Customer Reviews

Eternal Idol

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4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

THE ETERNAL IDOL marked the lowpoint for Black Sabbath as far as lineup stability. Ironically, it was also the high water mark for Tony Iommi's songwriting. After failed lineups with Ian Gillan, and then Glenn Hughes as singer, Iommi knew that he had to come back with a classic HEAVEN AND HELL style album. That's exactly what he delivered. Recruiting Tony Martin (after Ray Gillen didn't work out), Iommi proceeded to record what is considered by many fans to be the best Black Sabbath album. An all-star lineup of musicians including drummer Eric Singer (KISS, Badlands) bassist Bob Daisley (Ozzy, Rainbow) and long-time Sabbath keyboard player Geoff Nichols give outstanding performances, as everyone involved seemed to know that anything less than great would be viewed negatively by skeptical fans and critics alike in view of the constant personnel shifts. While album opener "The Shining" gets most of the attention from fans, it is actually one of the weaker songs on the album. It is an outstanding track, but songs like "Hard Life To Love," "Glory Ride," and "Born To Lose" are even better. Tony Martin has been called either "the best singer ever in Sabbath," or "a second-rate Dio clone." The truth is that he is neither. His vocals are reminiscent of Dio, true, but they also bring to mind the voice of David Coverdale. His performance on THE ETERNAL IDOL is very strong, despite the fact that most of the vocal parts were written by another singer (Ray Gillen), and he is a much better fit in Sabbath than either Ian Gillan or Glenn Hughes. If Ronnie James Dio had been the singer on this album, it is quite possible that MOST Black Sabbath fans would consider this their best album, or at least equal to HEAVEN AND HELL and MOB RULES. But that is a moot point, as Tony Martin and Tony Iommi made one hell of a great album without Ronnie. THE ETERNAL IDOL is well worth checking out for any Dio-era Sabbath fan.

This album came out in 1987, during the very unsettled period in Black Sabbath's history when lineups changed almost weekly and probably the only one who knew who actually was in the band was Tony Iommi himself!

"The Eternal Idol" followed on from "Seventh Star", the Glenn Hughes-fronted album that was supposed to have been an Iommi solo album. Hughes' drug problems kept him from cutting it live, and American Ray Gillen (later to form Badlands and who died some years ago) replaced him on the live dates. He cut the original vocals for this album and bootlegs of this are floating around.

The album lists Tony Iommi as "The Player" and credits all songs to him, with many other players in the lineup. However, based on the research I've done, the lineup was probably:

TONY IOMMI (of course!) - Guitar
TONY MARTIN - Vocals
BOB DAISLEY - Bass Guitar
GEOFF NICHOLLS - Keyboards
ERIC SINGER - Drums

I would also say that Bob Daisley probably had a hand in the lyrics, which he did many times for Ozzy Osbourne and received unjust treatment in return from the Sharon Osbourne corporate machine now controlling virtually anything to do with Ozzy and Sabbath. As anyone familiar with his work with Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Gary Moore and (of course) Ozzy can attest, the Australian is one of heavy rock's best bassists and is criminally under-rated.

This album is most notable for the debut of Tony Martin, another under-rated talent who unfortunately became best known not for his considerable vocal talent (I've seen Sabbath live with him on vocals and can attest to his abilities) but as the band's "farm team" singer - brought in when no-one else would do. That's a shame. His similarity to Ronnie James Dio has also been noted, but he's far more than a clone of RJD. As much as I admire Tony Iommi as an artist, he should be ashamed for his treatment of this man, who deserved far better than he got.

Despite the confusion, this is an excellent album - well-crafted songs, excellent production and fine performances from all concerned. Of course, since it didn't have Ozzy on it, it was all but forgotten. Rarely has anything from this album been performed live. Even when I saw them live in 1994, they didn't do anything from this album.

As I said, the songs are excellent:

"The Shining" - A typical high-energy Sabbath opener that has been customary for their lead-off tracks in the post-Ozzy era. I imagine this would have been an excellent fist-pumper live!

"Ancient Warrior" - Primo Dio-type Sabbath; i.e., strong, melodic, heavy with mediaeval-flavoured lyrics. Eric Singer's drumming shines here.

"Hard Life To Love" - A nod toward Tony Iommi's early blues-boogie influences. Catchy riff and very good vocals.

