Born Again!: Black Sabbath in the Eighties & Nineties

by Martin Popoff

First there was Sabotage! Black Sabbath in the Seventies, in which Martin Popoff tells the tale of the first eight Sabbath albums, each fronted by Ozzy, who stumbles out of the band at the turn of the following decade.

Now, in Born Again! Black Sabbath in the Eighties and Nineties, Popoff indulges in 119,000 words of deep-dish analysis on every record from Heaven and Hell through to the Reunion live album, which marks Ozzy’s return to the band. Included as well are eight pages of colour plates plus at the end, a handy discography.

As the back cover says…

In this scintillating sequel to Sabotage! Black Sabbath in the Seventies, Martin Popoff blows up the kaleidoscopic narrative of the Sabs over the ensuing 20 years, dissecting each and every of the band’s ten studio albums and two (and-a-half) live albums produced over that time period.

So this is the book where we hear the gripes, snipes, swipes and thumbs-up likes from Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and finally once more Ozzy Osbourne, as they remark upon this institution coddled by the anchor of the band Tony Iommi, who valiantly held Black Sabbath together through many years of blood, sweat and Tyrs.

Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Live Evil, Born Again, Seventh Star, The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Dehumanizer, Cross Purposes, Forbidden and finally, extensively broken down, Reunion….they’re all here, song by song, the hirings and the firings highlighted and explained.

Incorporating talk from over 60 interviews conductive with band members and other relevant parties over 25 years, make no mistake—this is the most in-depth examination of the band during this timeframe ever executed. So come one and all, re-love modern-era Black Sabbath all over again—you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much dastardly doom there is from Tony Iommi that you need to know and embrace once again.

Genres: Music, Biography

281 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 27, 2020

About the author

At approximately 7900 (with over 7000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was Editor-In-Chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost metal publication for 14 years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com, with many record label band bios and liner notes to his credit as well. Additionally, Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked for two years as researcher on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, on the writing and research team for the 11-episode Metal Evolution and on the ten-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic. Additionally, Martin is the writer of the original metal genre chart used in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and throughout the Metal Evolution episodes. Martin currently resides in Toronto and can be reached through martinp@inforamp.net or www.martinpopoff.com.

Reviews

[Gonzalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siempre me gustaron, y mucho, los Black Sabbath de los 80, quizá porque crecí con ellos...los de los 90 ya no tanto.
Interesante información en el libro. Como de costumbre, a veces se hacen tediosas las citas, pero ya lo sabes cuando compras un libro de Martin Popoff.

[james craddock jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good book. would recommend for any black sabbath fan.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generic book about Black Sabbath post Ozzy Osbourne. I mainly read this as the Tony Martin era is barely mentioned in the media and the Martin era is about to be re-issued. Cozy Powell was in Sabbath in the 80's as well. The Martin era is a bit reminiscent of the Dio era of Rainbow musically.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generic biography of post Ozzy Sabbath. The Tony Martin/Cozy Powell era was of interest to me as it is finally getting acknowledged.