Cozy Powell was on another level! Probably the best drummer Sabbath ever had. Headless Cross is an underrated masterpiece

"How do you feel, when the locks refuse the key, and the Master is calling your name?" Great writing!

"Headless Cross" is based on a village Tony Martin grew up in - it got its name from the crosses around the village being shattered by desperate villagers dying of the black death after thinking God had forsaken them. Tony Martin wrote the lyrics for this song, as he did for the majority of the songs in his era. The Ozzy era mostly had Geezer write lyrics, though Ozzy and Bill wrote some as well, Dio wrote most of the lyrics for his era, Ian Gillan wrote his, Glenn Hughes co-wrote with keyboardist Geoff Nicholls and producer Jeff Glixman, and Ray Gillen's lyrics for the Eternal Idol were mostly written by bassist Bob Daisley (who wrote a great chunk of Ozzy's solo lyrics too). The video was shot down in Battle Abbey. Tony Iommi recalled that drummer Cozy Powell was keeping himself warm between takes (it was freezing at the time of filming) with brandy and he got sloshed enough to nearly fall off his drum stool. The bassist in the video is Laurence Cottle, who played on the album, but was replaced by Neil Murray on tour. Martin joined Sabbath in 1987, replacing Ray Gillen who replaced Glenn Hughes during the Seventh Star tour in 1986. (Ray recorded the original version of the Eternal Idol album but left before completion and so Tony was literally brought in to record the vocals using Ray's as a guideline within a week). Martin recorded The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross and Tyr in his first stint in the band, until he was replaced by a returning Ronnie James Dio in 1991. After the brief reunion for the Dehumanizer album was broken up, Martin returned in 1993, and recorded Cross Purposes, Cross Purposes Live and Forbidden, before being outsted again in 1997 for a returning Ozzy. Martin since then has guested on numerous albums and done projects of his own - and he still sounds great. Check out his latest solo album "Thorns" - or the video for the first single "As The World Burns" and you'll hear he still has his power.

These "Tony Iommi Sound" is by the 2 fingers mutilated when he was a younger.... The Sound of Heavy Metal, his fingers prosthesis :)

Great song from an amazing album. I really like the Tony Martin era of Black Sabbath.

The Tony Martin Era is a Great Era and they did Great Albums. Iommi played his most progressive material in this Era.

Headless Cross is masterpiece album, title track is absolute killer. Tony Martin's best song with BS! This was Metal Hamer best album from 1989!

The lyrics are actually about a place called "Headless Cross", a small county in the UK, where the inhabitants were praying to be saved from the plague or something, but ofc they all died.

Sabbath without Ozzy is the BEST Sabbath. My top 5 Martin era tunes: Cross of Thorns, Kill In The Spirit World, Back To Eden, I Witness, The Sabbath Stones

Tony Martin was the second longest-running Black Sabbath vocalist right after Ozzy. Check out ”When Death Calls” from the same album - it really showcases his amazing vocals.

In every f* aspect this is the very best Heavy Metal one can ever listen to

The whole album is great, IMHO, but "Headless Cross" is one of those songs that I can listen to 10 times in a row and still wanting more of it :) The lyrics is definitely one of the reasons I love this song so much; just don't ask me why. Thank you for your reaction video.

BLACK SABBATH SINGERS ON OFFICIAL STUDIO ALBUMS: Ozzy (all releases from 1970s) Dio (1980 - "Heaven and Hell", 1981 - "Mob Rules") Ian Gillan (1983 - "Born Again") Glenn Hughes (1986 - "Seventh Star") Tony Martin (1987 - "The Eternal Idol", 1989 - "Headless Cross", 1990 - "Tyr") Dio (1992 - "Dehumanizer") Tony Martin (1994 - "Cross Purposes", 1995 - "Forbidden") Dio (2007 - "The Devil You Know", as Heaven & Hell) Ozzy - (2013 - "13")

Great 👍 singer

I fucking love Tony Martin. My favourite sabbath singer. The 5 albums he sang on are spectacular

No matter what ... Iron Man Tony Iommi kept Sabbath going

Black sabbath con Martin son muy buenos discos, saludos desde México 🇲🇽

I know it's been a while since this video, but in case you didn't know, this is the edited version for the video. That's why it was so abrupt at the end. The album version is 6 minutes. Great video!

