Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Black Sabbath
Label: Vertigo Records
Release: 1986
Length: 34:55
Rating: 4.5/5
The first half of the eighties was without a doubt the most chaotic stretch in the story of British heavy rock/metal institution Black Sabbath. The great revival sparked by the mighty Ronnie James Dio with the cult albums “Heaven and Hell” (1980) and Mob Rules” (1981) was followed, after his departure, by a rapid meltdown. Guitar grandmaster Tony Iommi, the only original member of the legendary band left after bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward walked out (the latter came back a few more times, without much luck), tried to patch up the vocal hole with his drinking buddy Ian Gillan (Deep Purple). That, to put it mildly, bizarre decision, which gave us the controversial album “Born Again” (1983) and an even more controversial tour with a miniature replica of Stonehenge (one of the main ingredients of the later Spinal Tap satire), cost Black Sabbath dearly and very nearly buried them.
After a symbolic, and only temporary, reunion of the original Ozzy Osbourne-era lineup at Live Aid in 1985 and a failed experiment with singer David Donato, a former male model, Iommi decided to record his first solo album, titled “Seventh Star”. Helping him out were bassist Dave Spitz (later of Great White, Impellitteri, White Lion), drummer Eric Singer (ex-Lita Ford, later Badlands, Alice Copper, Kiss) and keyboardist Geoff Nichols, a longtime unofficial Black Sabbath member who finally got to shed the “unofficial” tag. The lineup was rounded out by cult singer and bassist Glenn Hughes (ex-Trapeze, Deep Purple, Hughes-Thrall), who, after Gillan, was the second former Deep Purple vocalist to join Sabbath.
Hughes, who was hired for vocals only, was in a catastrophic physical and mental state at the time, thanks to a cocaine habit and a diet of junk food, especially Mars bars, which he was flat-out crazy about. The chubby, grumpy bearded guy with a mullet bore little resemblance to the promising former Trapeze and Deep Purple man. Even though he was half dead physically, one of the best rock singers of all time did his job with distinction and drenched the album in generous doses of his trademark “white soul”. A rehabilitated Hughes has since apologized to Iommi more than once for his flippant attitude toward the “Seventh Star” project and the tour.
Under pressure from the label, mainly thanks to the “efforts” of then-Sabbath manager Don Arden (father of Ozzy’s wife Sharon), Iommi’s solo project got watered down: they slapped “Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi” across the album title so it would sell better to the masses. They also didn’t seem to mind the not exactly brilliant cover, with a somewhat melancholy Iommi, lonely in the middle of a desert, dressed in one of his many leather jackets. It all looked like a recipe for total disaster and the final nail in the legendary band’s coffin, but old fox Iommi wasn’t about to be duped by the label’s fat cats, and against all expectations he made a great album that eats its predecessor “Born Again” for breakfast and can measure up with the best of Black Sabbath’s output without breaking a sweat. “No Strager to Love” and the title track, both of which Hughes still plays now and then at his solo shows, even made it into the Sabbath classics.
“Seventh Star” was a deliberate break from the traditional “doom and gloom” Black Sabbath sound, since its overall picture is best described as hard rock with a touch of blues and melodic rock. Still, there are some parallels with the glorious past. The mood of most of the songs on the album is pretty dark, and among the lyrics, which mostly deal with love, you can find the odd mystical moment, like in the title track, which even smells ever so slightly of the Dio era.
Opening wrecking ball “In for the Kill” hits the listener like lightning from a stormy sky, with a beefy guitar riff, a galloping rhythm and Hughes at his peak, vocal cords stretched to the limit. And of course the obligatory mouth-watering Iommi solo is in there too. Hughes, perhaps the most versatile singer in Black Sabbath history, felt equally at home in heavy rock, funk, AOR, blues, pop, soul and whatever else you can think of.
The nostalgic love ballad “No Stranger to Love” speaks volumes about that. It’s by far the most commercial and recognizable track on the album. This classic, which also came out as a promo single, is by far the best-known song on the record, thanks in part to a slightly silly video in which a lonely Iommi unsuccessfully tries to fend off a peroxide-blonde huntress in high heels (played by Denise Crosby, later also known as Tasha Yar in Star Trek the Next Generation). After the Mellotron intro comes a melodramatic melody that peaks in a sensual, hypnotic chorus in Hughes’s finest manner, while a regal guitar solo deepens the piercing atmospheric expanse of this unforgettable evergreen.
“Turn to Stone” is a much more traditional heavy rocker with a pinch of blues, which helps Hughes’s fiery, raging vocal feel especially comfortable in it. The short instrumental “Sphinx (The Guardian)” mainly serves as an intro to the title track. The excellent “Seventh Star” is a mighty epic with an enigmatic, oriental atmosphere, a furious guitar riff and a slow, melodramatic rhythm. “Danger Zone”, which structurally leans a bit toward Joe Lynn Turner-era Rainbow, is laced with a cataclysmic guitar riff and Hughes’s relentless vocal delivery.
The blues-rock “Heart Like A Wheel” features a slow tempo and a distinctive, remarkably inventive guitar riff, the kind only a grandmaster of Iommi’s caliber could conjure up. Here comes another chance for Hughes to cast himself as a blues knight with a torn-up heart. “Angry Heart” is a solid cross between hard and melodic rock, where dynamically placed organ lines add generous spice to the chorus, sitting in perfect harmony with the beefy but melodic guitar phrases. The heart-wrenching ballad-lament “In Memory”, where Hughes’s outburst of broken-heart fragments is delivered with real pathos, is a fine closer to this remarkably consistent album.
Often unfairly overlooked, “Seventh Star”, the would-be solo debut of a lonely Iommi who got played by a greedy label, still ranks among the brightest gems in the mighty Black Sabbath legacy, and even the most die-hard Ozzy-era traditionalists can’t argue with that. The tour for the album was, as expected, a catastrophe, since after just a few shows Hughes turned into a bloated zombie, completely unable to speak properly, so keyboardist Nichols ended up covering most of the vocals from the background. With Hughes’s replacement Ray Gillen, they still somehow managed to drag the tour to the end. Gillen (later of Badlands) didn’t last long either, so Tony “the Cat” Martin stepped in and successfully steered Black Sabbath into their most stable period since the end of the Ozzy era.
Lineup
Glenn Hughes – vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar
Dave Spitz – bass
Geoff Nicholls – keyboards
Eric Singer – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Gordon Copley – bass on “No Stranger to Love”
Production
Jeff Glixman
Track list
1. In for the Kill
2. No Stranger to Love
3. Turn to Stone
4. Sphinx (The Guardian)
5. Seventh Star
6. Danger Zone
7. Heart Like a Wheel
8. Angry Heart
9. In Memory…
