Rating: 5/10

Track amount: 9

Running time: 41 minutes and 4 seconds

Genre: Heavy Metal

Personnel: Ian Gillan (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitars), Geezer Butler (bass guitar), Bill Ward (drums and percussion)

Producer: Black Sabbath, Robin Black

Record label: Vertigo Records

Recording location: The Manor, Oxfordshire, UK

Art direction: Steve “Krusher” Joule

Best tracks: Trashed

Quick verdict: A great conceptual music combination that did not work

Things were not going well for the once mighty Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne, the original Prince of Darkness, was gone, and although Ronnie James Dio had certainly made some definitely great music moments with Black Sabbath, he was now gone from the band as well. The glory days of Black Sabbath, pioneering Heavy Metal Music, were now long gone, seemingly. In response to all this chaos, Black Sabbath looked for a new vocalist who wasn’t either Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio. After auditioning some big-profile names, Black Sabbath chose Ian Gillan, formerly of similarly popular musical pioneers Deep Purple. This resulted in the album Born Again, released on 12 September 1983. Although this album was a moderate commercial success, it was mostly negatively received by critics at the time. Soon afterwards, Ian Gillan rejoined Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath went on hiatus. Notably, this is drummer Bill Ward’s final main Black Sabbath appearance as well. Even so, this album is a sidestep historically that needs to be observed. Let’s jump back in time to 1983 and take a listen, and hopefully, even if it is poor, it should sound interesting nonetheless.

1. Trashed begins with some interesting guitars and drumming, alongside the rest of the band. Ian Gillan sounds tremendous on this song. Even so, this music is quite good, but it is mixed very poorly. This piece is about male hedonism, which is also far and away from the original Black Sabbath themes of yesteryear. Despite that, this does sound actually quite good to listen to. It’s just the sound of Black Sabbath attempting and not really succeeding at moving on from their glory days, which really weren’t that far behind them. This is a good song with some manic screaming by Ian Gillan, followed by an expressive guitar solo by Tony Iommi. He shreds away very nicely in the solo section of this song. This is different for Black Sabbath, but nonetheless, on some levels, it does work. A good song about getting wasted, and with the odd combination of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath throughout. Good though, although not as amazing as previous efforts by Black Sabbath. Very different overall. The guitar soloing in the outro is decent.

2. Stonehenge is a famous historical monument in the UK. It is a different-sounding piece with some dark, eerie and warped electronics via keyboards. Remember, this was the 1980s. Some nice effort is made on this tune, and you can get a whole lot worse than this in music. It sounds very cinematic overall. Not bad for an instrumental, sounding like a dark Calvin Harris album piece. Pounding heartbeats are present as well. A very interesting listen overall, that is less than two minutes long. The heartbeats merge into the next track.

3. Disturbing The Priest begins with manic laughter and has some interesting music to match it. This tune is good, although the music sounds rather dirge-like and off. The biggest flaw of this album is the mixing throughout. It just sounds like Black Sabbath had this rather interesting album amputated by whoever was doing the sound engineering. The music is good, but it suffers from this flaw. Ian Gillan screams and shouts wonderfully throughout, and he pours his vocals and personality through this tune. Sadly, the mix is so bad that it sounds like a poor rendition of Black Sabbath overall. All the same, this could have been done a bit better. Even so, this album is far better than Technical Ecstasy (1976) or Never Say Die! (1978). There are multiple sections throughout that are extremely interesting to hear, and it sounds like Ian Gillan and the rest of Sabbath were fighting with each other on this album for recognition. All in all, this music is actually good but needs some more fluid and better sounds overall. This would have been great to hear live, all the same. A punchy and anthemic tune with a difference. Ian Gillan’s notable screams are awesome, all the same. This sounds like a bit of a disaster overall, but not so bad that you need to skip on. This tune could have been shortened a bit as well. Nonetheless, very wacky and different. A manic shot of Black Sabbath that is very different overall. The laughter at the end sounds really insane.

4. The Dark is another short piece of warped and disturbing electronics that goes on for less than a minute in length. It sounds very creepy overall. This is an experimental piece of music that is very odd. The next song follows at the end.

5. Zero The Hero is a seven-minute-long piece with screaming guitars and more dark and murky sounds. This sounds excellently driven and quite good. Soon enough, this launches into some crunchy guitar work and other dark, doom and gloom sounds galore. This continues on very nicely. Ian Gillan sings in an anthemic way. For all the hype and anticipation that this album had, the mixing does kill it, very sadly. The songs are good, but they lack definition and clarity. Still, Black Sabbath roll on here, and they do have a bit of magic throughout. The guitar riffs are really awesome on this song, and the selfish and hedonistic lyrics are not in line with the original themes of dark witches and other themes during the original Ozzy Osbourne era of Sabbath. Even so, this is somewhat enjoyable. Hey, it is nowhere near as bad as the trashy and awful Metallica album St. Anger (2003)! This just sounds less than usual. The guitar solo in the midsection is screaming and different, with Tony Iommi doing some pseudo-shredding. Although this is not in line with earlier offerings, it does showcase a moment where the group had a wacky moment of musical experimentation on an album. Despite the fact that this is lacking, it is not outright awful. Still, this could have been better thought out. In the second half are awesome guitar riffs and manic singing and screaming by Ian Gillan. Although this lineup was the equivalent of Gary Cherone on Van Halen III (1998), it sounds like there was some potential overall, even if it was wasted. Good at best, absurd at worst. There is a neat outro with multitracked guitar solos and electronics, fading out gradually. Very odd.

