I am personally a fan of Tony Martin Black Sabbath years and I feel that The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr , and Cross Purposes contain some great material, and Tony Martin years were unfairly overlooked, do you agree or disagree and why?

I run hot/cold on this stuff. I think if they had been billed as Tony Iommi solo albums it wouldn't bother me as much. Some of the material is really good...some is pretty boring. Martin has a good voice but I think he sounds better on the mellower material. I saw this lineup in Seattle on the Forbidden tour (with Motorhead opening).

I think the better lineup is the one with Glenn Hughes. I love Seventh Star and The DEP Sessions, Fused was pretty good but a little forced on some of the material. I hope they get a chance to record again as I think Hughes is one of the most underrated rock vocalists.

Love the first 3, especially The Headless Cross

A buddy of mine gave me a cdr of one of the Tony Martin discs (I don't recall which one) and it didn't do anything for me. I like Sabbath with Ozzy. Even with Dio or the Born Again disc with Gillian, which I love, to me, I almost don't think of them as Sabbath discs.

Headless Cross is awesome, I like TYR, Eternal Idol and Cross Purposes as well.

I really like all 3 of these. The Headless Cross is a killer album. With the exception of Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules I have probably listened to it the most. Sabbath have always been one of my favorite bands in all of there different phases.

Like MetalGuy71 stated above "I almost don't think of them as Sabbath discs." I agree they seem like different bands when the singer changes in Sabbath. I try not to compare the line ups with previous ones and make a judgement as to if I like it by the albums own merit and content. They all have something to offer IMO.

A FANTASTIC band over the years.

'Headless Cross' is really good, though a few songs are a little samey sounding. I think people just got turned off to the revolving door of members and the "80's ness" of that period's sound, with the odd sounding drums and some of the keyboards, but it's still great stuff. 'When Death Calls', classic.

Interesting, Headless Cross is actually the album I like the least out of the batch. Oh well, different strokes I guess.

I like 'em, TYR is my fave of the Tony Martin era.

I have agree if the cds had been called Iommi or anything else they may have been given more of chance, in reality I love these CDS with Tony Martin, but they are in reality The Tony Iommi Project than Black Sabbath but he did no shame to the name, and with good management and better promotion I think these CDS would have sold better,

The Tony Martin era is awesome, some really good strong albums were made with this very talented vocalist. Something always overlooked because of Dio is that Tony Martin was actually the 2nd longest standing vocalist with Sabbath and IMO this era would have got far more recognition in the Sabbath cannon if they hadn't tried the awful short lived Dio reunion with Dehumanizer, a good album but far from great.

What with the recent Heaven and Hell activity the Tony Martin years gets overlooked again as everyone seems to look at Sabbath in just 2 ways, the Ozzy years and the Dio years.

Also, check out Tony Martins 2 solo albums, cracking stuff especially his latest one released about 3 or 4 years ago called Scream.

I found this clip of Tony Martin fronting a Black Sabbath version with Iommi, Butler, and Ward, I didn't even know this lineup of Sabbath ever existed, maybe this one gig only where Bill Ward was playing in the place of Cozy Powell, here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZlI1Ts6qbk&feature=related

This must have been from the Cross Purposes tour, Bobby Rondinelli was the drummer on the album and I know he did at least part of the tour...I'm guessing something came up and Bill Ward filled in.

'Cross Purposes' is the king of the lot...but they're all good...Tony Martin rules...

One of the things I just found in storage was my VHS copy of the live Cross Purposes gig...I'll have to play that one sometime soon.

\m/ \m/

good stuff

I came across a Sabbath box set called Under Wheels Of Confusion 1970-1987

It gave me the motivation to check out the Tony stuff more in depth. For whatever reason ? I let all that stuff go by when it first came out.

Laterz

There is another volume of the Black Box planned. All the Sabbath material that didn't belong in either the Ozzy or Dio boxes. So it should have Born Again, Seventh Star and all the Tony Martin discs in it.

There are also a bunch of Sabbath vinyl reissues on the way. Paranoid is already out, soon to be followed by the other early Ozzy albums...plus they are also putting Heaven & Hell and The Mob Rules out.

These are actual Warner Bros/Rhino reissues...not the cheapo Earmark imports.

The Martin years were great. Headless Cross is my fave. I've actually been thinking about cranking those again for the last weeek or two. Maybe it's time I do it!