BLACK SABBATH – Forbidden (1995, bonus track)
Once upon a time Black Sabbath were the most vital metal band around, but not in 1995. The 80’s and early 90’s were much rougher, with a rotating lineup of singers, drummers, and bass players. Only original member Tony Iommi and longtime keyboardist Geoff Nicholls weathered the storm consistently.
Bill Ward and Geezer Butler were both playing in Black Sabbath again in late 1994, but by 1995 both had bailed (for the umpteenth time) again. That left Iommi with Nicholls and singer Tony Martin not knowing what was going to happen next. There were rumours in the press that Ice T (yes, Ice T) would be soon joining Sabbath.
That didn’t happen (thank God!) and the lineup here is nothing but pure heavy metal pedigree. It is also a reunion of the 1989-1991 Tyr band. Neil Murray and Cozy Powell were back on bass and drums. This would be Murray’s second and Powell’s third Sabbath album. Murray and Powell, of course, also did time together in Whitesnake, forming a rock solid rhythm section that only great chemistry can produce.
So what happened? What went wrong? Why does Forbidden suck so bad?
The reasons are threefold. One, the album was rushed out amid much confusion within the band. Rumours of Ozzy’s return abounded and Martin didn’t know if he was in or out. Morale sucked. Second, the record company insisted on a more “current” sound. Thus, the album was produced by Body Count’s Ernie C, and I guess that is the connection to Ice T, who guest raps on the opening track. Third, I think the album was recorded in roughly a week and doesn’t really sound finished. Rather, it sounds like a demo sonically and song-wise, with all the filler songs that don’t normally make it to a released album.
Powell, normally a thunderous drummer, is reduced here to a dry hollow whollop thanks to Ernie C’s crummy production. It’s too bad because Cozy is playing some serious awesome drums that you can’t hear properly. The entire album suffers, the vocals sound raw and rushed, and the songs smack of second rate tunage. Granted, everybody knows that Iommi has bags and bags of tapes full of riffs, and some of these riffs are great. However, a riff cannot make a song, and without decent vocal hooks, this Sabbath album is as flat as they come.
It is truly a shame that Tony Martin had to go out with this as his final Sabbath album, after years of loyalty and being dumped twice! I saw them on this tour, and they were great. Shame they were supporting a terrible album.
Highlights:
“Can’t Get Close Enough” is close indeed to being a great song, but not quite. It has a great mellow intro and then this incredible distorted riff kicks in, but the vocal track is slightly underwhelming.
“Kiss of Death” is the closing epic, and best song on the album. Cozy’s drum rolls are like the thunder of Valhalla by the time you get to the choruses and outro. The song reaks of anger and betrayal. “Nothing you can do will hurt me, I am indestructible,” sings Martin over a slow, powerful riff. Wonder if he knew the writing was on the wall as far as his tenure in the band went.
And that’s it. “Rusty Angels” and “Forbidden” have great riffs but are otherwise not noteworthy. “I Won’t Cry For You” had potential as a ballad, but is inferior in every way to similar songs like “Feels Good To Me”, for example. This album is so dead, so lifeless, not even the grim reaper on the cover can be bothered to stand up.
I know some critisized the cover of this album as being too cartoony, but once you open it up and get the full picture, it is much better. The reaper is sitting next to a tomb, and out from the tomb are the ghosts of all five Sabbath members, Ice T, Ernie C, and lots of ghouls and goblins, done in MAD Magazine type charicatures. It’s a rare fun cover from a band that usually takes its doomy image far too seriously.
Shame that the album isn’t as fun. In the 15 years (and counting) since I bought it, I can usually count on it as a sleeping aid. It’s just that boring.
1/5 stars
OF NOTE: Japanese version had a bonus track, a short 2 minute song called “Loser Gets It All”. It is, sadly, the best track on the album. The good news is that you can get it on a compilation album called The Sabbath Stones if you can’t find the Japanese version.
Side one
1. “The Illusion of Power”
2. “Get a Grip”
3. “Can’t Get Close Enough”
4. “Shaking Off the Chains”
5. “I Won’t Cry for You”
Side two
6. “Guilty as Hell”
7. “Sick and Tired”
8. “Rusty Angels”
9. “Forbidden”
10. “Kiss of Death”
Japanese bonus track
11. “Loser Gets It All”
mikeladano.com 
I love reading thiese reviews even though I never got into any post Dio Sabbath.
