I must say I really hated this f**king record when I first heard it.

I thought that the lyrics were pure crap, and that it didn't sound anything like Sabbath.

I guess that was the point after all. ;-)

Like the title says, it will take time to adjust to it.

But it is WAY BETTER than anything out of the Tony Martin period.

This contains some of Iommi's best guitar work.

I love his tone on this record.

Too bad the tour was such a flop.

Like all Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep remasters released by Castle between 1996 and 1998, this 1983 masterpiece featured a sticker on the front which stated "faithfully restored artwork". Unfortunately, the cover artwork on these releases was in most cases very badly reproduced, with grainy printing and wrong colors. In "Born Again", the purpleish background was printed as a far lighter shade of blue, completely different to the original LP artwork. I've always considered the cover artwork as much a part of an album as its musical content, so I can only rate this release as an unacceptable insult to the band and their fans.

Granted, this album should've been called Deep Sabbath. Despite having lommi playing, hearing Gillan sing with a virtuoso like Tony lommi, the sounds conjure up Deep Purple. Sure being a ''Black Sabbath'' album it has the darker themes that go with being a Black Sabbath release. But Gillan's operatic voice dwarfs that of 0zzy's and Dio's. Then again, just about everything dwarfs Ronnie James Dio (tee-hee).

Despite having been written almost a quarter century ago, ''Digital Bitch'' is even more relavent now than it was then. ''Trashed'' has the theme as ''Snowblind'' did years before and ''Zero The Hero'' shows lommi at his best.

As a reviewer mentioned before, ''Hotline'' could've fit on any Purple album that Gillan was on, both during their 7O's heyday as well as the 8O's reunion era. And ''Born Again'' is an epic tale that was Sabbath of any era.

Too bad this album is but a footnote in Sabbath's as well as Gillan history. lt's kept me warm for over 2O years.

The first 4 Ozzy albums are heavy metal classics that influenced many of todays rock and metal bands. the next 3 werent as great, but its hard to meet the standard you set sometimes. They experimented with new sounds, which was a great idea. some great tunes but not as good. I am not a big fan of Dio due to his egotistical and self serving ways. The union of Ian Gillan with Sabbath was brilliant. allegedly agreed to after a night of serious boozing, Gillan added his killer vocals to the music that made black sabbath the best in the business. instead of repeating the song reviews, i'll just say that this is a fantastic rock album. i gave it a 4 instead of a 5, becuase its not Paranoid or Master of Reality. if this was any other band, it would be a 5. also, having heard some bootlegs of the tour after this albums release, Gillan sounds downright evil on this material. Plus he gave spine tingling vocals to Black Sabbath, War Pigs and Iron Man. Dio's contribution was good, but he couldnt sing the Ozzy stuff. Gillan could. and yes, Sabbath closed the shows out with Paranoid giving a segueway into smoke on the water. i highly recommend this CD.

This album got a bad rap when it came out but this is pretty much the last good album by Sabbath until 'Reunion.'

This album was criticized because many unfairly compared Gillan to Dio. Ian Gillan did a great job on this album and Sabbath couldn't have picked a better high profile lead singer to replace Ronnie James Dio. All of the songs on this album are really good except perhaps for the last part of the title song where Gillan's voice breaks. Otherwise, songs like 'Thrashed', 'Disturbing The Priest', 'Zero The Hero', and 'Digital B****' still rock after over 20 years.

This is the last really good Sabbath album until 'Reunion' and it still rocks after all these years. Check it out!