Big news coming from the Black Sabbath camp.
Tony Iommi has confirmed that Black Sabbath’s I.R.S. Records-era albums, which feature Tony Martin, will be released in 2023.
Martin was with Black Sabbath from 1987 – 1991, then again between 1993 – 1997. He recorded five albums with the band: The Eternal Idol (1987), Headless Cross (1989), Tyr (1990), Cross Purposes (1994), and Forbidden (1995).
Iommi confirmed that the reissues will be available next year, while marking the birthday of late drummer, Cozy Powell, who performed on three of the I.R.S. albums – Headless Cross, Tyr, and Forbidden.
Iommi confirmed it, saying:
“Cozy Powell would have been 75 today. Looking forward to the release of the IRS albums in 2023, a tribute to his great playing.”
Stay tuned for further details.
Earlier, Tony Martin talked to Ultimate Guitar’s David Slavković about the infamous Sabbath album ”Forbidden”, where he explained what went wrong with this album.
Asked the following: ”Traditionally, ‘Forbidden’ is often looked down upon by the press. But honestly, I find that there’s some really good stuff on it. ‘Rusty Angels,’ ‘Get a Grip,’ and ‘Kiss of Death’ – really good songs actually. And it’s one of the albums that got me into Black Sabbath as a kid. How how do you look back on it at this point? Do you think the music could have turned out better or production and mixing? I know that at one point you had negative comments about it. But did you change your opinion on it?”, Martin replied:
”No, it’s still s*it. To me, anyway. I can’t enjoy it. I mean… I have to tell you the background to it really. When we started that album, we didn’t know it was going to be called ‘Forbidden’ at this point. It’s just us writing songs in the studio. And at that point, we were still quite good friends really. And everything was quite good. And the songs are going okay. Then we had a call from Black Sabbath’s management to say they were going to try this rap idea with Ice T.
”I didn’t think that would work and Cozy Powell didn’t think it would work. And so we had this meeting, and they said we are doing it. It’s just like, you know, ‘How do we get you guys to fit in?’ So okay, well, we’ll try. Ice T sent his guy Ernie C. Nice guys. Really nice guys. Nothing wrong with them, fun to work with and funny.
”But the rap thing, the rap thing… I mean, they’re obviously thinking Run DMC, you know? But it’s Black Sabbath. And Cozy Powell kept saying ‘I don’t know how this is gonna turn out.’ And they were trying to tell him how to play drums. Like, you do know who he is, right? It’s Cozy Powell.
”So anyway, they’re trying to get him to do this rap rhythm thing. Cozy Powell wasn’t digging it, I wasn’t digging it. And then they said, ‘Well, Ice T is gonna sing something.’ And I said, ‘Okay, sing what?’ ‘Well, we haven’t decided yet.’ Is he singing a song, a line a word? What’s he singing? And they said, ‘Well just keep going. We haven’t decided, we’ll make a decision at the end.’ So we’re writing these songs. And I’m still asking, ‘What am I doing? Am I writing this thing? Am I singing on this?’ ‘Oh, well, we haven’t decided yet.’ Or, you know, ‘Just keep going.’
”So even in the recording studio, I’m actually in the studio, and I still don’t know if I’m going to be on the album or if somebody else is singing it. Because they wouldn’t tell me. Okay, now I can’t concentrate. I can’t sync my voice. I couldn’t really make it work the way I wanted it to work.
”So for me, ‘Forbidden’ is s*it because of the background surrounding the thing. I’m fully expecting to be fired again. I’m thinking ‘This is not good.’ There’s something going on, you know. I just couldn’t concentrate.
”For that reason, ‘Forbidden’ is a lost album to me. And I wish I had the chance to resing it, because I could do a much better job, I think. But now, there are people that love it out there. And they find something – you’ve just said – that really worked for them. And I’m going ‘How can you like that?!”
