Sabbath album with Ward and Butler on those instruments. They are great here and together, and set the basis that allows both Tony’s on guitar and vocals to do their work. And Martin’s vocals here are sensational, so much so that it is just the first of many outings for him, while Iommi is as Iommi always is. If the resurrection of Dio and Appice in the 200’s brought forth the name “Heaven and Hell”, then it wouldn’t be unfair to call this the first album of the “Headless Cross” era of the band... but of course that album was yet to come.