"Glory Ride" - A fine song about fighter pilots going into battle. Tony Martin takes command of the mic in fine fashion. It's amazing he was able to slot in this well so quickly and given that he had little to no creative input.

"Born To Lose" - The album's weakest track. It's a good song but kind of a too-obvious shot at a "hit single". Am I the only one who thinks Tony Martin kind of sounds like Don Dokken here?

"Nightmare" - Geoff Nicholls' atmospheric keyboards introduce this song which recalls earlier, Ozzy-era Sabbath. For trivia freaks, the laughing in the middle section is actually Ray Gillen, which is the only officially-released Sabbath material with him!

"Scarlet Pimpernel" - Some people don't like Iommi's acoustic interludes that pop up from time to time, but I think they're wonderful examples of The Man's versatility. This one is no exception and is nicely accompanied by Bob Daisley's bass line.

"Lost Forever" - Fast and high energy. This one wouldn't have sounded amiss on "Seventh Star"

"Eternal Idol" - This is the most "old-school" Sabbath track on the album. Long, heavy and moody (but always interesting) and touching on religion and politics lyrically. Sabbath were always very good at this type of thing.

Apart from a few scattered dates in the UK and Europe and some infamous gigs at Sun City in then-apartheid-ruled South Africa, there was no touring to support this album, which is probably another reason why it died a quick death commercially.

However, as a piece of "Sabbatherian" art, I think it has far more creativity and artistic credibility than the "greatest hits jukebox" currently playing the old classics day after day at OzzFest.

Tony Iommi proves why he uses the name Black Sabbath without any of the other original members in the line up. The greatest news with this disc is the arrival of singer Tony Martin, who breathes back to life the vital sound of Black Sabbath. To me this is the best Sabbath ever! While some talk of instability in the line up, Iommi surrounds himself with seasoned veterans Dave Spitz, Bob Daisley, Bev Bevan and Eric Singer. The creditials of those musicians alone show the seriousness of this recording.

Anyone that feels that this album is a let down, also believes that there is no Sabbath without the original band. That's their opinion, this is mine. This is great! Lyrically the band has never been better and the musicianship never more superb, with the possible exception of Seventh Star! This is as good a disc as any group has ever put out. It stays in my jukebox!

The songs here are first rate. I can't even begin to tell you the weakest link, because they are all worthy of airplay. Some of my all-time favorite tracks are "Born to Lose", "Hard Life to Live" and "the Shining". Great tracks are "Nightmare", "Lost Forever" and "Ancient Warrior". Iommi's guitar, Martin's scorching vocals, Singer's skin slammin' combined with the artistry of the additional members weave a tapestry that proves Rock is alive and well. To say this is highly recommended would be an understatement!

I think this is one of the best heavy metal albums ever. If they ask me, it's got everything it needs (though I'm really not such an expert in rock music's structure or guitar playing or whatever, I just like to listen to it). This was one of their least succesful albums. Well it shouldn't have been.
They say, if the singer's not Ozzy, then it's not Black Sabbath. Well, maybe it's not Black Sabbath then, but it's still GREAT! Tony Martin IS a great singer too, as well as the others. Also, a band's identity doesn't matter if you like the music.
I won't analyze the songs one by one now, I guess I couldn't even do that. The music is simply fabulous. But this work does have a message in it's entire (which not every album does). I think it says, don't screw up your life and try to live it to the fullest. I like that.
We have to admit, this music was born in the glam period, which most people hate and I don't like it either. So what? We shouldn't judge things by that. All right, the drum snare does sound a bit strange, but that doesn't make it glam music, 'cause it isn't; fortunately, because this style did influence later Sabbath albums.
So you should get this, even if you think it isn't really Black Sabbath.

