Black Sabbath-Dehumanizer (1992)
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Dehumanizer
Label: Reprise
Format: CD
Cat #: 9 26965-2
Year of Release: 1992
Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1992
Listed Condition: VG+/VG+
Sell Date: 6/19/25
Sell Price: $7.42
Discogs Last Sold: 9/24/24 VG+/NM $8.50
Low: $1.50 NM/NM 9/7/22
Median: $6.82
Average: $6.87
High: $11.49 NM/NM 11/14/24
Current low price: $6.63 VG+/VG+
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 12
Have/Want: 325/87
Where Sold: 325/87
Time it took to sell: 1 year
Where and When Bought: facebook marketplace lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C+
Sad To See It Go: No
I've had to come to terms with something after a third of a century. Dehumanizer isn't that good. I always thought that this might be a buried classic if only I put in the time beyond a spin here and there. Today I am facing the facts. The Heaven & Hell album may be up for further review and I'm withholding final judgement on that, but today is the day I formally declare Dehumanizer as middling. Not even a B- as I originally typed for a grade. A dreaded C+.
After both Dio and Black Sabbath hit mind boggling career reviving peaks with Heaven & Hell/Mob Rules and made masterpieces apart immediately after their split with Born Again/Holy Diver/The Last In Line. After 1984, both entered a period of sucking in the 80's. Seventh Star was shit. "Hungry For Heaven" went the other direction. Vision Quest Soundtrack? Fuck that! Sadly, Sacred Heart proved this decline wasn't an aberration. The rest of the 80's wasn't much better for either of them. Tony Martin may have gotten some repackaging love of late, but those records really weren't that good except for maybe The Headless Cross.
I longed in those dark years for Dio to return to Black Sabbath and pick up where Mob Rules left off. Dehumanizer does this in theory but even the best songs that got into the Heaven & Hell set: "I" and "Time Machine" were forgettable in 1992, 2008 and even after some repeated listening, right now. Wayne's World Soundtrack for the best song on the record? Come fucking on.
Dio had VISION you may say. He further predicted the perils of the digital bitch Ian Gillian told us about in 1983 with "Computer World." Yet, "TV Crimes" was what was chosen for a video. That one has a "Stand Up and Shout" feel with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost invited to the dinner table. Tony gives us a "Custard Pie" riff on "Masters of Insanity." "After All (The Dead)" picks up with the worst moments of Live Evil where Dio sounds like a parody of himself. It's all so...dare I say it? Unsabbathlike.
AI will churn out some bullshit telling you that Dehumanizer was a return to form and a precursor of the whole Doom genre. Dio was right about one thing here.
"Computerize God. It's the new religion."
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
Comments
Post a Comment