Tony Iommi explains what went wrong with Black Sabbath's worst album

Tony Iommi has revealed what went into Black Sabbath’s 1995 album, Forbidden, explaining why he describes it as “crap”.

As any fan of Black Sabbath will tell you, their early days were full of absolute gold. With records like their self-titled effort, Paranoid, Master Of Reality, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the group couldn’t stop producing amazing albums.

However, following Ozzy Osbourne’s departure at the end of the ’70s, thing started to go downhill, with 1983’s Ian Gillian-featuring Born Again being considered a low point.

Despite this, the band soldiered on, but by the mid-’90s, the group had released Forbidden. Featuring vocals by Tony Martin and an appearance by Ice-T, it was an album that was so poorly received by critics that one publication simply called it “the band’s worst album”.

In recent months though, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi revealed that he’s working on remixing the album in attempt to give it the sound it was supposed to have back in the day.

“Next year there will be the Forbidden album coming out, which we’re remixing at the moment, Mike Exeter and myself,” Iommi explained via a Facebook video. “And that’s been interesting to pull that apart and at least try and get some better sounds on it. As it should be.”

“I know Cozy [Powell] was never happy with his drum sound, and none of us were really happy with the sound on that album. So, hopefully, now it will be sounding better.”

Check out Tony Iommi’s Facebook video:

https://www.facebook.com/tonyiomm/videos/1473005929499577/

However, in a recent interview with Louder Sound, Tony Iommi opened up about why the record was so bad, and why the recording sessions were basically doomed from the start.

“At the end of the 1980s, Sabbath made some music that I consider good, including The Eternal Idol [1987] and Headless Cross [’89], but Forbidden [1995] was really crap,” Iommi explained. “We were pushed into a corner.”

“Somebody at the record company suggested we work with Ice-T. My reaction was: ‘Who the hell is he?’ But we met up and he was a nice bloke, and also a big fan of Sabbath.”

“Ernie C [Body Count guitarist] ended up producing Forbidden, which was a terrible mistake,” he continued. “Ernie tried to get Cozy Powell to play these hip-hop-style drum parts, which, quite rightly, offended him. You don’t tell Cozy Powell how to play drums.”

“In the 1990s there were a lot of line-up changes and it became hard to drive Sabbath onwards. But I’m very determined – you don’t split up the band just because somebody leaves. Find a replacement. Get on with it. I still believed in the band.”

While Tony Iommi might be hard at work remixing Forbidden, it seems this isn’t the only album he has in his sights, revealing that 1983’s Born Again might just be next on the list if the master tapes ever show up.

“That was the album we made with Ian Gillan [in 1983],” Iommi explained. “It sounded great in the studio, but there was a problem with pressing.”

“It would be great to fix it up. But you know what? The tapes have disappeared into the Don Arden [former manager] pit. We’ve found about five tracks, the rest are all missing. Such a shame.”