Band:	Black Sabbath
Album:	Dehumanizer
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	June 22, 1992
Guest review by:	Auntie Sahar

Disc I
01. Computer God
02. After All (The Dead)
03. TV Crimes
04. Letters From Earth
05. Masters Of Insanity
06. Time Machine
07. Sins Of The Father
08. Too Late
09. I
10. Buried Alive

Disc II [2011 deluxe edition]
01. Master Of Insanity [single edit]
02. Letters From Earth [B-Side version]
03. Time Machine [Wayne's World version]
04. Children Of The Sea [live]
05. Die Young [live]
06. TV Crimes [live]
07. Master Of Insanity [live]
08. Neon Knights [live]

Fall of 1990 saw vocalist Ronnie James Dio trekking across the U.S. in support of his recent Lock Up The Wolves album. On one night of the tour, Dio's former bandmate, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, joined him onstage to perform an old classic from the Dio era of Black Sabbath: "Neon Knights." After the show, and probably over a few drinks, the two expressed interest in reuniting the Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath. And the rest, as they say, is history. Recording in late 1990, drummer Cozy Powell broke his hip, and was unable to further complete his drum tracks. Yet in a way, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as former drummer Vinny Appice was brought in as his replacement. Thus, the Mob Rules-era lineup of Black Sabbath, along with all its past energy and chemistry, saw its resurrection in the recording of 1992's terribly underrated Dehumanizer.

History lessons aside, Dehumanizer is probably the heaviest of the Dio-fronted Black Sabbath albums. There's an encompassing sound of "thickness" (for lack of a better word) and groove throughout the album, particularly on "Letters From Earth" and "After All (The Dead)," a vibe augmented by Geezer Butler's bass lines (see "Computer God" and "Master of Insanity"). But the album isn't just heavy in the doom-oriented sense often employed by the band. There are also a few faster, slightly more aggressive tracks ("Time Machine," "TV Crimes"), which help to give the Dehumanizer a bit of a sense of variety. And then there are the lyrics, which, with Dio at the helm, undergo an advisory nature, both questioning and warning of the ills befalling society (in this case technology and religious fundamentalism, among other things). Some passages are quite memorable, such as in "Computer God": "Computerize God, it's the new religion. Program the brain, not the heart beat!"

Why this album goes so often overlooked eludes me. It's nothing profoundly special, but then it's still a solid effort from the band. Where Mob Rules and Heaven And Hell had a more melodic, mellow atmosphere, Dehumanizer is a tad more up front and in your face. But in a way, this can be taken as a good thing, because it shows that this incarnation of the band tried something a little different with each effort, instead of sticking to the same general formula, and variation is (at least in my eyes) a good thing. This is the Dio-fronted Black Sabbath at their most intense. But sacrificing the epic atmosphere of their previous work certainly didn't sacrifice the band's musicianship, and Dehumanizer is, all in all, a very decent album.