Old School Album Of The Week For Feb.1st - 5th

This week I pulled out the awesome Black Sabbath album Born Again released in 1983 with lead singer Ian Gillan from Deep Purple. While this incarnation of the band only lasted one album, what a fuckin' album it is.
To me this album not only stands the test of time but is as good as anything that was released with Ozzy as lead singer. The album was panned by the critics when it first came out, everything from the songs to the cover were said to be awful, and as for me, I think the album cover,the music,vocals and lyrics are some of the best yet by Sabbath. How can you not like an album that starts with Ian Gillan screaming his fucking guts out from start to finish. Ian Gillan put a lot of heart and soul into this album.
The album saw original drummer (Bill Ward) back in the fold after Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice left the band.
There really isn't a bad song on the whole album. The album starts with Trashed which is a great drinking and driving song if there is such a thing. Check these lyrics out.
"I went back to the bar and hit the bottle again
But there was no tequila
Then we started on the whiskey just to steady our brains
'Cos there was no tequila
And as we drank a little faster at the top of our hill
We began to roll
And as we got trashed we were laughing still
Well bless my soul"
The next song is an instrumental which leads into the song Disturbing The Priest that starts with an evil laugh, then follows with some awesome lyrics.
"The force of the devil is the darkness the priest has to face
The force of the night will destroy him but will not disgrace
To get into his mind and to his soul you gotta set alight
The flames of doubt so deep inside inside
The devil and the priest can't exist if one goes away
It's just like the battle of the sun and the moon and night and day
The force of the devil, that's we're all told to fear
Watch out for religion when he gets too near too near"
Then there is the song Zero The Hero that has a really cool riff from Tony Iommi through out the song.
Other great songs on the album are Digital Bitch, Hot Line and Keep It Warm. The song Keep It Warm, to me, sounds like a song about a woman standing by her man through his ventures and travels and not giving up on him.
How I wish I had seen this version of Sabbath in concert. Over the past 15 years we have seen Black Sabbath get back together with both Ozzy and Ronnie James Dio, I sure would like to see the Ian Gillan era Sabbath do another album and tour. C'mon Rick Rubin, work your magic and bring these guys back together for another album.
Born Again is a very very underrated album.
Zero The Hero Video