Seventh Star

After the one-off album that "Born Again" was, "Seventh Star" becomes another one-off. Now, it's pretty common knowledge that this was supposed to be a solo album, but got converted into a Black Sabbath album, but that shouldn't instantly doom the album. Much like my review for "Technical Ecstasy," I also think this album is such an odd mix of enjoyable, slightly underrated songs, and utter nonsense. This time around, Iommi is backed by Glenn Hughes on vocals, Dave Spitz on bass, and Eric Singer on drums. All three of them are competent musicians (at least from the very little of Dave Spitz I can hear), but I definitely wouldn't say any of them are particularly special on the album. Glenn Hughes especially, I always found to be a better backup singer like he was during his Deep Purple tenure than a lead singer. He's definitely solid on "Seventh Star," though.

"In for the Kill" starts the album with the best track it has to offer. It's a pounding, driving track, and Eric Singer plays slightly off time with his main drum beat to give the song a pretty cool, technical feeling. Hughes shows some great depth to his vocals on the track, and the chorus is absolutely electric. It's definitely one that's going to get stuck in your head. After the second chorus, Iommi comes in with a cool short transition riff before a rather nice solo on the song. "In for the Kill" is a very underrated Sabbath track that might be very different than their roots and famous material, but is still fantastic. "Danger Zone" is the only other truly superb track on the record. Iommi's main riff on this song is a terrific one that can easily stand up for itself, and is worthy of his name. I'm not a big fan of the chorus, but Hughes' verse melodies that he sings over that great riff are definitely strong enough to not make the song fall flat. As the track goes on, he keeps trying to add a bit more power to them with each verse, too. "Danger Zone" isn't trying to do anything fancy, but it's definitely a very good song for what it looks to do.

The title track of the album is the song that tries to be the most Sabbath-like of the bunch. It's still a very good song, too. Iommi's main riff is a pretty trudging and doom-y one, and the chorus is absolutely fantastic. While Hughes certainly isn't bad by any means on this track, I definitely think this was a song that Dio or Tony Martin could have made even better than it is. His notes are great, but he's just missing a bit more emotion on his voice that could have taken the song to the next level. The verse melodies leave a little bit to be desired, but everything else is good enough around it to make up for it. The middle section gives a phenomenal atmospheric keyboard melody that sounds like orchestration right before Iommi brings in a solo that isn't matching the notes, but has a very similar feel and groove to it. Singer also gives some nice, versatile china cymbal hits during this section to add some weight to the solo. Iommi gives another very traditional and powerful riff at the very end of the song to fade it out. The last of the song's on "Seventh Star" that are enjoyable at all is "Turn to Stone." Eric Singer opens up with a short, but energizing little solo. Once again, the chorus of this track is really what makes it interesting. The band really nailed the choruses for a ton of this album. The verses as well as most of Iommi's riffs on the song are merely average, but with the great chorus as well as a really great solo, and a driving energizing feeling to the whole track, it makes "Turn to Stone" a decent enough addition to be a worthy of the album's track list. While simple in concept, it doesn't overstay its welcome, which was necessary.

The other half of this album is very bad, though. "No Stranger to Love" is just an absolute drag. However, I will say, if you've never seen the music video for this song, I strongly recommend you do so. Tony Iommi has to act like he's having a breakup, and clearly, Mr. Iommi was not born to be an actor. It's awkward in a delightful way, and the cuts between a random wolf running around and Hughes trying to give the camera these deep looks is incredible. To give the song credit, again, as I've said a few times, the chorus is definitely catchy in a sappy cheesy way, but that's about all the song has to offer. Iommi is giving one of his most basic performances ever, and while Hughes is doing his very best to sell the emotion, the whole song is just so uncharacteristically sappy that it just comes off as parody to me rather than genuine. "In Memory" just didn't need to exist, either. It's two and a half minutes, and definitely seemed like it was supposed to be an outro piece or an 'epilogue' to the album, but it's just entirely pointless. Basic acoustic playing and riffing from Iommi and Glenn Hughes basically just repeating himself a lot just leaves me scratching my head as the album ends. It's one of the weakest and questionable ways they could have ever ended an album. The track sounds like it should have been a transitional moment in "No Stranger to Love" rather than its own song.

The absolute worst is "Heart Like a Wheel," though. Hands down one of the all time worst Black Sabbath songs out of any lineup. There is almost no more boring song that is devoid of any good ideas than this one. And it's EASILY the longest track on the whole record, too! This is nothing but a boring, repetitive blues jam that has nothing to offer. Not one riff, one solo, one vocal melody, one drum rhythm...nothing is even remotely redeemable about this song. It goes absolutely nowhere for a near 7 minute run time, and the repetition to the song is truly staggering. The song writing has no structure at all. It feels like every single member of the band is playing their parts on the fly. The song sounds like a studio warm up that someone recorded and decided to stick on the record. Absolutely unacceptable. Bassist Dave Spitz basically is nonexistent on the record too. The bass is BARELY audible enough to tell that there is one, but there is not one moment where it is noticeable. I honestly can't tell if this was because Spitz was a bad player, or if they just drowned him out in the mix à la Metallica.

I don't judge "Seventh Star" with the mindset of "should this be a Black Sabbath album." Quite frankly, I've heard enough people tell me my favorite Sabbath records aren't 'real' Sabbath records as well, so the thought doesn't even cross my mind. I look at "Seventh Star" and ask if it's a good album period. While I don't think "Seventh Star" is AWFUL by any means, it certainly is on shaky ground. It is an album with a few enjoyable moments, but is otherwise pretty forgettable beyond that. You should definitely throw this album on a few times in your life, because I think a lot of people will be able to cherry pick a few songs to keep around from it. That being said, once you've found that small number, there is very little about this album that you'll rediscover if you ever decide to revisit it. It's a bit of a 'one/two and done' album. Thankfully, though, Iommi would soon pick up some new musicians to give Black Sabbath another era worth talking about.