For me Sabbath is Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules.
Sure there are great Sabbath songs with Ozzy but for me it was Dio.
Even when they rebranded themselves Heaven And Hell,man I dug that Live at Radio City double disc. That’s got all my favs.
It is crazy how good of a rhythm section Iommi always mustered up,I mean Powell was a monster,like I said before check out MsG One Night At The Budokan ,ESP the remastered version from 2009 with the 7 minute Powell drum solo.
It’s a shame Mikey Schenker could not keep that band past one record.
If u hunt around hard enough on the next Msg album Assault Attack,there’s demos of that recording that feature Powell but he quit or was canned and replaced by Ted Mckenna but Ted just copy’s note for note Powells fills…..
Sorry I’m off the rails here,but man tons of history with these different lineups…I mean remember Ray Gillian,David Donato???……
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That’s OK to go off the rails man! I hope to maybe do some storytelling about Gillen, Donato, and others too. Donato was an interesting one since he was in a lineup featuring all the rest of the original members. And there’s even a picture of him with the band!
http://www.black-sabbath.com/2006/05/recording_with_dave_donato_sur/
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Here’s a version of The Shining with Donato, Geezer and Bill. Would be nice to have an official release.
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Wow, I have never heard this record. But the way you write it up, I wanna! Man, one of my favourite bands (Guided By Voices)… WAY back in the day, they used to drink tons of beer and make a record in the basement, on a boombox. And it was brilliant because it was all heart and crazy fun. So, sure, here you have low morale and a rushed production, and maybe the SABBATH name needs to have the full-on thing every time to meet expectations, but to me an off-the-cuff album, even way lo-fi like GBV, can be a thing of beauty too. Maybe it ain’t classic line-up, or Dio’s brilliance, but it’s still a core of great players and they saw fit to release it (if it was that bad it could easily have been shitcanned). I dunno, man. I’m sure there’s more to this than a 1/5.
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You’d think, but nope. It wasn’t that they saw fit to release it, it was that the record company demanded a product and they demanded this product specifically, and it was a pile of crap that nobody likes.
If one person comments here that they like this album, they will be the first one I’ve ever met. Even the band don’t like this album, especially Martin.
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Cool link and read on Donato,I remember reading about him in Metallion magazine and than he was gone……Ron Keel ,had no idea?….man who did they not audition at that time?
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Ron Keel, Jeff Fenholdt, buddy from Kick Axe…none were official members though. Many were working with Tony during the period that he was working on his “solo album”.
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I pretty much agree with your appraisal of “Forbidden.” When I revisited the Sabbath catalog earlier this year, “Forbidden” was one of the most difficult albums to spend time with. Eventually I found a few songs that were “pretty good” but it’s by far the worst album of the Tony Martin era, and possibly (probably?) the worst overall Sabbath album. How did Martin’s voice sound on this tour? On the record it sounds like he had lost much of his high range that blew me away on his previous albums, so even though his voice might sound okay on the new songs I imagine he would’ve struggled on some of his earlier songs.
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Rich I agree with you — worst Sabbath album ever! On the tour he sounded better than he did on album. His range was shot, that is true, but he worked around it. I have his solo album Scream (reviewed somewhere on this blog) and I liked it a lot better than this!
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I’ve never actually heard this. I love Tyr, as you know, and am totally digging Headless Cross (got it on LP today!) but Cross Purposes bored me rigid and the reviews at the time didn’t convince me it was worth bothering with. Shame this line-up didn’t amount to more.
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You got Headless on vinyl? Sweet, man! I liked Cross Purposes…I’ll get around to that one sooner or later.
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I did. Got it on Discogs and it just arrived today. It’s near mint, really nice copy. UK version though, so no “Cloak and Dagger”. I really wanted to like Cross Purposes cause I was glad they got Tony Martin back in. I just couldn’t get into it though.
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Canada didn’t get “Cloak and Dagger” either, although I have it on 12″ single. I really need to get around to ripping that single! And the singles from Tyr as well, which had exclusive live B-sides.
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For a few years I used Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play as a sleeping aide (but its not boring, I love that one).
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The remix of this one is due to drop anytime now
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