BLACK SABBATH - Headless Cross

Headless Cross FORMAT: CD
REALEASE DATE: 24.04.1989
RECORD COMPANY: I.R.S.
 
10.0
METALFAN RATING:
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
 
8.9
USERS RATING: 28 votes

Top 1989: #15
Black Sabbath more
LINE UP:
Tony Martin - voce
Tony Iommi - chitara
Geoff Nicholls - clape
Laurence Cottle - bas
Cozy Powell - tobe
TRACKLIST:

01. The Gates of Hell02. Headless Cross03. Devil & Daughter04. When Death Calls05. Kill in the SpiritWorld06. Call of the Wild07. Black Moon08. Nightwing

Esteemed comrades and friends, I hereby declare open the 14th studio congress of the Black Sabbath party. Laborers from the Birmingham iron and steel center have come together to bring an offering for our ears. Mystic lyrics, heavy and well-crafted riffs, tasty solos and a vocal performance by Tony Martin that gives us hope to exceed the 5-year plan for quality albums.

 

It starts with a minute-long intro called The Gates of Hell (here’s a haiku!). A little keyboard play, setting the stage for the next track, Headless Cross, that starts with the beats from the late Cozy Powell (who worked on it with the two Tonys), with medium tempo, performed hard and deep, as a sewing machine. The narrator tells us of a town called Headless Cross where the black plague has arrived, (I don’t know if it’s fiction or real in the medieval Albion; what is certain that today there is some sort of quarter or suburb with this name around Birmingham). The only song from the album to have a video, as far as I know. 

 Devil & Daughter kicks the speed up a notch, the occult is in the air while the riffs work in the background, and Martin is showing us his lungs are quite healthy. Clockwork guitar solo around the mid part.

Then comes When Death Calls. It starts as a lullaby, with keyboards and vocals. A slightly more lugubrious lullaby that quickly shows its true colors; the tempo, slow but steady until it ends up murderous, we have prison-like advice (Tony Martin warns us not to look directly into the deep eye sockets of the Reaper), and to top it all we get Brian May, whom we know as a guitarist, singing as a guest on this track. 

Kill in the Spirit World darkens the already somber image even further, telling us, among others, the symptoms of a person dying of the plague and how the man with the cart would go about and collect the dead. Measures up to the previous songs.

Call of the Wild is not about having to go in nature, as some might think, but rather about having to go on us, when our time comes. Initially they wanted to call it “Hero”, but I think this name is better.

Nightwing concludes the album and does it with flair: electric guitar solos, some acoustic guitar, discrete keyboards, the same sumptuous voice by Tony Martin. An album that seems to have been conceived somewhere in a dark corner of the Hammer studios, those that made Cristopher Lee out-Dracula Bela Lugosi.

 

There is also a bonus track, Cloak and Dagger, but it’s “picture disc only” which I’m not sure what it means; whatever that is, it’s good there, because in my humble opinion this song is from a different story altogether and if I didn’t know I’d say it’s from Forbidden.

 

NB: At the risk of having rotten eggs and tomatoes thrown in my general direction, I have to admit that this is my favorite album of all (not only from Sabbath) ever, so it is physically impossible for me to score it anything less than 10.


Cristake more Nota: 10


Posted at 16:48 |  03 Martie 2010  | 1 Comments  | 5232 Views

Comment on: Headless Cross

  • Acum, dupa moartea lui Dio, ar fi super-misto ca Black Sabbath sa se reuneasca in formula cu Tony Martin. De vis acest album...

    1. Posted by Fantotzii | 30 Septembrie 2010 21:22
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