#dehumanizer

The Neon Knight

Miss this absolute legend!

A reunion of the Mob Rules lineup that didn't make quite the same impression. But a heavy album, and worth your time, I'm finding.

𝕭𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖐 𝕾𝖆𝖇𝖇𝖆𝖙𝖍 + 𝖇𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖐 𝖈𝖔𝖋𝖋𝖊𝖊 = 🙂

Dehumanizer was one of the rare instances where a difficult recording process not only permeated the finished product but actually managed to enhance the final album.  And while nobody, least of all the artists themselves, would want the act of making a record to be a struggle, the uneasy vibes gave tunes like “Sins of the Father” more weight and made the reunion of Black Sabbath’s Mob Rules lineup even more malicious than expected.  Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice were an overwhelmingly forceful rhythm section, Ronnie James Dio was forceful, emotive and urgent, and Tony Iommi’s riffing was just straight up mean.  This was an ugly track that obscured some of its hooks by smothering them with globules of noise, and that wasn’t simply due to Mack’s hammering production: Dio had a way of arranging his vocals such that his cadence became its own melody line, and parts of Appice’s pummeling were catchy in their way, but “Sins of the Father” almost felt designed to create discomfort.  This was ultimately why Dehumanizer remains something of a dark horse in the Sabbath catalogue- what was supposed to be a triumphant return became something ugly and a bit uninviting, but deeper listens revealed that to be more of a feature than a bug, and the sturdiness of the writing was undeniable.