Dehumanizer

Dehumanizer
Studio album by Black Sabbath
Released	22 June 1992
Recorded	Late 1991 – Early 1992 at Rockfield Studios, Wales
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	55:53
Label	I.R.S. Reprise (US/Canada)
Producer	Reinhold Mack
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Piercingmetal [1]
Black Sabbath chronology
Tyr (1990) Dehumanizer (1992) Cross Purposes (1994)

Dehumanizer is the sixteenth studio album by British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in 1992.

It was the first Black Sabbath studio album in over a decade to feature Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Vinny Appice on drums. Initial writing and demo sessions at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham featured Cozy Powell and bootlegs exist. The line-up of Dio, Appice, Tony Iommi on guitars, and Geezer Butler on bass would reunite in 2006 under the moniker Heaven and Hell.

Album information

Both lyrically and musically, it is considered one of Sabbath's heaviest albums. Song themes vary from a computer worshipped as a god, to televangelists, to individualism and doubts about after-life.

The album was originally to be done with drummer Cozy Powell, but he was in a horse riding accident, which broke his pelvis. Dio wanted to get Simon Wright, from AC/DC and later his own band, as drummer, but Butler and Iommi rejected him. So, they called Vinny Appice to be drummer. During the sessions however, 2 unreleased songs were recorded: "The Night Life", whose riff was later used for Psychophobia on Cross Purposes; And "Bad Blood", which sounds very similar to "I" on the same album. These songs can be found, along with other demos and untitled songs on bootlegged "Complete Dehumanizer Sessions" along with the Geezer Butler Band's version of "Master of Insanity" and "Computer God", which sounds like an entirely different song.

"Computer God" was the title of an unreleased song by The Geezer Butler Band, in 1986 - only the title made it to Dehumanizer. The GBB version is available as a download on Geezer Butler's website. "Master of Insanity" was also an unreleased GBB track and the Dehumanizer version is essentially a re-recording of this. (1:17 minutes of this track is available as a download on the website of Carl Sentance, erstwhile vocalist with The GBB.)

Although the band lineup is the same as 1981's Mob Rules, the musical direction is very different - not only because of the aforementioned heaviness, but the songs are also darker, more pessimistic and more intense^{[citation needed]} than in every^{[citation needed]} earlier Sabbath album. It was a dramatic, and to some, welcome return from their previous album, Tyr.

Ronnie James Dio himself would follow this musical / lyrical direction in his next two albums with his band Dio, Strange Highways (1994) and Angry Machines (1996).

Commercially, this album is regarded as a resurgence for Sabbath. The album reached the Top 40 in the UK. It peaked at number 44 on the Billboard 200 chart.^[1]

This incarnation of Sabbath ended when Ronnie James Dio abruptly quit the band upon guitarist Tony Iommi's suggestion that the band open for Ozzy Osbourne in Costa Mesa at the end of his 1992 tour, intended to be the farewell tour. Dio and Osbourne had a history of animosity, more from Osbourne's side but certainly not one-sided, and Dio felt that Sabbath should not open for any band, much less his 'rival' (and the band's former frontman) Ozzy Osbourne. Dio's contract expired at the end of the Dehumanizer tour and he chose not to do the two Osbourne Costa Mesa shows.

For these two shows the band replaced Dio with Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford and, on the second night, Iommi, Butler and original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward joined Osbourne onstage for four songs. Halford and Dio are friends (Dio having been impressed with Halford's work ethic on the 'Stars' project) and Halford would only do the Costa Mesa shows with Dio's blessing, which he received when he spoke with Dio by phone. Both shows were recorded in their entireties and are now widely circulated as audio and video bootlegs.

It is somewhat unclear as to whether this album was supposed to be a one-off affair or the beginning of a true reunion of this Sabbath line-up. Dio's contract technically ran out at the end of the album's tour (allowing him to quit the band in response to Tony Iommi's desire to have the band open for Ozzy Osbourne) which would suggest that future albums were not meant to be. However, Iommi also formally fired the other three band members (including twice firing singer Tony Martin) which would indicate that he never really intended to bring them back. It has been suggested that the album was officially a one-off effort but that the band members would continue if they found they could co-exist well enough to do so. According to Ronnie James Dio, the band could not get along sufficiently as the members' personalities and egos had not changed over the previous decade. There were also rumours that talks of a reunion with Ozzy took place during the Dehumanizer tour; it being alleged that Iommi and Butler went so far as to discuss this with Osbourne, who ultimately backed out. It is possible these talks were used by the Osbourne camp to derail the Dehumanizer reunion.

The album is included in the Black Sabbath box set The Rules of Hell.^[2]

Track listing

	"Computer God" Computer God "I" I "Master Of Insanity" Master Of Insanity
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

All songs written by Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi.

Side one

1. "Computer God" – 6:10
2. "After All (The Dead)" – 5:37
3. "TV Crimes" – 3:58
4. "Letters From Earth" – 4:12
5. "Master of Insanity" – 5:54

Side two

6. "Time Machine" – 4:10
7. "Sins of the Father" – 4:43
8. "Too Late" – 6:54
9. "I" – 5:10
10. "Buried Alive" – 4:47

Bonus track

The US-release added a bonus track:

11. "Time Machine (Wayne's World version)" – 4:18 This is the first recording of the song, specifically for the soundtrack to "Wayne's World" and ahead of the album sessions. It was also released as a 1-track promo CD.

Covers

• Jørn Lande covers "Letters from Earth" on his album Unlocking the Past.

Personnel

• Ronnie James Dio – vocals
• Tony Iommi – guitars
• Geezer Butler – bass
• Vinny Appice – drums
• Geoff Nicholls – keyboards
• Mack – producer, engineer, mixer
• Darren Gayler – engineer
• Stephen Wissnet – engineer
• Wil Rees – cover illustration
• Mark "Weissguy" Weiss – photography

Release history

References