6. Digital Bitch begins with some good riffs and bad mixing, launching into a sped-up and hard piece. This could have been recorded so much better, to be frank. Like a garage band take on Deep Purple, this sounds particularly true to this song. The profanity-laden chorus is unimpressive, as is this song in general. When worlds musically collide, sometimes they have mixed results. Not very good overall, this is more designed to knock out an odd footnote in music history than anything else. All the same, this rather trashy Metal is different. Surely, Spinal Tap would have loved this album? A wacky listen, destroyed by flat EQ mixing overall. The second half has some different guitar solos and more manic screaming throughout. It’s okay, but fairly weird. This music is very odd, but the guitar solos save it from total mediocrity.

7. Born Again is the title track of the album and runs for over six minutes. It begins with some very poor and watery guitar parts. Soon enough, reverberated drums enter, and this tune gets going. It is fairly uninspirational sounding overall. Seemingly, Black Sabbath were just working a niche routine on this album. This track is quite unimpressive overall. It could have been recorded, edited and mixed far better than this. This is not a good song in itself, either. It sounds miserable, murky and depressing. A bad mix-up of music ideas and performances, this should have been dropped from the album entirely. The chorus is better, but even so, this does not cut the mustard for the listeners out there. This music is also very depressing emotionally, which is not what Black Sabbath were about. A drag of a tune to get through. It seems that Ian Gillan and Black Sabbath were not working on the same vibe or level. A badly managed idea and song. By the midsection, one can likely skip ahead for all listening purposes. This is dreadful at times, to be honest. Not the finest moment for Ian Gillan or Black Sabbath overall, one can easily hear why he went straight back to Deep Purple after this album’s release. Obviously, songs like these were a disaster. In the second half are wind chimes, unusual percussion and some guitar solos, but the damage has been done here. This is downright disappointing. A minor key piece of junk that most bands otherwise would have ditched. In any case, a lengthy fade-out finally arrives with Tony Iommi attempting to save this song with some not-too-bad guitar playing. Bad.

8. Hot Line begins with some unusually loud guitar work in the right channel and some powerful-sounding drums. This launches into more of the same, but it is better than the song before it. Ian Gillan sings some more hedonistic lyrics throughout. This music is obviously fairly mediocre, even if the concept of Black Sabbath with Ian Gillan was a good one. Overall, this good idea is killed by bad mixing, zero production of note and a poor idea in the first place for the songs. The song is saved by some very good guitar work by Tony Iommi. This is an album that even hardcore Black Sabbath fans will disagree with approving of. The guitar soloing is impressive, but otherwise, this is fairly average-sounding. The music and playing are a mismatch, and the shredding by Tony Iommi sounds like a lost cause for the poorly mixed and produced album. Disappointing, although the whole point of Black Sabbath was to inspire, not to repulse. The section towards the end is good with some iconic vocals by Ian Gillan and Black Sabbath playing along nicely. We are gradually getting towards the end of this album, which is somewhat relieving.

9. Keep It Warm is the final track on this disappointing album. It begins with loud Gibson SG guitars and launches right into it with bombastic drumming and solid singing. This album is not as bad as most critics say, but it is difficult to listen to as well. The music and performances are destroyed by an obvious lack of quality control. The lyrics aren’t brilliant, either. Following a Hair Metal styled lyrical approach throughout, this is not exactly what Black Sabbath delivered on the likes of the classic Paranoid (1970) and Master Of Reality (1971) albums. Even so, there was potential for this album to do well, but the lack of direction and decent music is a failure. All in all, this is okay to listen to, but it does not sound totally awesome. Even Ronnie James Dio’s Black Sabbath efforts were much more focused, consistent and great-sounding than this album. Tony Iommi plays some neat guitar solos, even if Black Sabbath’s best efforts were behind them. Lyrics about gypsys and womanising are much more like something Jimi Hendrix was singing about in the late 1960s. Too bad this album is a sidestep from what made Black Sabbath great. A sad failure, but even so, one can listen to this whole album once and likely forget about it in the future. All in all, a rather disappointing album and this song is just the same. It ends with some chaotic guitar work and a gradual fade out.

This is not the worst album of all time. However, it suffers from some fairly obvious music flaws such as flat mixing, poor recordings, lack of focus and a lineup that did not last. Still, Metalheads will want to listen to this album once as a point of history. It was a lesson for Black Sabbath on what not to do on an album. Ian Gillan left Black Sabbath shortly after this album, and Tony Iommi and the rest of Sabbath went on hiatus as well. Should you listen to this album? It’s very difficult to recommend this release. Only those who love music history should indulge in listening to this album; otherwise, no.