She's Gone is a pretty sad song. I wonder what was going on in Geezer's life when he wrote it.

A nice album. Different from their previous works, which made Sabbath who they will always be remembered as, but the songs presented on this album are all quite good.

Written by Yaniv on 08.03.2012 at 13:25

Good album and so underrated. Don't understand why people felling this album. Dirty Woman is awsome.

Yep, agree with you there. This album is knocked so often but it's still pretty good. I also agree that the song "Dirty Women" is an awesome song.

Very underrated album...way better than sabotage

Written by eyeofthebeholder on 09.07.2012 at 14:04

Very underrated album...way better than sabotage

I'm not so sure about that - I would rate Sabotage as better, but not a lot in it. Certainly a sh1tl0ad better than Never Say Die! which is the worst of the Ozzy-era (original line-up) Black Sabbath albums.

Boring album, IMO most weekest from all BS

Whilst this is the first non-classic Sabbath album, I do find it infinitely superior to the dog's dinner of an album which is "Never Say Die!"

There's some nice rock orientated tracks on here (as well as a couple of very average fillers), but overall, it is missing something that made the previous 6 albums so captivating. However, 3 songs on this album I absolutely love. The moody and brooding "You Won't Change Me", the melancholic "She's Gone", and "Dirty Women" which features some phenomenal guitar work from Tony Iommi.

Overall, yes, it is obvious that this album saw the start of the decline of the original line-up's powers, but it is still a mostly enjoyable album, with occasional great moments peppered throughout. And definitely better than the mostly poor album which followed it.

Written by Bad English on 14.07.2013 at 19:14

Boring album, IMO most weekest from all BS

Wow, I so much disagree to what you said; I'd rather listen to this than all the Tony Martin albums, not to mention the album with Ian Gillan on vocals.

Written by [user id=17278] on 14.07.2013 at 19:42

Written by Bad English on 14.07.2013 at 19:14

Boring album, IMO most weekest from all BS

Wow, I so much disagree to what you said; I'd rather listen to this than all the Tony Martin albums, not to mention the album with Ian Gillan on vocals.

I will go there soon, but as far I remeber Dio, Martin and Gillan, well even there more keys, more 80's popsy touch those were better IMO then this one

It was awfully nice of the guys to actually wake up Ozzy when it was time to record "Dirty Women".

Written by Azarath on 16.07.2013 at 01:37

It was awfully nice of the guys to actually wake up Ozzy when it was time to record "Dirty Women".

It's probably a bit harsh to target Ozzy for the excessive drug use at the time of recording this album because I've read reports and interviews from the other guys admitting they were all pretty heavily involved in getting messed up.

Written by Ace Frawley on 16.07.2013 at 05:38

It's probably a bit harsh to target Ozzy for the excessive drug use at the time of recording this album because I've read reports and interviews from the other guys admitting they were all pretty heavily involved in getting messed up.

Oh, I'm sure they were. I was merely saying that this is a very dull album and "Dirty Women" is the only song I remember from it. Part of the reason for that is Ozzy's vocals - when comparing them to the other songs it sounds like he was asleep for the rest of the album, and then suddenly woke up for that song.

That's how I remember it, but I haven't listened to this album in a while. I should probably revisit it.

Written by Azarath on 18.07.2013 at 02:24

Oh, I'm sure they were. I was merely saying that this is a very dull album and "Dirty Women" is the only song I remember from it. Part of the reason for that is Ozzy's vocals - when comparing them to the other songs it sounds like he was asleep for the rest of the album, and then suddenly woke up for that song.

That's how I remember it, but I haven't listened to this album in a while. I should probably revisit it.

Yeah, fair enough. I'm going to revisit it as well. My memory is the same as yours in that "Dirty Woman" is clearly my favourite track from this album. Such a great rock song.

