Description

Double album on gold vinyls with gatefold cover, OBI-strip, poster and RSD sticker on the outer plastic. Limited 75 copies

Black Sabbath’s fourteenth studio album Headless Cross was released on the 24th of April 1989, it was the group’s second album to feature singer Tony Martin and the first of three to feature drummer Cozy Powell, along with Tyr and Forbidden. Headless Cross was a strong album and exactly what the band needed at this point of their career. The following tour had Ave Satani, the main theme from Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Omen, as the intro tape, beginning as the house lights went down. This would then segue into a taped recording of The Gates Of Hell before the band would begin the show with Headless Cross. This intro-tape of Ave Satani/The Gates Of Hell was used as many times during various tours over the years up until the Reunion shows. Headless Cross would be played on all subsequent tours when Tony Martin was in the band but the only other track from the Headless Cross album to last beyond that tour was When Death Calls. This limited album was recorded on the 24th of September 1989 at the Sommer Arena in Vienna, Austria, a few months into the tour. The band are solid and you will be blown away by drummer Cozy Powell. They play a nice mix of old and new tunes, complete with the usual suspects and some nice surprises. Tony Martin may lack the tortured moans and wails of Ozzy or the gothic pomp of Ronnie James Dio or even the historical weight of both Ian Gillan and Glen Hughes. However Tony Martin has such a strong voice that all the old songs sounds great with him behind the microphone no matter who sang on the old studio versions. Maybe Tony Martin never was thought of as a huge front man and maybe he never saw himself as the natural front man but more as a member of a band who happened to use his voice as his instrument to convey the lyrics and melodies of the band. When looking back on the history of Black Sabbath more will probably realize that Tony Martin was more perfect for the band that most realized back then.

Track list:
1. The Gates Of Hell
2. Headless Cross
3. Neon Knights
4. Children Of The Sea
5. Die Young
6. When Death Calls
7. War Pigs
8. The Shining
9. The Mob Rules
10. Black Sabbath
11. Iron Man
12. Children Of The Grave
13. Heaven And Hell
14. Paranoid