Published on Mar 19, 2001
As a big fan of the original Black Sabbath, which from 1967 to
1979 consisted of vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi,
bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward, I always look forward
to all of their individual projects as well as their collaborative
efforts.
It’s quite amazing that after more than three decades in the
hard rock spotlight, it wasn’t until the year 2000 that the Sab’s
legendary and highly influential guitarist Iommi got around to
releasing his first ever solo album. (This is, of course, highly
debatable considering that all the Black Sabbath albums recorded
between 1986 and 1995 were, in everything other than name,
essentially Iommi solo albums, but that’s beside the point).
So we come to the first “official” Iommi solo album, simply
titled
Iommi. The irony is that this album, which is one of those
all too rare albums nowadays that is filled from start to finish
with excellent material, sounds more like a classic Black Sabbath
record than any of the Sabbath studio records from 1983 to 1995,
but I digress.
Iommi took a cue from Carlos Santana and hired a plethora of
well known vocalists from the present and the past, with each one
adding their own personal flavour to each of the album’s ten
tracks. What is most incredible, however, is that in combination
with Iommi’s songwriting, all of them deliver passionate
performances that in many cases outshine their own work!
When was the last time Henry Rollins sounded as inspired and
dynamic as he does on the ferocious opening track, “Laughing Man In
The Devil Mask”? An even bigger surprise on this song is that Iommi
has updated his guitar style, playing absolutely crushingly heavy
downtuned riffs that sound a lot like the typical style nowadays of
“nu-metal” bands. While he practically invented this heavy sound
and even the whole genre thirty years ago, it is nevertheless an
unexpected surprise. But instead of coming off as ridiculous
pandering to a younger and hipper audience, it sounds totally
natural and genuine, showing that the old master can easily punish
the young whippersnapping pretenders to his throne at their own
game!
He accomplishes this by never allowing the melodies to be
sacrificed in the name of gimmicks. Nevertheless, any fan of his
completely unique playing style really would not want to hear a
whole album like that from him; one salvo is enough to prove his
point, and that’s wisely what he did with the album. From the
second song to the last the listener gets tossed around in a salad
of vintage Iommi riffs.
That’s not to say in any way that the rest of the album is
nothing more than a nostalgic throwback. In fact, there are many
uses of modern production techniques throughout, incorporating
loops, samples, and electronic beats on occasion, but being subtle
enough that they give the songs a fresh contemporary edge without
ever becoming a distraction.
“Meat” features Skin, the female lead singer of British band
Skunk Anansie, and she probably gives the best performance on the
whole album. Her range and power are in awesome display, and with
Iommi’s massive riffing accompanying her, it seems they can do no
wrong.
“Goodbye Lament” was the first radio single, and features a
fired up performance by the Foo Fighters’s Dave Grohl, who sounds
surprisingly comfortable handling this much heavier material than
that of his own band. Once again, Iommi shreds another dark, evil
riff that instantly grabs your attention, and features additional
guitar parts by Queen’s own Brian May, a brilliant virtuoso in his
own right, with a guitar sound as unique and instantly recognizable
as Iommi himself.
“Time Is Mine” contains more great music, and so far comes
closest to sounding like classic early 70’s Black Sabbath, but the
raspy, throaty bark of Pantera’s Phil Anselmo takes much getting
used to, especially in the wake of the previous three excellent
displays.
“Patterns” is another great Sabbath style winner, sounding like
the musical cousin of “Iron Man”. This time the vocals are handled
by Serj Tankian, frontman of popular nu-metal band System Of A
Down, in another example of better singing and creating melodies
stronger than anything that band has ever accomplished.
Ironically, the best song on the album is “Black Oblivion” which
features the Smashing Pumpkins mastermind Billy Corgan. And I say
ironic because his nasal delivery is not nearly as irritating here,
and this song is more dynamic, interesting, and melodic than
anything that band ever managed to write. It’s a nine minute epic
with vintage unorthodox Sabbath tempo shifts and distinct sections,
showcasing Iommi’s seemingly endless reservoir of memorable riffs
making seamless transitions to single note creepy, clean guitar
passages, while Corgan’s exemplary bass work thumps away along with
his boyishly twisted delivery and psychotic lyrics, before the song
slowly fades out on an extended laid back blues jam. Simply
excellent writing and full of surprises.
