If I were to do a public survey asking what singer comes to mind when I say the name Black Sabbath, I guarantee that the #1 choice would be Ozzy Osbourne followed by a close #2 (of course) Ronnie James Dio. You might find some old burnout dude who will express his undying love for Ian Gillan, but besides that, it’s going to be either Ozzy or Dio. Over the last few years, I have found myself delving into the Black Sabbath discography. While the greatness of the Ozzy and Dio eras are undeniable, I found myself coming back to one particular era more than any of them: the era of Tony Martin.
I can count on one hand how many people have ever shared with me their love for the Tony Martin years. The Eternal Idol album was the first time we hear Tony fronting Black Sabbath, and right off the bat, “The Shining” blows your mind and “Glory Ride”? You have got to be kidding me. That song is un-fucking real! That riff, those lyrics, it’s a perfect Black Sabbath album. Upon carefully listening to this album, The Eternal Idol, in my opinion, should’ve and would’ve been the perfect follow up to Mob Rules with or without Dio. The lyrical content of The Eternal Idol is a bit different, but the overall songwriting and performances are top shelf and better than anything on Born Again.
Once Tony Martin got settled in, it all came together on The Headless Cross. According to Sabbath guitarist /founding member, Tony Iommi, (in his shitty written autobiography), he didn’t love the occult laden lyrics. He thought Tony was trying too hard to hone in on that element, but in my opinion, that is what makes that album an occult rock masterpiece. There are so many great fucking songs on this album, and it is so strongly produced, and it sounds monstrous. The title track has this hard-driving groove that doesn’t let up, and the vocal and musical dynamics make this one of my favorite songs.
The album TYR showed a level of significant growth, and at this point, Martin sounds like he was always meant to sing in Black Sabbath. Songs like “The Law Maker,” “Jerusalem,” and even the ballad “Feels Good to Me” are outstanding. “Odin’s Court” > “Valhalla?” If that shit doesn’t break your face, I don’t know what will. TYR is lyrically outstanding and is such a great example of how there was a thriving, living entity producing some of the best metal out there, yet they were overlooked.
In 1992, Tony Martin was left without a band when Tony Iommi reunited with Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, and Vinnie Appice on drums for a Dio era Sabbath album Dehumanizer and then hit the road for an extensive tour. This tour turned out to be a surprisingly financial flop. Around this time, former Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne extended an olive branch to do a Sabbath reunion. Dio, in a nutshell, said, “him or me.” They chose to reunite with Ozzy, so Dio bailed and went back to being solo. After the smoke cleared, this left Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath in shambles. Iommi re-built Sabbath once again along with Tony Martin on vocals, and they returned to the game with Cross Purposes. It’s like Martin didn’t miss a fucking beat.
While not as strong as its predecessors, this album showcased Sabbath’s musical versatility to write outside of the box and also Tony’s versatility as a vocalist. Songs like “I Witness,” “Virtual Death,” and “Cardinal Sin” were all so different from each other, which further proves this versatility. “Dying for Love” is also a song that deserves some attention as it almost sounds like Sabbath dipping into Led Zeppelin-esque waters.
The final album from the Tony Martin era is Forbidden. Have you ever heard people talk about listening to an album that sounds like a band breaking up right there before your very ears? That is exactly what happened here. From the horrid artwork to the fact that the album was produced by Ernie C. of Body Count (horrible idea), Forbidden just seemed like it was damned to fail before it even started. It’s hard to listen to this album and truly consider itself a worthy contender of standing alongside these four other outstanding albums.
Tony Martin was, and is, the true, fitting successor to Ronnie James Dio. You can call it blasphemy or whatever, but there’s a lot of this material that I even dig more than the Dio era stuff. Tony’s contributions to Black Sabbath were very sadly overlooked, and I don’t know why that is. Was it because people had a hard time accepting that Sabbath could be anyone besides Ozzy and Dio? Was it due to the frequent singer changes? Was it because Tony Martin was pretty much unknown to the general public? I would love to speak with more diehard Black Sabbath fans about this.
These days it’s great to see that Tony is very interactive with his fans via his Facebook page, but aside from that, I haven’t heard anything from him in years. Tony did put out a couple of noteworthy solo albums that reminded me of a lot of early Whitesnake, which isn’t a bad thing. It was so different from Sabbath that it took a few listens to sink in, but once again, Tony proved just what a versatile artist he was and, hell, still is. I hope one of these days I get a chance to speak with Tony Martin himself and ask him all the questions I ever wanted to ask. So Tony, if you’re out there, let’s talk. You deserve the time as much as anyone else does to be heard.
About The Author