I had another listen to this and have had to reduce my rating from 7 to 6. This really is average to me. The greatness of early Sabbath is gone. Not sure what was going on here but this album just sounds really weird. Opening track is a strange one and then the riff at the start of "You Won't Change Me" is really good (and should have been the album opener) but then that song goes off into weird, disappointing territory. The song sung by Bill Ward should have been an embarrassment on his solo album and never seen the light of day on a Sabbath album. They must have been desperate for material to allow this one to get through. I think "Gypsy" is an okay song and "She's Gone" has merit. The closer is a really good song but that's it. I think the lyrical content is sub par overall - "Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" a good example of that. I think that when I first listened to this album it was through the rose-coloured glasses of Sabbath-fanboyism. It's a shame they went downhill but most bands eventually do.

Amazing how much vitriol keyboards seem to inspire among certain sectors of the metalhead community. Then again, as someone whose never much liked most of Sabbath's early proto-doom output, I guess I was bound to find this less repulsive . Has to be said there're some real stinkers here, Alright and RnR Doc especially, but nothing with Tony Iommi on is gonna be a complete duffer.

Written by deadone on 22.04.2015 at 03:36

Written by Ace Frawley on 19.07.2013 at 06:13

The song sung by Bill Ward should have been an embarrassment on his solo album and never seen the light of day on a Sabbath album. They must have been desperate for material to allow this one to get through.

Given drummer Peter Chris sang on that vile Beth song on KISS's Destroyer at about the same time, it might've been the fashionable thing to let the drummer sing a song.

Maybe they were influenced by The Beatles, who let Ringo sing a few songs. In any event, the song "It's Alright" doesn't really sound like a Black Sabbath song to me and just not sure what they were thinking. Oh well, at least poor old Bill got to sing a song - then Iommi probably set his beard on fire.

Written by deadone on 23.04.2015 at 02:09

Written by Ace Frawley on 22.04.2015 at 13:47


Maybe they were influenced by The Beatles, who let Ringo sing a few songs. In any event, the song "It's Alright" doesn't really sound like a Black Sabbath song to me and just not sure what they were thinking. Oh well, at least poor old Bill got to sing a song - then Iommi probably set his beard on fire.

Roger Taylor out of Queen sang some songs and penned a lot of others too. But he was a very multi-talented musician.

Actually looking at it technically Peter Criss was a way better vocalist than Gene or Paul and Ace, it was just that had to sing the lame cover. But then again Gene and Paul were Always about dimisnishing Ace and esepcially Peter. But look where they are now without Ace and Peter... yes at the bttom of the food chain more or less whereas with drunk Ace and drunk Peter they were still at the top of the food chain.

Written by deadone on 23.04.2015 at 02:09

Roger Taylor out of Queen sang some songs and penned a lot of others too. But he was a very multi-talented musician.

Yes, in Queen all 4 members wrote songs (individually). 3 of them sang.

And Ringo didn't just "sing a few songs". He wrote a couple as well.

Better than I remember even if I've always liked it. Dirty Woman and You Won't Change Me still stands as some of Black Sabbaths best songs

This is an unusual album, it has a completely different sound, and style, from what Black Sabbath had done previously, it actually sounds more progressive, and wee bit bluesy, the songwriting is a lot more complex, and the sound had really mellowed, alot more than what Black Sabbath's earlier releases were.

And although I didn't really like this new approach they had pursued, this album did contain some really decent bluesy solo's by Iommi, and also had some of Ward's best drumming skills on show, so it wasn't necessarily bad.

I understand that they were going through some dramatic changes in their style at this point, and they were never going to reach the same level as their previous albums, I believe the Ozzy era had passed it's peak at this point, and they lost their initial spark. A lineup change became necessary for them to move on at this point imo, and I'm glad after Never Say Die they it did.

"Rock 'n' Roll Doctor" and "Dirty Woman" are my stand out tracks.

The 2021 Steven Wilson mix improves upon the original so much. It'll never be classic proto-doom Sabbath of course, but it's surprising how lively these songs sound now.