“Flame On” has an almost industrial feel about it, and the
riffs, while still fine, are not quite as interesting as up to this
point. Ian Astbury’s (The Cult) vocals are almost hypnotic due to
his excellent control and emotion, but the chorus is a tad weaker
than you would come to expect…the tension is built up well in the
verses, but the chorus itself really sounds like it still continues
to build on this and never satisfactorily delivers a melodic
conclusion. A very strange break of techno beats occurs in the
middle of the song for no apparent reason and never appears again,
making a rather gimmicky impression. While it’s certainly not a bad
song at all, it’s guilty of excessive simplicity and repetiton,
which is not something typical of Iommi, as any fan of Black
Sabbath could tell you.
“Just Say No To Love” is another good song, but not great. Some
of the riffs and melodies don’t really sound much different than
what we’ve heard before, and the song (with Type O Negative’s Peter
Steele) feels more like an Iommi guest appearance on a Type O
Negative album than the other way around. This is not surprising,
seeing how that band is one of the most obviously Black Sabbath
influenced ones out there.
Just when it seems that the album has run out of steam, Iommi
unleashes an absolutely colossally heavy, sludgy riff that pours
out of the speakers like molten lava…and it’s no coincidence
since on “Who’s Fooling Who” he is re-united with none other than
Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward, making up 3/4 of the original Black
Sabbath!
With Osbourne’s unmistakable presence and Ward’s ever
fascinating off-kilter drumming style, the listener is privy to
experience an excellent teaser of what 21st century Black Sabbath
might sound like. The power is unbelievable and the way Tony bends
the notes and adds vibrato makes the sound so full and monstrous. I
swear that this track would not sound out of place on Sabbath’s
1971 landmark album,
Master Of Reality.
The final track “Into The Night” is a hilarious parody of the
gothic metal cliches that were directly or indirectly created by
Black Sabbath itself, with an outrageously over the top performance
by 80’s rock idol Billy Idol! His voice is in top form, belying the
fact that he hasn’t done anything in nearly a decade, and his high
camp approach to the song is refreshingly self-depreciating. It’s
great to see that they didn’t take themselves too seriously to
include it on the record. Brian May makes another appearance
here.
There you have it; this is just about as consistently solid of
an album that you’re likely to get in today’s unfortunate musical
climate, which places an emphasis on a few singles and allows the
rest to be filler.
Most people have a pre-conceived notion that solo albums by
guitarists are nothing more than self-indulgent, egotistical, hour
long technical wankfests with endless soloing; that may be true in
the case of players like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, or Yngwie
Malmsteen, to name a few, but do not make this mistake about Iommi.
Like Santana, he has concentrated here on writing an album of
actual songs with a host of different collaborators.
What impresses me the most is the very fact that throughout the
whole album there is not a single instance where you get the
impression that he’s just trying to show off his chops. If
anything, his solos are all very short and to the point. He should
be commended for this totally unexpected amount of tasteful
restraint on his part. The solos never even fully take center stage
because they are quite low in the mix in most cases…seems like he
was really determined to just write great songs, and he gets my
full respect for that.
On a less positive note, I think the album would really have
benefitted if it had been more experimental. It shouldn’t sound so
much like Black Sabbath the way it does…too many of the riffs,
while all great, sound similar, all the songs are for the most part
slow to mid tempo, and the arrangements are often more conventional
than you would expect from him. Some acoustic guitar and other
instruments would have been a nice addition, and maybe a stab at
different styles. He did it on Sabbath’s
Technical Ecstasy, so I was expecting at least some of those
elements of experimentation here.
But these are minor gripes when you hear the power and passion
contained here, and we’ll forgive him for not mixing things up more
this time! It’s one of the best albums of 2000 in my opinion. Any
Sabbath fan would really love the hell out of this album, and fans
of newer heavy music could take more than a few pointers from Iommi
on how to do things right.
As of right now, March 2001, the original line up of Black
Sabbath has surprised everyone by heading into the recording studio
to make their first album of all new material since 1978’s
Never Say Die, and if
Iommi is any indication, it’s bound to be an instant
classic.