Those of you know who my website will know that I’ve never shied away from the full history of the band. To that, I’ve always championed the Tony Martin era, which has largely been passed over by history, which is a shame. However, there’s a lot more to Tony Martin than the handful of Black Sabbath albums he’s been on (5 studio, 1 live, 1 compilation). Check out a couple of my favs:
If any of these videos don’t work, please email me and tell me that.
1) The Raven Ride
A song by the band Empire. They have several studio albums, most with Tony Martin on vocals, actually. There’s a total of four Empire albums. Tony sings on the middle two. Don Airey (brief Sabbath contributor), and Neil Murray is also a member of Empire. But one of my favorites is the title track from the third album, “The Raven Ride”. It came out in 2006, and has a really great guitar sound to it.
2) The Naughty Dragon
This is from a band called “Rondinelli”, who has only put out two albums. The song this song comes from is from the second (2002’s “Our Cross, Our Sins“). The other Rondinelli album is from 1996, and was called “War Dance”. That one features another former Sabbath vocalist, the late Ray Gillen. Of course, the band’s namesake is Bobby Rondinelli, who also founded the band with his brother. Big time Sabbath connection in this band.
Anyway, Naughty Dragon was the leadoff track from the Our Cross album, and like Raven Ride, has a great guitar sound I’m big time into.. And look, Neil Murray is on this, too! :)
3) Scream
This is the title track from Tony Martin’s own second solo album, “Scream” (2002). This continues the remark I said above about great guitar sound. But what makes this song stand out from others is that Tony does a violin solo! That’s definitely something you don’t see often. It works even better live, IMO. If you look at this video (starting at 9:34), you’ll see a live performance of “Scream”, including the violin. Most excellent tune.
4) Wicked World
Finally is the track “Wicked World”, from the third Cage album. The Cage is a project that Tony has done with guitarist Dario Mollo. This third album came out in 2012, and was not surprisingly called “The Third Cage”. This one actually had a formal promotional video made for it, which I’ve included below.
These songs are all good, but they barely tip the surface of what Tony’s done in his career. You really should seek out his other non Black Sabbath work, there’s some really good shit in there. Thing is a lot of it was never made available in the United States (where I am), so you have to work at it a bit to find the stuff. But do so. It’s worth the effort.
To finish up, here’s my complete “Tony Martin” playlist from iTunes. :)
what about Tony’s voice on Arjen Lucassen’s Star One project?
https://youtu.be/RdTrPDQ08O8
What about it? I didn’t intend on mentioning EVERY SINGLE track he’s done. Just a few I liked.
Hi Joe, I don’t know if you can answer this – if not, no worries. You work for Geezer. How does he feel about Cross Purposes (and the TM era, in general)? Tony seems to have written TM out of Sabbath’s history, but maybe if Geezer was supportive we could hear some new TM/Sab music. Wishful thinking, I guess?
I have read a lot on this subject, some points said which may answer your question –
1. GB referred to CP as a “that horrible album with Tony Martin”
2. He admitted he stayed and did the tour only for the money as at the time IRS where still paying them “good ackers” (slang for lots of money).
3. He alledgedly argued with TI over the material he brought to the table as TI complained it was too heavy, GB stated it was ridiculous to say any music was too heavy for Sabbath.
4. After the CP tour GB quit the band to rejoin Ozzy for a short while, then recorded his first solo album, Plastic Planet, with Fear Factorys Burton c Bell on vocals. Presumably this contained material TI had considered too heavy for CP. Indeed this is a very heavy disc, quite extreme in some places, obviously GB needed show he still had fire in his belly, I enjoy this album a lot. It contains some very Sabbathy tracks.
5. One song on Plastic Planet is called “Give up the Ghost” . It is obviously a dig at TI for continuing the Sabbath name through thick and thin for many years.
The general impression I get from this is that GB would not be interested in any such reunion with TM, unless hes radically changed his view point since then, which I doubt. This is a big shame I think. Hope this helps!
Regarding Butler & Cross Purposes, his body language on the live concert video says it all. He just looks like he doesn’t want to be there! I remember reading somewhere after he left the band, that he didn’t like the way the band or songs, were trying to ‘sound like Rainbow’. early 80’s Rainbow i presume, they were not heavy enough etc! The album has some great heavy songs on it & plenty of melodies for my ears!
Giuntini:Project IV album is really fantastic stuff with Tony Martin on vocals. Check it out if you haven´t yet.
Always loved the Tony Martin era Black Sabbath 4ever ready for these remasters
All the material he released under the Sabbath name, although i guess not as good as the original Black Sabbath. although they may not be considered classics as every one has his or her own personal opinion
on which is the best Sabbath fronted era, as we all know we have the Dio,Glenn Hughes,Ian Gillan, Ray Gillen
and of course Tony The Cat Martin, you look @ Tyr,The Headless Cross,Cross Purposes & The Eternal Idol,
i won’t go through each track on an individual basis but if you have time and space & ready to explore there is some great stuff in there check them out.
Tony Martin has recently made appearances singing with a couple of acts –
he did a cover of the Scorpions song Another Piece of Meat on Herman Rarebell’s album Herman’s Scorpions Songs, and recently appeared as a guest singer on Magnus Karlsson’s Freefall’s new album, The Kingdom of Rock – he sings on the song When the Sky Falls.