This is one of the finest albums Iommi has put out that never gets any credit. Sure,this is Black Sabbath at it's most unstable period in their whole career and this album failed horribly on a commecial stand point (the worst selling album by them in fact), but it's the music that counts! This really is one of the most under appreciated Black Sabbath albums, Born Again and Seventh Star at least have a small cult following amoung fans but this gets the axe in the head all the time! This album was a pain in the @ss to make but IMHO it turned out awesome once it was finally finished. After Ray Gillian did the vocals for this album, he fled the Black Sabbath camp and the vocal tracks had to be rerecorded by new comer Tony "The Cat" Martin. Also take into account that this album had two bassists (first Dave Spitz then Bob Daisley to replace him) and at least three producers,it was a miracle this project wasn't scrapped completely! Despite it's failure, this is some of the best material i'v heard from Iommi since the Dio days.Martin was an exellent singer for this one and the next two albums, but personaly i think he is at his best right here.I don't know why this album takes so much flak, i don't know about you but, ANCIENT WARRIOR,HARD LIFE TOO LOVE,THE SHINNING and BORN TO LOSE are some of the heaviest @ss kickers from Sabbath ever. I hope you won't be turned off by all of the bad reviews here because this is really a great album, besides, 90% of them were written by retarded Ozzy fans saying "Uh uh, it's not the real Black Sabbath, Uh Ozzy Rulz!" NEWS FLASH F*CKERS! TONY IOMMI IS BLACK SABBATH! Sabbath was a better band once he(Ozzy)was gone anyway. So i really think you should try this album out, the band was at the time;Tony Iommi on guitar, Bob Daisley on Bass, Tony Martin on vox,Eric Singer on the drum kit and Geoff Nichols on keyboards.When listening to this album, you really get the feeling of haunting night-time power, a really dark and spooky kind of thing going on. Maybe (as many suggested before) the reason for this albums demise was that at the time Black Sabbath was at a low point in popularity, eclipsed by thrash metal like Metallica and Slayer and the horrid pop metal gendre ect which was all the rage back then. Still,this holds it's own against any other album from that time.It had one of the shortest supporting tours in history, only consisting of three dates (because of horrible sales and poor promotion) where the last one ended in Sun City South Africa. F#cking Africa for christ sakes! the last place you would expect a metal concert to be held!

Great album not to be overlooked.

Tony Iommi is the BIGGEST part of the Black Sabbath sound. On this album he proves himself to be one of heavy metal's most underrated songwriters. It's 1987. Many people have written the band off due to the defection of all other original members and the "revolving doors" lineup changes of the past 3 albums. Tony Iommi digs deep and comes up with one of the all-time CLASSIC Black Sabbath albums. His riffs are biting and huge. The fresh, percussive drive of Ray Singer propels the songs upward and outward. New singer Tony Martin is formidable indeed! He has all the power and depth of Ronnie James Dio but with a greater vocal range. Geoff Nichols keyboards are more front and center here than on any Sabbath album. He's finally a "proper" member of the band, contributing fully to the atmosphere of the tracks. This is dynamic, technically proficient and CLASSY heavy metal. "Born To Lose" has one of the greatest Iommi riffs ever, and a blistering guitar solo to boot. It could have been a hit single, in my opinion. "Scarlet Pimpernel" is a classically drenched instrumental track that hearkens back to things like "Orchid" or "Laguna Sunrise" of old, only much more progressive and virtuoso. "The Shining", "Glory Ride", "Hard Life To Love" have an energy, drive and power not heard since "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules". This album bristles with artistic integrity and DEFIANCE to all the naysayers and those who feel that Sabbath without Ozzy is a lukewarm proposition. Every single track is a winner. The musicianship and composition are first rate. I don't normally write reviews for Black Sabbath. That name alone stands by itself for quality and uncompromising heaviness. But this album is so overlooked that it's pathetic. People had their minds made up without even playing it. And the same still goes on today. Forget the past! This album has nothing to do with old glories. It's about Tony Iommi, the "iron man" of metal, standing alone with a lineup of raw recruits (and one veteran keyboardist) and delivering the goods. If some unknown band had put this out in 1987, it would have made them stars. This recording and this lineup is not for everyone. If you can't get past the lack of an Ozzy or Dio, leave it alone. With a negative preconception it's very hard to LISTEN and to appreciate the classy metal on offer here. But, if you CAN put your prejudices on a hook, the sheer FORCE, POWER and DELIVERY of this music will reach you and convince you that this IS Black Sabbath. A CLASSIC!

It's incredible how sometimes only time can make ammends and reveal who has the reason...

Tony Iommi has been criticized and sometimes ridicularized for carrying the Black Sabbath name in an endlesss stream of albums wihtou any fix line-up. But, with the benfit of hindsight, we can now put in right perspective the quality of the music he was writint at those times...

