Headless Cross
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| Headless Cross | |||||
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| Studio album by Black Sabbath | |||||
| Released | April 1, 1989 | ||||
| Recorded | August - November 1988 | ||||
| Genre | Heavy metal | ||||
| Length | 40:24 | ||||
| Label | I.R.S. | ||||
| Producer | Tony Iommi, Cozy Powell | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Black Sabbath chronology | |||||
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Headless Cross is the fourteenth album by heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in 1989.
This is the band's second album to feature singer Tony Martin and the first to showcase renowned drummer, the late Cozy Powell.
Contents |
[edit] Album information
Black Sabbath often had alluded to occult imagery and evil themes in their lyrics as well ("Black Sabbath" and "N.I.B." for example), but Headless Cross went further with this, both musically and lyrically. Musically getting a darker and more black tone, and lyrically citing many occult and Satanic references and allusions to the Dark Side (most notably the title track, "When Death Calls", and "Black Moon"), with the only notable opposite being "Call of the Wild", which could be actually about fighting against the forces of darkness, though this all is up to personal interpretation on how the lyrics read. Vocalist Tony Martin himself even claimed to not have a positive take on religion, citing that it has "been the cause of quite a few wars" in an interview after the release of Cross Purposes. In spring 1989 interview in Britain's Metal Forces magazine, Tony Martin was quoted as saying that the last track, "Nightwing," was about "bats, owls, things like that." Finally, the album cover also comes into play, with the cross decapitated, or "headless" (the vinyl single of the radio edit of "Headless Cross" also shows the cross inverted).
Though Laurence Cottle played bass on the recording, it was only ever to be on a session basis. Although he appeared in the video for the title track Cottle was not featured in any promo photos. Indeed, whilst Sabbath were hammering out a contract with the intended bassist, the promo shoots featured Tony Iommi, Powell and Martin: Geoff Nicholls was once again noticeable by his absence. Neil Murray, bassist from bands like Whitesnake, Gary Moore, Gogmagog and most recently Vow Wow, joined for the tour and would be featured on future tours and albums.
"Headless Cross" was praised among critics and fans, being considered the best Sabbath album in years, at least the peak one with Tony Martin, and is an album that both Martin and Tony Iommi are very proud of. Sales-wise, the album and tour did very well in the UK and Europe, but sales in the US were low, leading to the curtailment of the tour. In interviews the band cited lack of promotion of the live dates to have been the problem.
The track "When Death Calls" has a guitar solo by Queen guitarist Brian May. This is very uncommon for Tony Iommi to play alongside another guitarist. He had even talked Geezer Butler to take up the bass because of this. They also appeared together on Tony Iommi's self-titled solo album (as Iommi said in an interview, he could not do a collaboration album without May, as they are good friends). They also appeared together in Rock Aid Armenia' video on Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water".
The song "Call of the Wild" was originally going to be titled "Hero", but seeing as Ozzy Osbourne used that title on his album No Rest for the Wicked released the year before, Tony Iommi opted to change it to its current title. "Devil & Daughter" also had the original title "Devil's Daughter", but was changed for the same reason.
"Devil & Daughter" itself is about Don Arden and Sharon Osbourne, Black Sabbath's former manager and his daughter, who is also the wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne, respectively. "Digital Bitch" from the album Born Again is believed to be about them too.
"Call of the Wild" and "Devil & Daughter" are also the only songs that don't end slowly fading out with Tony Martin ad-libbing (though "Nightwing" has only the band performing fading out with no ad-libbing on Martin's part)
For the live show in support of this album, "Ave Satani", the main theme from Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Omen, was used 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".
"Headless Cross" yielded two radio singles; an edit of the title track and "Devil & Daughter"
The first recording of "Black Moon" was a B-side to a single of "The Eternal Idol", performed in a different key.
"Headless Cross" is about a part of a town south of Sabbath's native Birmingham, Headless Cross in Redditch, and is reportedly named after all the church crosses were defaced during the plague that struck the town's inhabitants centuries earlier.[citation needed] (See: Headless Cross, Hereford and Worcester)
"Devil & Daughter" contains a verse that is almost identical to some lyrics to "Valley of the Kings", by Blue Murder, released the same year and month (April 1989). Tony Martin had been involved in Blue Murder briefly prior to recording Headless Cross and had started to contribute some lyrics. John Sykes finally took singing duties in Blue Murder, but kept the Tony Martin lyrics on "Valley of the Kings", while crediting him. The Blue Murder lyrics were "You'll hear it in the wind / These sinners never sinned", whereas the Devil and Daughter lyrics were "In the name of Hell, these sinners never sinned"
Vocalist Tony Martin actually now resides in the area of Headless Cross, Redditch, England. He recorded his solo album "Scream" in his house, apparently to the dismay of his neighbors.[1]
[edit] Track listing
All songs were written by Black Sabbath, except where noted.
[edit] Side one
- "The Gates of Hell" – 1:06
- "Headless Cross" (Tony Martin, Tony Iommi, Cozy Powell) – 6:29
- "Devil & Daughter" (Martin, Iommi, Powell) – 4:44
- "When Death Calls" – 6:55
[edit] Side two
- "Kill in the Spirit World" – 5:11
- "Call of the Wild" – 5:18
- "Black Moon" – 4:06
- "Nightwing" – 6:35
[edit] Bonus tracks
- "Cloak & Dagger" (picture disc only) - 4:37
[edit] Personnel
- Tony Martin – vocals
- Tony Iommi – guitar
- Geoff Nicholls – keyboard
- Laurence Cottle – bass guitar
- Cozy Powell – drums
- Brian May – guitar solo on "When Death Calls"
