For many people, Black Sabbath is Ozzy Osbourne. To me those people have sadly overlooked Sabbath's back catalog from the line-ups without Ozzy, some of which were superior in my eyes to the original line up. The Martin Years covers the years with lead vocalist Tony Martin. The main portion of this double cd consists of the show in Boblingen Germany during the 1990 TYR Tour. A very good audience recording brings us Sabbath classics aswell as material from the "Martin Years"-material like "The Sabbath Stones", "Headless Cross", "When Death Calls" and "The Law Maker". These songs blow the classic Sabbath tracks out of the water and despite Martin having his vocal instabilities he's superior to Ozzies' annoying whaling. The quality of these songs is of a high standard and makes you forget how much crap was made during the 80's.
The concert is an excellent mix of classics and new material with excellent performances in a very nice quality. Disc 2 has a couple of nice bonus tracks. Most interesting are the songs recorded in Denmark at the KB Hallen where during the encore Ian Gillan sings Smoke On The Water and Paranoid with Martin. A Great Moment captured on tape and here preserved for future!
People who only know Sabbath from the Ozzy Years should pick up an album like Headless Cross, Cross Purposes or Tyr. I am sure it won't take long before they delve into the Bondage Archives to dig up this gem. A Great show, set and overall product from our Japanese friends at Bondage.
