What's your favorite Black Sabbath album (With Tony Martin)?

[Freddy the O]

I don't think I have a definitive favourite album from that era - basically, I like bits and pieces from all of them, but I do think this era was sometimes marred by softer production and filler material which does take the focus away from the songwriting and performance, brilliant as those were, for me. But Headless Cross, Cross Purposes and Forbidden are the ones I keep coming back to.

The former is also the one I played when introducing one of my friends (Rainbow Catcher on this form), to the Martin-era...

[TheDevilCried]

Hi

I like The Headless Cross the best overall

Timmy

[paulmelv]

Cross Purposes, not only best Martin era but quite possibly best Sabbath album ever. Headless Cross a close second.

[geekwrestler]

Headless Cross with The Eternal Idol a close second.

[Apollo]

1 - Headless Cross
2 - TYR
3 - Cross Purposes
4 - Eternal Idol
5 - Forbidden (far below the rest !)

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[Freddy the O]

Okay, scrap what I wrote earlier - I've taken some time to evaluate the albums and while I think there are brilliant moments on all of them, Tyr wins because there's only one single song on it I'd consider filler (Feels Good to Me).

[The Butt]

Cross Purposes. All the others (with the exception of Forbidden which I haven't heard all off) I consider to be mainly chaff tbh.

[Adam]

I say 'Forbidden'
It is the most down to earth and raw sounding album of all the martin era albums. I always perfered a album which sounds like the band is playing in front of me. And forbidden is that album. It's alot like the first three sabbath albums with ozzy.

Yeah, the sound is great, dirty, but I don't know, I think I prefer CP and HC from the quality of songs point of view. But today gave a spin to F album, and really enjoyed it.

[rar]

Back when I listened to Sabbath more, I had listened to most of the TM era stuff, in an effort to become more familiar with it as many an argument started on this forum regarding "which singer was the best Sab singer, blah blah".
Back then I had chosen Cross Purposes as my favourite TM album. I don't recall why anymore, but that's what it would be considered currently.

[Zero The Hero]

I picked Eternal Idol. The Shining, Born To Lose and the title track are some of the best cuts the Sabs have ever written, IMO. Cross Purposes is close behind, though.

[Deth2112]

Cross purposes

[Deth2112]

I went with cross purposes. I cant choose my favorite from cross purposes its between The hand that rocks the cradle and Virtual Death. TYR and Headless Cross are also great.

[Zak Mayers]

Cross Purposes with Forbidden as a close second.

[Sabbath Steve]

I voted TYR,like nearly every song on it.Hard to find some of the Martin material nowdays,I have MP3's of EI and CP to listen to at least,have that Best Of that has most of the good songs from HC.Also bought Forbidden,"Guilty As Hell" is an outstanding song IMO,like a few more, but overall my least favorite of the Martin era.

[Totentanz]

Cross Purposes just about nicks it, some great tunes on there. Then it's Eternal Idol, followed by Tyr, Headless Cross - and finally I just don't like Forbidden, it's the only Sabbath album from any era that I don't like.

[The Uninvited Guest]

Headless Cross - I know some people don't like the production on this album but it's easily the most played TM era album I play. Just as a throwaway, i prefer Forbidden to TYR as well...

[wizard]

Headless Cross, which is a great collection of majestic riffs.

[Arjen]

Its Cross Purposes and Forbidden for me. Cross Purposes had a better cover and Forbidden had a better tour. One of the best tours ever. Just look at the setlist.
I wish there was a follow up to that tour. Damn!

[gunman42782]

Cross Purposes

[Jannick]

This one is difficult.
I like Eternal Idol, Headless Cross and Cross Purposes.
I also have to add "Black Moon" and "Some Kind of Woman" from the 12" single "The Shining".
The two bonus tracks from Cross Purposes are also quite good.

[gromit99]

i saw that tour-probably one of my favorite set lists of martin era,almost every one of my favorite songs of his time and the stage/light show and sound was badass !!

---------- Post added at 09:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:17 AM ----------

(forbidden tour )

[Sporkman GB]

Headless cross and Eternal Idol are close for me, but then again, I only have a few songs from Forbidden and Tyr (on the IRS best of) so can't judge well, tohugh im not a fan of the forbidden songs on their.

[jacksabbath]

1. cross purposes
2. eternal idol
3. forbidden
4. headless cross
5. tyr

forbidden has shaking off the chains, guilty as hell and get a grip so is great, i only like the title track and devil and daughter from headless cross, while even though its bottom of my list, the odins court to valhalla changeover is incredible. valhalla and sabbath stones are good songs.

