| Born Again | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Black Sabbath | ||||
| Released | August 7, 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1983 at The Manor Studio, Shipton on Cherwell, Oxfordshire, England | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 41:04 | |||
| Label | Vertigo Warner Bros. (US/Canada) |
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| Producer | Black Sabbath, Robin Black | |||
| Black Sabbath chronology | ||||
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Born Again is the eleventh studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in August 1983.
It has been panned by critics,[1] but reached #4 in the UK charts[2] as well as the top 40 in the United States.[3]
The CD version of this album is not available in the United States, although imports often turn up in American stores. Additionally, the vinyl and cassette versions can still be found, and the album is available on iTunes.
Contents |
Born Again was the only album by Black Sabbath featuring Ian Gillan, a former singer for Deep Purple who was at the time a solo artist, on vocals.[4] The band's guitarist, Tony Iommi, has said that the group fired their previous vocalist, Ronnie James Dio,[5] and considered such possible replacements as Robert Plant (formerly of Led Zeppelin) and David Coverdale (also a former Deep Purple singer, now with Whitesnake), before they settled on Gillan.[6] Gillan had first turned down the offer to join Black Sabbath, but his manager later convinced him to meet with Iommi and the band's bass guitarist, Geezer Butler. Iommi and Butler met with Gillan at The Bear public house in Oxford and Gillan officially joined the band in February 1983.[5] The album also featured Bill Ward, the original Black Sabbath drummer who was newly sober.[7] Ward has said that he enjoyed making the album.[4]
Black Sabbath began recording the album in May 1983 at The Manor Studio.[8]
"Digital Bitch" is rumoured to have been lyrically inspired by Sharon Arden, daughter of Black Sabbath's then-manager Don Arden and later Ozzy Osbourne's wife. In the words of Ian Gillan:
| “ | I remember exactly who inspired this story, but the only thing I can reveal about her identity is that neither she, nor her father, had anything to do with computers.[9] | ” |
The album's cover was produced cursorily by Steve 'Krusher' Joule, based on a black-and-white photocopy of baby photo published in a 1968 magazine.[10] Some consider the image similar to the cover of Depeche Mode's single "New Life".[11][10] Martin Popoff described the creature on the cover as a "garish red devil-baby". Bill Ward has said that he personally hated the album's cover and according to him, Ian Gillan told the press that he vomited when he first saw the cover. However, Tony Iommi approved the album cover.[12] The cover has been considered one of the worst album covers ever.[1] Ben Mitchell of Blender called the cover "awful".[13] The British magazine, Kerrang!, ranked the cover in second place, behind only the Scorpions' Lovedrive, on their list of "10 Worst Album Sleeves In Metal/Hard Rock". The list was based on votes from the magazine's readers.[14] NME included the sleeve on their list of the "29 sickest album covers ever".[15]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [16] |
| Blender | [13] |
The album was released in October 1983[1] and was a commercial success. It was the highest charting Black Sabbath album in the United Kingdom since Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and became an American Top 40 hit.[17] Despite this, it became the first Black Sabbath album to not have any RIAA certification in the US.
The album received negative reviews upon its release.[18] Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia gave the album one and a half out of five stars and wrote that the album has "gone down as one of heavy metal's all-time greatest disappointments". He also described such songs as "Zero the Hero", "Hot Line", and "Keep It Warm" as "embarrassing".[1] Blender contributor Ben Mitchell gave the album one out of five stars and claimed that the music on Born Again was worse than its cover.[13] Martin Charles Strong, the author of The Essential Rock Discography, wrote that it was "an exercise in heavy-metal cliche".[19] However, Scott Seward of Rolling Stone gave Born Again three out of five stars and described the album as a "monstrous beast and one of the best Sabbath albums that hardly anyone has heard."[16] Popmatters contributor Adrien Begrand has noted the album as "overlooked".[18]
Despite the overall negative reception with critics; the album remains a fan favourite, for Author Martin Popoff has written that "if any album in the history of Black Sabbath is getting a new set of horns up from metalheads here deep into the new century, it's Born Again."[5] Death metal band Cannibal Corpse have covered "Zero the Hero", and the group's former singer, Chris Barnes, has called Born Again his favorite Black Sabbath album.[20] The song has also been cited as the inspiration for the Guns N' Roses hit "Paradise City".[21] Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has called Born Again "one of the best Black Sabbath albums".[22] The album and supporting tour also inspired the parody film This Is Spinal Tap.[1] Geezer Butler has said that he told the associate scriptwriter of the film the story of the band's performances with their "Stonehenge" stage props.[23]
It was announced that Born Again will be re-released bonus material on May 30, 2011[24] in the UK.[25] There had been speculation that the album would be re-mixed before being re-released, but the album was only remastered due to the fact that the original multi-track tapes could not be located.[26]
All songs written by Tony Iommi, Ian Gillan, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, except where noted.
All tracks recorded live at the Reading Festival on Saturday, August 27, 1983[25] unless otherwise stated
The live tracks are the entirety of a broadcast on The Friday Rock Show, on BBC Radio 1, which was aired before the album was released.
A bootleg version of the album exists which contains the unreleased track "The Fallen." (Which was officially released in the 2011 Re-issue) Also, the songs are in a different running order and the song "The Dark" is missing.
| Region | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | August 1983 | Vertigo Records |
| United States | 4 October 1983 | Warner Bros. Records |
| Canada | 1983 | Warner Bros. Records |
| United Kingdom | 1996 | Castle Communications |
| United Kingdom | 2004 | Sanctuary Records |
| Book: Black Sabbath | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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