As many times as I have written about Black Sabbath records on this blog, I don’t think I have every covered anything that’s not from the Ozzy era. I do enjoy a lot of the stuff with Dio, but it’s just very different to me. It seems there are a lot of people who believe you can only like Ozzy or only like Dio, but that’s never made much sense to me either. Believe it or not though, there is another subsection of fans out there that only enjoy Sabbath’s most recent singer, Tony Martin. There are also going to be some people reading this who have no idea who Tony Martin is, and that’s probably for good reason.
Tony Martin was fronting Black Sabbath during the early to mid-90’s when they were on their last legs. By this time, the only original band member left was Tony Iommi, and the group wasn’t doing so well. Having to compete with modern acts like Nirvana, they really didn’t stand too much of a chance… although they did manage to keep some old fans and recruit a few new ones. Iommi’s book, Iron Man, barely glosses over this period, and he didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about it. Recently though, with the release of the Anno Domini box set, it seems like he’s warning up to this lineup a little more. Probably because people are actually buying the box set and enjoying it. I am one of those people.
I will say that if you can manage to leave any expectations at the door, and forget about the other incarnations of the band, the 90’s Black Sabbath can be pretty enjoyable. I decided to cover this record here on the blog because I like it, and I think it’s pretty good. People like me, who enjoy Iommi’s guitar playing, are bound to get something out of this, I think. Tony Martin isn’t a bad singer, and the rest of the lineup aren’t bad musicians. By this point in the history of Sabbath though, it was a real uphill battle to keep things from feeling like a Black Sabbath covers band with special guest Tony Iommi. This recording, Live at the Sting, would have been the first date on the Cross Purposes tour, and the lineup was thus:
Tony Martin – Vocals
Tony Iommi – Guitar
Neil Murray – Bass
Cozy Powell – Drums
Geoff Nicholls – Keyboards
First of all, a little bit about the pressing itself. This one is done by Iron Eagle, and the quality is top notch. Live at the Sting is a 2 LP set, and you can find it in several different colors. As far as I know, they were pressed in white (110 copies), purple (110 copies) and black (60 copies), with a few black test pressing copies as well. The first 50 of each color also come with a metal plate, which is available for an additional cost. I have a few Iron Eagles, but I have never sprung for the addition of the metal plate. I did finally get to see one, and they do look cool if that’s something you might be into as a collector.
As you can see from the photos, I decided to go with the purple version. It’s Sabbath, so how could I not? The sleeve is very nice and glossy and has a sort of one-page foldout on the front which opens up to some liner notes and photos. The liner notes seem to be some basic information from Wikipedia, so nothing too exciting. The recess for the actual discs is just a little wider than a normal sleeve but is nice and sturdy. My copy came with a piece of cardboard in it to make sure things didn’t get crushed. Each copy is hand numbered on the back, and the overall package looks great. The purple wax is heavy, flat and looked clean right out of the package. I gave the discs a thorough cleaning on the VPI anyway, and didn’t notice any warps or other defects.
As far as the sound quality goes, it’s hard to ask for a better recording than this. This is another one of those where the audio could easily be mistaken for an official source. The pressing itself is great. Totally flat and dead silent. As you might expect, the setlist consists of a mixture of classic Sabbath tunes from both the Ozzy and Dio eras, as well as some new tracks off the Cross Purposes album. Overall, I think the album version is a great listen, and I might cover that one next month when the newest version is released.
Live Recording – The Sting – New Britain, CT USA – 8th February, 1994
A1 Intro/Supertzar
A2 Time Machine
A3 Children Of The Grave
A4 Children Of The Sea
A5 I Witness
B1 The Mob Rules
B2 Into The Void
B3 Psychophobia
B4 Black Sabbath
C1 Neon Knights
C2 Immaculate Deception
C3 The Wizard
C4 Cross Of Thorns
D1 Symptom Of The Universe
D2 Headless Cross
D3 Paranoid
D4 Iron Man*
D5 Sabbath Bloody Sabbath*
I think it’s reasonable to say that the songs that sound best here are the new ones from the Cross Purposes album. Though some are better than others, I think the Ozzy era songs are the weakest from a vocals point of view. The Dio stuff is a little better. Obviously, Ozzy and Dio are very tough acts to follow. Tony Martin was sort of an 8th string Quarterback trying to step in and keep Black Sabbath going. As Iommi pointed out in his book, Martin just sort of lacked the star power to be a mega success. As history has proven though, he was good enough to keep the band alive, if only on life support.
From an overall musical standpoint, Iommi is obviously fantastic. The rest of the band are adequate, but I don’t think any performance in particular stands out. I would say Geezer Butlers absence is probably felt the strongest, with Bill Ward being a close second. Cozy Powell was a fantastic drummer, but I wouldn’t call this one of his more spirited performances. “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” was a surprise for me, as I think Martin really nailed the vocals on that one. Whether or not you like his particular renditions of the older songs will be mainly up to personal taste. I know they couldn’t have done it, but I would have liked to hear more of the newer material rather than so much of the older stuff. Along with “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, we also have “Iron Man” as a bonus track. Both of these were recorded in April of that same year, and fit right in. The sound quality is still excellent, and they both sound good enough to have been an encore.
If you have never heard Tony Martin Black Sabbath before, this probably won’t be the best introduction. I would recommend picking up the Cross Purposes or Tyr (a personal favorite) studio albums to see whether or not you like those. Otherwise, I fear many people will just consider this lineup a shell of either the Ozzy or Dio days, when honestly, it doesn’t have to be looked at that way. Again, the Sabbath from this era is great if you can divorce it from everything that came before it and see it as its own band. I still think Ozzy was probably right… even though Tony Iommi is Black Sabbath, he probably should have started a new band with a new name. Heaven and Hell was a great example of how this could have worked, and did work during it’s time.
With that being said, I would say the pressing and packaging for this release is a 10/10. The records look great and sound great, and the packaging is top notch. I have found pretty much all Iron Eagle releases to be of this caliber, and I have a couple more I may talk about in the future as well. The audio source is also a solid 9/10. It’s not totally perfect, but it’s definitely really close. If you are a fan of the Tony Martin era specifically, or just of all eras of Black Sabbath (this is where I fall), I don’t think you can go wrong by checking this release out. The good news is that if you like it, there is plenty more out there in the forms of both official and unofficial releases from this time period.