[Daistoh]

Have to vote for here for 'Cross purposes' cos it was the first ever Black Sabbath album i got to touch with butit cant get quite up to the touch of TYR or Eternal Idol

[Mysteric]

Eternal Idol, by far.

[facu]

1 Tyr
2 Headless Cross
3 The eternal Idol
4 Cross Purposes
5 Forbidden

[Brendan]

Gee, that's tough. The Tony Martin Black Sabbath era is my 2nd favorite uhhh...
5.Forbidden
4.Cross Purposes
3.The Eternal Idol
2.TYR
1.Headless Cross

[fondula]

CP for me. I love the riffs, the melodies, the sound, the songwriting... it has a good flow from beginning to end, with some good ups and downs on it.
I enjoy them all but this one just stands above the others somehow for me.
I would rank them as such:

CP
EI
Tyr
HC
Forbidden

This isn't to say I do not like the ones at the bottom. I am not a big hater of Forbidden as others are. Headless Cross is good too but I find it a bit too muddy and a bit too short.

[SabbathKing93]

1) Tyr
2) Headless Cross
3) Eternal Idol
4) Cross Purposes
5) Forbidden

[Axeman77]

I remember when i voted on this, i voted Tyr by accident! Meant to vote for Headless Cross, because it really truly is a Sabbath classic, it's haunting, and just out this world! but Tyr is great album, probably my second fav Martin era album.

[MachX]

I hate Forbidden. I don't understand the love for it, but hey there's prolly a lot of stuff i love other people would not. And while I do like Cross Purposes, for the most part it feels like a bunch of Dehumanizer bsides without the electricity Dio brought to the music. Except for I Witness and Virtual Death, those are fantastic tracks that probably would have been mindblowing with Dio's vocals. I tend to rank the first three Martin albums as the better ones from him, so it was a tough choice, but I went with TYR. It just seems to have a better fluidity to my ears than the first two, but is only a little better.

[jjrock88]

All of the Martin cd's are fantastic. I agree with the Axeman, Headless Cross is my favorite and is out of this world!!!

[rmdouglas27]

If I go by number of good tracks, in my opinion, I go this way: Eternal Idol, Cross Purposes, Headless Cross, Tyr, Forbidden.

[-E5150 StarWanderer-]

Cross Purposes for me, great album from the songwriting to the performances and production.

While Headless Cross and Eternal Idol are very strong albums, they lack one important factor that Cross Purposes has: the Geezer factor. I've said it to death, but Iommi and Geezer to me are the soul of Sabbath. And like I said, Eternal Idol, Headless Cross - and to a lesser extent TYR - do have great material but they just aren't the real Sabbath to my ears. And as great as those albums are, they pale in comparison with the classic albums from the Ozzy and Dio years. But then again, it is unfair for a majority of the albums in this universe to be compared to those masterpieces This and the fact that Iommi was the only original member left (and hence all the discussion whether those albums are truly Sabbath albums) is why I think those albums would have been received better back then and be considered being better now if they would have been released under a different banner.

Again, I'm repeating the same old mantra that some of you may have heard from me on multiple occasions, so I apologize if I bore you

[B5Erik]

I've got to to with The Eternal Idol.

It is a near flawless album. Every song is either very good or great. For all the chaos and disarray involved in it's making the album turned out amazingly well. And it features Tony Martin's best vocal performances to date.

I'd rank them like this

1. Eternal Idol
2. Cross Purposes
3. TYR
4. Headless Cross
5. Forbidden

[Ochlocracy]

Cross Purposes. Because of Geezer.

[rmdouglas27]

I agree with you on that. After Born Again, the albums made with Hughes then Martin should have been under the Iommi banner. All six of those records are very good, but it's the record labels that had to be stupid. But I don't compare then to Ozzy or Dio, I look at each one individually.

[Van Sabbath]

I'm with the majority as well. Cross Purposes is my pick. The albums has so much variety to it and the songs are fantastic! I'm proud to say that I own 3 copies of it.

[BSParanoid]

Cross Purposes for me. I Witness, Cross of Thorns, and Immaculate Deception are awesome. The first is one of my favorite Sabbath songs period, let alone Martin era songs. It probably also helps that it's the first, and so far only, non-Dio-or-Ozzy Sabbath album I've found and bought.