As with all other books by the talented Martin Popoff that I have had the pleasure of reviewing, “Born Again! Black Sabbath in the Eighties and Nineties” is incredibly well-written and nicely structured, which makes for a great reading experience. As its title suggests, the ever-awesome author presents us with a balanced overview of Black Sabbath’s career and recorded outputs in the 80s and 90s, and each album by the band is awarded plenty of space in the book, which is brilliant in and of itself. There is nothing worse than coming across as a so-called Sabbath biography that merely focuses on the Ozzy (and to some extent the Dio) years while neglecting the thunderous masterpieces they released with Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, and Tony Martin at the vocal helm. Being something of a fanatic fan of those albums, this fabulous piece of literature is right up my alley and I love the fact that Martin discusses, dissects, and analyzes both the positives and negatives surrounding each phase of the band’s line-ups and decision-making throughout those underappreciated years. The fact that Popoff’s perspectives and opinions are so well-balanced and cover so many aspects of those two decades is one of the main reasons why “Born Again!” is so thought-provoking and fascinating.

The words, paragraphs, and even whole chapters have a wonderful pace and rhythm to them, and once you have started reading this marvelous piece, it is damn-near impossible to stop, simply because everything flows together so well. The Black Sabbath narrative is riveting and Popoff has done a grand job of highlighting both the most vital and important aspects of it and all the subtle details and nuances that most people are not aware of or familiar with. As you can probably imagine, the number of talented musicians who have trod the board with Black Sabbath during the 80s and 90s is quite significant and many lives and fates are therefore woven into the fabric of the Sabbath story. Each one has a story to tell and a certain understanding of what went down and how/why (and what is truly interesting is how those various statements and recollections relating to the same events often differ from each other), and Popoff’s research and the way in which things are organized in the book is first-class.

“Born Again! Black Sabbath in the Eighties and Nineties” is perhaps not as comprehensive or in-depth as Garry Sharpe-Young’s “Never Say Die – The Battle for Black Sabbath”, but it is a superb piece of work that shines an important light on some rather crucial albeit overlooked years in the Sabbath chronicle. As with the other titles by Martin Popoff out there, this one oozes quality – trust me on that.

 

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