Black Sabbath announced their long-awaited Tony Martin era reissues last Friday, which got us thinking – who’s the best Black Sabbath vocalist? So we ran a quick poll over the weekend to see what our readers though, and these are the results.
It’s not too surprising that Glenn Hughes came in fifth. Hughes‘ work with Deep Purple was fantastic, his stuff on Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi‘s 2005 album Fused is great, and the dude is still out there fronting Black Country Communion. But sadly Hughes legacy with Black Sabbath is only their 1986 record Seventh Star – a record that was originally supposed to be an Iommi solo effort and got changed to be a Black Sabbath album for a wider appeal. Seventh Star isn’t bad, but it’s hardly Black Sabbath.
Much like Hughes, Gillan (Deep Purple‘s longtime vocalist) was only featured on one Black Sabbath album… and boy, was it a difficult one. Gillan fronted Black Sabbath for their 1983 record Born Again and had the unfortunate position of filling the void left by vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Gillan still did a great job and at least Born Again was better received by the public than Seventh Star. Gillan also got to front Black Sabbath when they were using their Stonehenge props live. So that’s pretty cool.
Tony Martin – the man that many Black Sabbath fans are about to discover thanks to the upcoming Martin-era reissues. For those unaware, Martin sang for Black Sabbath between 1987 and 1991, and then again between 1993 and 1997. Martin‘s discography with the band includes The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, Cross Purposes, and Forbidden. Martin‘s material with Black Sabbath leans more of a radio-friendly doom sound, and it’s pretty damn good. Tyr is always a good place to start when discovering Martin.