THE ETERNAL IDOL is a very, very good album. Forget the name of the band, or who is singing. It's a sensational heavy metal album, with great production, clever lyrics, great voice, a great vibe. Now, almost 20 years from its release, we can ask what's better: Ozzy's THE ULTIMATE SIN, BARK AT THE MOON, NO REST FOR THE WICKED? Or THE ETERNAL IDOL and HEADLESS CROSS? I'll answer you: Iommi's albums win the contest by a large margin, but he did not have the cleve marketing machinethat worked at Ozzy's favour.

This is a classic album that has not dated even a single bit.

i know many people will probably not argee whith that statement but it is the truth, the tony martin era is sabbaths golden age in terms of a string of awesome consistant albums from 1987 to 1990 whith "eternal idol" "headless cross" and "tyr". lets face it, the 70's material with ozzy,while i love it, doesn't compare to this. ozzy just sounds to dated and stale for my taste. tony "the cat" martin is the bands best singer ever,he just fits the sabbath sound so well because he delivers a scary haunting power with his vocals that ozzy or dio could not. "eternal idol" and "headless cross" are sabbaths darkest albums, they just ooz nighttime power.they funny thing is, that when sabbath would support these albums on tour with tony martin, they would includ as much dio and ozzy material as they would new material, and get a kick outa this, tony martin sung the old sabbath songs better then ozzy or dio did, which shows you who there greatest singer was.

Since founding member Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath, the group has had numerous distinguished vocalists. Among them, Tony Martin may be the least known, and one of the more under appreciated. "The Eternal Idol" his first effort with the group, contains some of his finest work with Sabbath.

The man can definitely sing, and the range of his voice is well suited to the music and the lyrical material. Martin shows great feeling on slower numbers like the title track or "Nightmare", and also rocks out on songs like "Born To Lose" or "Lost Forever".

Over the years, Tony Iommi has really grown as a guitarist, long removed from the "Iron Man" days, evolving into a true master at heavy guitar riffs. Playing fast or slow, in your face or understated, the man can do it all. From the chattering riffing of "Lost Forever" to the evil, hauntingly heavy tones of "The Eternal Idol", nobody does it quite like Tony Iommi. After all this time, his playing still keeps you guessing.

Known more for his riffs and rhythm playing, Iommi's solos, have at times lacked character. Too much distortion and too many notes streamed together. Taking time to put a little space between his notes, he delivers solos with a bit more substance. The solo on "Born To Lose" is particularly memorable, and those on "Lost Forever", "Ancient Warrior", "Glory Ride" are not bad. Though the tonality is still on the "thin" side.

The album is solid, with only the instrumental "Scarlet Pimpernel" breaking up the metal assault. The lyrics also deserve mention. More than mere lines that rhyme, they attempt to tell a story and create imagery. Though not specifically credited to Tony Martin, his influence on this and subsequent albums is apparent. This recording heralded the coming of the Sabbath of the late 80's and 90's and is the best of Sabbath's recordings with Tony Martin.

The Eternal Idol marks the beging really of the whole revolving line-up for Sabbath seeing Seventh Star wasn't really a Sabbath album. Glenn Hughes isn't brought back and rightfuly so for this album. He was fired after his slughtering of the classic War Pigs and many of you know what I'm talking about. Ray Gillen is brought in to relplace him and recorded the demos for Eternal Idol but left the band after he felt it was "going nowhere." So, enter Tony Martin. Said to be placed in Sabbath for his Dio-sounding vocals which he was greatly criticized for until 1990's Tyr. The album starts off strong with The Shining and goes into Ancient Warrior which is an even better song. The rest of the album continues with Hard Life To Love all the way to the title track which has the feel of old classic Sabbath style in it. The music, while it may not all sound like vintage Sabbath, it is just as powerful and strong. Martin's voice fits in perfect with this style of Sabbath. My point as always is that you have to look past all the complaints of Sabbath's sound after Ozzy left and you have to actualy listen to the music like any other typical Sabbath album. Let's face it people, this was the direction Sabbath was taking ever since Technical Ecstacy. The music wasnt as heavy as it's been. The only album that came close was Born Again. It's about time that we accept Tony Martin as a front man for Sabbath and The Eternal Idol marks the begining of the new Sabbath.