Tony Martin's project The Cage did several albums that were pretty good. He did a bunch of other stuff as well including several solo albums which were pretty good. Almost joined Candlemass at one point (there's a recording of him with them on KZfaq)

Love the initial three albums Tony Martin sang on

Glad you got back in this original to hear REAL Tony at his prime! Imagine Lemmy in talent contests 🤣

Here's how you put it the GODFATHER OF HEAVY FKG METAL DUDE,! My 2 favorite songs off Headless Cross are Nightwing and When Death calls Tony Martin era Sabbath I love it Dio number 1 Ozzy gets the 3 spot!

The moment you said Tennessee I was in the car Oh yeah and a little history lesson back in those days even though I was nowhere near born back then lol I do know thanks to my father that every amp was custom-made

I heard the lyrics are about how during the black plague there was a town called the headless cross where people would pray to God at the top of a hill, nobody survived.

Mate, your reviews are important for me because they are quality. Can you please react to Devil and Daughter song in this album? It is arguably one of the best songs of Black Sabbath.

Hey, you should check out a song called "The Last Living Tree" with Tony Martin. It's far from Black Sabbath but it's my favorite song of his. And ALSO check out a song called "Among The Stars" with Tony. Cool stuff

Love your enthusiasm, it is a great song and album... and vocals! The type of singer that made me fall in love with Hard Rock and Metal in the first place. Your answers were pretty much answered here below, if you want to hear more great tracks with Martin, maybe "When Death Calls" is a great tune for you, as is "The Sabbath Stones". Love Tony Martin, pitty he suffered from a pretty much chronical infection to the throat in the early 90ties, but was made to finish the tour by the band and perhaps management, why his voice later on never got back to his full glory anymore. The live footage of his last two albums with the band showed the state he was in at the time, painfull to watch. While with the live footage with Tyr he was majestic really. Not until the early years of the years 00 he regained and showed some of his former power I think, as he does today.

The best álbum with Tony Martin.

Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪, never watched you before but I really like you for some reasons. The first : the video starts and you show a bottle of a good whiskey in the camera, also I didn't know if I can buy this one in Germany 🤣🤣 Second is very obius : you react to a metal video. And not some kind of video, no it's one of my favorite songs from a masterpiece album. This album is in my personal top 10 list from the best 80'ies heavy metal LP's. And it's said often before : Tony Martin is a most underrated singer. I remember in the year this album came out some of my friends didn't like his voice and try to tell me that only Ozzy fits in Black Sabbath, man you're so wrong about this. I always defend Tony and this brilliant album, and also the next which was Tyr. Sadly he left Black Sabbath after 3 albums but to return after some years for 2 more. Man I love this guy, he had a great powerfull voice. He definitely has earned more respect and also success in his carrier. The third reason is a little hidden in your room, but not so heavy to find it : it's that you are a star wars fan just like me. Looks like I have to watch more stuff from you. Have a nice weekend 🤘🤘 👍

Tony iommi sound is different because he lost the tips of two fingers in an industrial accident so he uses prosthetic finger tips but he always tuned down to make it easier to chord and play and Tony Martin is a great singer,I’m not sure what the prosthetic finger tips are made of could be ceramic not sure,they also had the singer from deep purple on one record

The lyrics are about the little midlands village of Headless Cross in England. It's about the plague that decimated the population there in the middle ages, all the people holding their crosses hoping that it would protect them from the disease. Needless to say that didn't go well for them.

He cut the ends of his fingers off at work and glued them on metal tips so he could continue to play and that is part of the sound

Tony Martin wrote all the lyrics for this and all the other songs he did with Sabbath. Tony Iommi never involved himself with lyric writing.

