Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer - 1992
Dammit. Dio.
You know, if right after Mob Rules Sabbath had put out another album with the same lineup I would probably have been excited.
That was before I had to slog through 38 solo albums by the metalelf.
So, now we're back to that lineup. And coming off the heels of two great records and one interesting quasi-concept one, what do we get?
Well, it's 1992, so it's time for someone to complain about computers, right? "Computer God", check. And there's social consciousness as well. On TV Crimes the band takes out televangelists. There's something odd to me about that. After all these guys were like a cultish religion unto themselves. They started off trafficking in miring themselves in pagan
ideology and iconography. And know they are condemning it. It feels...wrong.
Dio doesn't sing about D&D imagery but what he's choosing, the above concepts and such shitty lyrics like the ones on "Letters From Earth" make me so angry. This was a band that, for 2.5 albums were really on the cutting edge. They deserved their resurgence. They deserved their mantle of Godfathers of Metal.
Then Dio comes in and shits all over everything. A great riff like "Master of Insanity"'s is marred by not only Dio's self-indulgence but also his crappo lyrics and complete dearth of melody. On the other hand, "Time Machine" is a catchy metal number, and "After All (The Dead)" is an ear splitting treat. But, beyond that, this one just screams for a band to put away their toys and hang it up.
Grade: D
ASide:
BlindSide: After All (The Dead)
DownSide: TV Crimes, Master of Insanity, Buried Alive
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