November is Doom- Black Sabbath : "Born Again"

This was an odd pairing that worked weirdly. Ian Gillan of Deep Purple paired with Sabbath. The opening track and lead single, "Trashed," is rock n roll chaos that is unhinged and finds the lyrics likely not exaggerating real life, as I have heard stories about how wasted Giallan was during this time. It is hard to seperate the nostalgia I have for this album since, at the time, it made sense to me as a kid, I had already accepted there were other singers aside from Dio and Ozzy, and loved the album cover. There are perfect storms that occurred on this album, like "Disturbing the Priest," which finds Gillan giving a pretty sinister performance for someone who said he never cared for Black Sabbath. His falsetto wails are awesome and won me over here, before I heard him on the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack that elevated him to greater heights as a singer in my mind, just  wait till I heard him on 'Child in Time"., 

Riff-wise, "Zero the Hero" might have the heaviest, most enduring riff. In terms of how it stands the test of time against metal today, and has aged the best. Gillan kind of rants on the verses and locks in on the chorus. Tony Iommi's solo is wild and produced with a great deal of reverb. "Digital Bitch" is a more Deep Purple-like rocker, not the album's strongest song. This is balanced out by the title track which is not only the album's strongest song , but one of Ian Gillan's most soulful preformances.  In comparison 'Hot Line" sounds more like your typical Deep Purple rocker, which when Gillan is in good voice is pretty great. The verse riff is almost cock rocking. 

"Keep It Warm" is more melodic and almsot more of a power ballad. It works well enough and Tony's solo on this one is one of the album's best if you want soemthing that is in his typical signature style. Overall the strong songs balance out the moments that would feel more at home on a Deep Purple album than a Black Sabbath album. With both Dio and Ozzy left this is the reunion that makes the most snese if Gillan can come close to singing these songs. I will give this album a 10. 

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