If no one is told the story already the entire Headless Cross album was about pagans in Ireland and other places that refused to convert to Christianity. The people that invaded their lands were very brutal in their annihilation and it was convert or die. People living in peace worshiping their gods being told they had to follow the new God worshiped by their invaders. The Christians were merciless I swept across lands of Europe burning the unbelievers and multiple cultures disappeared from this planet forever. People thought they were serving their God by killing idolaters and people who worshiped nature. Mostly peaceful people and between the purging of their lands of their pagan beliefs through what amounted to church condoned mass murder and several plagues including the Black Plague, made these people practically disappear from the Earth. A lot about Ireland and the slaughter of the Cathars in France as well. You could probably sum the album up as Christians doing the work of Satan while believing they were serving their God. There's been so much murder and plague that Lucifer and references to Satan are about these Christian armies making Satan laugh and pleasing him with so much evil sacrifice. When they found Celtic crosses they tore them down or they broke off the heads because it wasn't the Christian cross. Most of the story takes place in a small village that Tony Martin the singer has a connection to. Tony Martin doesn't get the credit he deserves for bringing respect back to the Black Sabbath name and often gets compared to DIO as the band became a power metal type band with both of those singers. He was never their first choice of singer. He was the guy who got brought in to finish The Eternal Idol which was pretty good and then they made Headless Cross next. Most fans that aren't completely biased towards the Ozzy years believe Headless Cross is one of Sabbath's five best albums. Then they did Norse mythology on Tyr which was a very good album. DIO tentatively came back before Dehumanizer started recording but the relationship was so strained that Tony Iommi in secret recorded a version of Dehumanizer with Tony doing the vocals as a backup album in case DIO quit before the album was done. Tony was taking no chances after his band had came back from the dead and was going to have a Sabbath album with or without DIO. Everything worked out though and I can recommend Dehumanizer as well. Tony Martin came back after another DIO departure and I did Cross Purposes which is not a bad album and has several great songs. Tony's last album before the reunion put them back with Ozzy was Forbidden. Not a great record but a couple of standout songs. Basically Tony Martin showed up every time they asked him to and sang his ass off but they treated him like a substitute teacher anytime DIO or Ozzy were available and wanted to work with them. Tony Martin deserves a lot more credit for what he did and Tony Iommi deserves credit for always being able to write songs for whatever singer he had available. Questions about the guitar tuning are interesting though. Your ears are not lying to you. Drop D tuning and other lower scales were an important part of the sound of Black Sabbath starting on Master of Reality. Tony had an injury working a machine and had two tips of his fingers smashed completely off. He figured out a way around the problem with his fingers by creating custom finger grips to extend his damaged fingers and dropped the guitar tuning half a half step so that the strings would be easier to push and manipulate. Drop D tuning of course is famous for being used by the Nu Metal bands in the late '90s but Tony Iommi was using it in the early '70s. It can sound ugly and also be completely perfect the way you reviewed the sound. You have good ears and I like your channel. Thank you and I hope I haven't said something that has already been said a hundred times lol. You convinced me to try some peanut butter whiskey too so that's a double win.

Peanutbutter flavored whiskey, i'm curious, thanks. P.S. i seem to comment on culinary side of things so far, but i assure you i like metal 🤘

I still enjoy the Tony Martin era albums, apart from Forbidden.

Martin's voice was best on the headless cross album. My favorite song of his is Cloak and Dagger. It shows off his range well. The headless cross song features Martin hitting his highest note. E5. Martin damaged his voice touring with Sabbath. He couldn't hit the highest highs after headless cross.

Iommi/Powell/Martin lyrics, with Tony Martin carrying the whole song by himself. Lyrics are pretty shabby. Bittersweet feeling to it, as you hear how mighty Tony Martin could be, before the voice went...We are lucky it's on tape at least. Not really sabbath, at least compared to Ozzy stuff. Different altogether, but fucking mighty as hell. :) He made 4 records with sabbath. All great! We do not speak about forbidden.

The Ozzy era writing was mostly done by Geezer Butler Dio Era was Dio & Butler

Drop D and half step tuning