Ah, what a terrible time for Black Sabbath! Technically, Seventh Star is in violation of my rule that the band must have at least two original members and one of them must be Geezer Butler. This also invalidates the two successor albums, plus one more from the 1990's. While I haven't exactly tripped over myself to track down those albums (all of which have dropped off the face of the earth - check out Amazon if you don't believe me), Seventh Star is the exception. Seventh Star isn't the best Black Sabbath album, nor is it top tier. Nor, by some measures, should it even be considered a "Black Sabbath" album, as the name was pretty much only kept to appease the suits. In fact, any album billed as "(Band Name) Featuring (Last Original Band Member)" should be viewed with justifiable suspicion.
Seventh Star sports an unusual lineup. Tony Iommi bears the honor of being the last man standing in Black Sabbath by 1985 and he brings an entirely new band to the table. Most intriguing is Glenn Hughes on vocals, making this one of the very few albums where Glenn does not play an instrument. Of course, Glenn's inclusion continued the detractors' new name for the band "Deep Sabbath" (or even "Black Purple" among the sillier haters), but as far as I know, "Smoke on the Water" was finally dropped from the setlist. If it seems like the album is a little keyboard heavy, this may be due to the sudden status elevation of Geoff Nichols. Originally brought in to cover bass around 1979 when Geezer has "sort of quit" the band, he stayed around on keyboards through the rocky early 1980's period of the band in an uncredited role. Suddenly, with this album is given equal billing and in the band photos. Rounding out the band are two guys mostly notable for their connections to other artists and bands. Dave "The Beast" Spitz is the brother of Dan Spitz, once of Anthrax, while Eric Singer is well known by many as the "other" drummer from Kiss. For those of us who like to explore bank linkages, this album is a true godsend!
As far as my own personal thoughts about Seventh Star, I think I like it more for its historical significance than anything else. I think most of the tracks are good to excellent, but you can hear Tony & Co. struggling to break out of the confines of the "Sabbath Sound", working under a band name nobody liked, but was too good to let go of. Tony's first proper solo album would finally be released in 2000 as a Santana's Supernatural style all-star event. Although Glenn was fired almost right after the tour to support this album launched, he would reunite with Tony in the mid-1990's for what should have been Tony's first solo album but was delayed 10 years due to the "reunion" of the original Black Sabbath. Meanwhile, Geoff Nichols would troop on with Tony right up to the start of the aforementioned reunion, then exit Black Sabbath for good as one of the longest-serving yet largely forgotten members of the band. Eric Singer stuck around for one more album, The Eternal Idol, while "The Beast" was gone by the eve of that album, around just long enough to get a credit of sorts. The Tony Martin era had begun, a period of Black Sabbath that still remains a mystery to me.
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