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V/A: Nativity in black - A tribute to Black Sabbath

13/09/11 || revenant

I want to turn back time a little today, and go all the way back to 1994. A young Revenant was in his last year of high school. When not playing computer games, doing homework or engaging in frenzied masturbation, young Revenant loved to listen to music. Already he was a metalhead for a few years after moving on from the likes of Whitesnake, Guns n’ Roses and Bon Jovi to Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Metallica and beyond, but had yet to discover the sheer brilliance of metal’s forefathers in Black Sabbath. Enter “Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath”, an album that became the album to get in 1994. I’d first heard the album at a friend’s house and was instantly entranced. Not long after I had my own copy and was spinning it non-stop. Indeed, this tribute album became that young Revenant’s introduction to Black Sabbath, as it did for many in those days.

The impact this album had on my music listening over time is nothing short of profound. Initially I followed this release with another Sabbath tribute album and then a Maiden tribute album. Both of these decisions were mistakes. I soon corrected my misguided ways, and got stuck into listening to Sabbath themselves. Tribute albums, I soon learned, were a waste of time, particularly as they had morphed from being tributes to being something for labels to promote their unknown bands. But this disc, this is something different, something special.

For you see, this is a true tribute. Anyone who has this disc will know it. Just check out the booklet. The tarot card you see on the cover is just the beginning. The booklet folds out to reveal one tarot card for each band, and a quote from each band on what Sabbath means to them. I’ll say that again: what Sabbath means to them. And that, for me, is the important distinction between this and all the other tribute albums out there: this is about Black Sabbath, not the bands covering them.

Of course there is one other reason this album is special: it fucken rules. Big names, great covers… check this shit out as I run through it track by track:

Biohazard: After Forever – Straight out there are two surprises: firstly that Biohazard opens a tribute album to Black Sabbath, and secondly that they don’t suck at it. Vocals aside, this stays pretty close to the original though with a hardcore vibe. The vocals, aside from their occasional rap moments, aren’t too bad and work well for the song. It was a brave move by the producers of this album to use Biohazard as an opener, but this track really does kick the album off in style. 8/10

White Zombie: Children of the Grave – Another cover pretty close to the original, with pumped up production. For some reason this feels slower than the original when placed side by side with the Sabbath version. This track is up there with my favourite Sabbath tunes, and this is a respectable cover that unfortunately shrivels like a ballsack touched by snow when compared to the original. 7/10

Megadeth: Paranoid – Probably the most iconic song in Sabbath’s catalogue gets a stylish makeover treatment by Megadeth here. This was apparently nominated for a grammy. It didn’t win, but cover songs shouldn’t win awards anyway. Rather than perform a straight cover, Megadeth decided to re-vamp this classic by pacing it up. The result: sheer brilliance. It feels fresh and vibrant in it’s delivery. I won’t say this about any other track here, but this cover stands as tall as the original. 10/10

1000 Homo DJ’s: Supernaut – For those not in the know, 1000 Homo DJ’s was a side project of Ministry featuring Trent Reznor on vocals. Yup, you’ve probably guessed then that this is an industrialised Sabbath cover. One of the strengths of the original was the awesome riff. Thankfully the riff remains the core to this re-imagining, and despite the weird sound grabs thrown in, I’d call this a win. 8/10

Ozzy Osbourne with Therapy?: Iron Man – I’ve never understood this track’s place on this album. Ozzy on a tribute album to his own work? It’s just fucken silly if you ask me. This is pretty good, a touch quicker with beefed up production. Ozzy performs as well as he does on the original, but what’s the point? With him on it can you really call it a cover? 9/10

Corrosion of Conformity: Lord of this World – This is another performance that sounds awesome until compared to the original. No doubt the quality of Sabbath’s songwriting, and in particular awesome riffs, is what makes them shine. The real downer hear are the vocals: they don’t even come close to Ozzy’s. The other problem is COC don’t inject enough of their own style into the cover, thus making just a weaker copy. 6/10

Sepultura: Symptom of the Universe – Wait, didn’t I say not so long ago “I won’t say this about any other track here, but this cover stands as tall as the original”? Well I lied. Deal with it. Sep’s cover of “Symptom of the Universe” fucking kills. Sepultura bring their own style to the fore yet keep true enough to the original to make it a respectable cover. Whether it’s Sepultura revelling in the great song, or vice versa, it doesn’t matter, this is just great. 10/10

Bullring Brummies: The Wizard – Bullring Brummies is a studio name for a supergroup featuring Rob Halford, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward… oh man, again with the old Sabbath guys performing on their own tribute album? What’s going on with this? And where’s Iommi then, surely he’s hiding somewhere on this disc too? This is not a bad cover, Rob doesn’t sound like Rob though, and to be honest I was never a big fan of this song to begin with. Also, the drumming is too low in the mix. 6/10

Bruce Dickinson with Godspeed: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – A solid cover, but one that just feels too clean and too modern. For all the man-love I have for Bruce Dickinson, his performance just doesn’t compare to Ozzy’s. Man, Ozzy’s voice was so fucking haunting, you just can’t sing his lines and expect it to compare. This is reasonable, but it won’t appeal to the Sabbath hard core fans. 7/10

Ugly Kid Joe: NIB – Ugly Kid Joe made one of the best cover songs ever with “Cats in the Cradle” and deliver the goods again here. Funny thing is, I remember Ugly Kid Joe for their two covers, but I can’t remember a single original composition of theirs. Unlike “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, this song sounds awesome with a modern sound, and aside from dropping the extended base intro, this stays true to the original. An ace effort for sure. 9/10

Faith No More: War Pigs – A live version so I can’t be too critical, but I wouldn’t be anyway. This is a great cover, my only two gripes: 1) crowd too low in the mix, I would loved to have heard them more as they sing it word for word, and 2) Mike Patton fucking up one of the verses. Other than that, well done. 8/10

Type O Negative: Black Sabbath – This gothic makeover of possibly the scariest song ever written works. The atmosphere is different, but the evil still lurks within the delivery. In terms of choosing which song to cover, Type O could have selected any better. This definitely sits amongst the best in the collection. 9/10

Cathedral: Solitude – I’m not sure if Cathedral were a late inclusion, are a bonus track or just pissed off the producers, but for some reason they are not mentioned anywhere in the booklet. Strange. This is a very faithful cover, closer to the original than any other track here. Loses a little of the atmosphere, but a nice mellow closer done well. 8/10

Conclusion then: as far as I’m concerned, this is the pinnacle of tribute albums. There has never been, and will never be, a tribute album it’s equal. Great bands, great covers and a true tribute to metal’s forefathers, this is quite simple the shit when it comes to tributes. I would have placed this article in the Clas666, but that section is not set for tribute albums or compilations. Yeah, I know that most of the tracks don’t measure up to the originals. Fuck, covers rarely do. But is that really what we should be focusing on? This album delivers solid covers respectfully done, and it helped me get into Sabbath, and for those reasons I’m giving this release a solid….

8,5

I know the usual thing here would be to have averaged the scores to come to a final score, but fuck that. This is an 8.5, so deal with it.

Information
Released: 1994
Label: Columbia
Website: www.black-sabbath.com
Band
Various metal dudes: various instruments

Tracklist
01. Look in the review for a complete track listing, cunt

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