-- Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer | (Audio CD) MSRP $ 11.98 Amazon Price $ 10.99 Savings $ 0.99 | |  Release Date: 30 June, 1992, Warner Bros / Wea
TRACK LISTING - Computer God
- After All (The Dead)
- TV Crimes
- Letters From Earth
- Master Of Insanity
- Time Machine
- Sins Of The Father
- Too Late
- I
- Buried Alive
- Time Machine (Wayne`s World Version)
Usually ships in 24 hours | | | Great re-union album. | | It was great to hear Black Sabbath and Ronnie James Dio re-unite after almost ten years to make this album. If you loved the first two Sabbath and Dio albums, you`re gonna love this one as well. | | | | Best Dio Era Album | | Being a longtime fan I have followed Black Sabbath`s roller coaster ride of a career since 1976.While i prefer the Ozzy era i do like the Dio era almost equally as well.In my opinion Dehumanizer is the best of all Dio era Albums.It is brutally heavy-In fact one of the heaviest albums ever recorded by Black Sabbath.A must for any Black Sabbath Fan! | | | | Dehumanizer = true metal in its simplest and purest form! | As weird as it could seem to be, this is my preferred Black Sabbath album. "WHAT!?" -- many of you might say; but the fact is, I like it more than any other Sabbath release, really. Ok, Ozzy albums are of course much more important than this one from a historical point of view. Also, "Heaven and Hell" is a true masterpiece and a milestone in the career of the band. And well, after Dio, we got Tony Martin with his incredible pipes and several superbly produced albums, some of them excellent -- "Tyr", "Headless Cross", "Eternal Idol"... But Dehumanizer to me is the one: less primitive than the releases with Ozzy (and let`s face it: Dio is a better vocalist!); not at all Rainbow-like (like both "Heaven & Hell" and "Mob Rules" were -- sorry about that); and deliciously rawer than Tony Martin releases. So, I guess I have some good reasons to have Dehumanizer at the top of my list, haven`t I? :-)
So said, now I`ll keep justifying my taste for this album by going song by song: the opener "Computer God" is very metal, with lots of primary-but-tasteful solos. It`s one of the best on the album. "After All (The Dead)" reminds me Queen (or Savatage?) in a "darker" way, with some Ozzy-like vocal lines thrown in for a good measure. "TV Crimes" is that kind of NWOBM tune more in the Dio`s vein than traditional Sabbath`s, but it also brings back "Heaven & Hell" memories in a good way. "Letters from Earth" is this mid-paced, menacing song which doesn`t forget about melody -- great song! "Master of Insanity" makes me think about early-Queensryche and Crimson Glory -- both the riffing and the harmony quote the two aforementioned bands in my mind. But those are good influences, aren`t they?
But I go on, since there`s no weak song here: in "Time Machine" Dio also plays Ozzy somehow, though it`s rather a blend of both stylistic elements: Dio`s and the good ole Sabbath`s. "Sins Of The Father" is more of the same fusion-of-styles thing; and again Dio plays Ozzy, and this time it`s even more apparent -- I love that angry Dio, really! "Too Late" is a slow song more on the Sabbath-with-Tony Martin`s mood (or even the "Rainbowished" Sabbath), but of course with Dio using a different tonal palette. I love that song because it`s soulful, Dio sounds uniquely aggressive and once again Iommi doesn`t shy away from giving a good workout to his axe. In fact, Iommi does everything on this album: clean arpeggios, heavy riffs and very good solos, so guitar fans like me will be surely pleased -- ok, pretty simple stuff, just pentatonics and blues-based licks; but very effective soloing, since the pentatonic is the "wildcard" scale at the very end. ;-)
Later on we get "I" (not "Me", but "One"), again more on the NWOBM style. A killer, pure metal song! Then "Buried Alive" is another good old Sabbath tune; Dio goes back to Ozzy and himself, and once again I hear Queen here -- though it`s a shame that the melody on the bridge just before the solos sounds pretty close to "After All (The Dead)". In any case, this Dio doing Mercury-like melodies is just amazing!
Shamefully, Dehumanizer gets frequently overlooked because it was released in 1992, so the timing couldn`t be worst. Its production was a bit dated for the time and in addition grunge was already rocking the world -- sadly, I should add. Also, this angry, enraged set of songs was maybe too much for "Heaven & Hell" fans... Actually, I guess Sabbath fans took time to swallow and digest this pill. Firstly, those used to Tony Martin`s Sabbath were into a more polished production and plenty of keyboards -- that is, a sort of Sabbath that wasn`t bad, but wasn`t the same Sabbath anymore. Secondly, Ozzy fans were already partially alienated since Ozzy left. And thirdly, Dio fans normally consume more melodic things than this, and this was not "Heaven & Hell" part II. So, Dehumanizer bombed. :-(
Luckily enough, I never was a very loyal fan of Sabbath. That`s perhaps why this album does so well for me: extract of metal with class, simplicity, quality and conviction; and I don`t care about anything else. So I think it deserves no less than 5 stars, really -- just open your ears and prepare to have a metal blast. Highly recommended! | | |
-- zzzz
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