BLACK SABBATH (w/Tony Martin) – Live At The Orpheum Theater Malta 1995 [Alive The Live Japan release only] (2022)

We never have enough BLACK SABBATH with Tony Martin as lead vocalist, and while we already posted a recording with this line-up from the ‘1995 Forbidden Tour’, a reader sent us this very good 2-CD release -Japan only- by the local specialized label ‘Alive The Live’.

Captured at The Orpheum Theater, Gzira, Malta, 25th August 1995, “Live At The Orpheum Theater Malta 1995” highlights Martin’s voice, coming out of the speakers really upfront alongside Tony Iommi roaring guitar riffs. This concert in the Mediterranean island / nation, was recorded and broadcast for European television, so audio quality is very good.
‘Forbidden’, the eighteenth studio album by Black Sabbath, was released on June 20, 1995, and the band started the tour immediately. As the new songs still weren’t too much known for the fans, the majority of this setlist consisted on Sabbath classics.

By 1995, for once, even the harshest of critics and most devoted of fans were in agreement: Black Sabbath were in a bind, barely hanging onto the fringes of metal’s public consciousness. But then barely surviving had pretty much been status quo for Sabbath over the previous decade – except for a year-long return to mainstream relevance for the Ronnie James Dio-fronted ‘Dehumanizer’ album and tour in 1992.
Some records released during the period (namely 1987’s The Eternal Idol and 1989’s The Headless Cross) delivered impressive results, even if substandard promotion meant most fans were totally oblivious, but the ugly fallout with Dio (again) tried everyone’s patience.
None of this was the fault of underrated Sabbath singer Tony Martin, who, on ‘Forbidden’, was recording his fifth album with Iommi.

The band embarked on a world tour in July 1995, anly a few days after ‘Forbidden’ was released, and the usual quota of problems lay ahead in disputes, splits and animosity, usually on behalf of individual managers.
Tony Martin noted that the bad feeling that had infiltrated the band by that point became worse when Sabbath went out on tour, resulting in an environment of members telling each other to “speak to my manager.” Recalling that Iommi had three managers at the time, he added “that bad feeling never went away, really. And … the band started to really come apart from there.”

Two months into the tour, Cozy Powell abandoned ship owing to health issues, a dire situation that Iommi rectified with an urgent call to Bobby Rondinelli. Iommi asked Rondinelli to be there for the European leg, but was sat on the stool towards the end of the US leg in preparation.
Rondinelli had been fired back in 1994 after the Finland show for the Cross Purposes tour owing to a management issue (again).
Initially, Bill Ward stepped in before leaving the band again alongside Geezer Butler (again) with Cozy Powell stepping up to the occasion. Rondinelli was now in.

Their appearance at Gzira’s Orpheum Theatre in August 1995 saw an ever-fractured band showing little sign of the internal bruises, forging ahead with the back catalog that kept them on tour and in the studio. A unique occasion for Sabbath was marked by Geoff Nicholls playing keyboards and guitar on this tour, a rarity for Iommi.
After completing the Asian dates in December 1995, Tony Iommi put the band on hiatus, and began work on a solo album with vocalist Glenn Hughes and drummer Dave Holland. The album was officially released in 2004 as The 1996 DEP Sessions, with Holland’s drums re- recorded by session drummer Jimmy Copley. In 1997, Tony Iommi disbanded the current line-up to officially reunite with Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath line-up.
Highly Recommended

Disc I
1 – Children Of The Grave
2 – Neon Knights
3 – The Shining
4 – The Wizard
5 – Get A Grip
6 – Headless Cross
7 – Rusty Angels
8 – When Death Calls

Disc II
1 – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
2 – Can’t Get Close Enough
3 – War Pigs
4 – The Mob Rules
5 – Black Sabbath
6 – Heaven & Hell
7 – Iron Man / Paranoid

Lead Vocals – Tony Martin
Guitar – Tony Iommi
Bass, Vocals – Neil Murray
Drums – Bobby Rondinelli
Keyboards, Guitar – Geoff Nicholls

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