TYR - Song By Song

[Zzzptm]

The Sabbath Stones are, uh... um...

Um...

Are they something like Jenga, but with rocks?

[Jack the Stripper]

Or or like the Rings of Power from Lord of the Rings except it’s Stones and whoever holds them is the keeper of all things Sabbath and ruler of doom 

In all seriousness, I did some research on it and the Sabbath Stones are “apparently“ the stone tablets given to Moses by God that were inscribed with the “The Ten Commandments” by Gods own finger.

Won’t go into any more of that fable but that’s the gist of it.

[Zzzptm]

Well, it's still a cool song.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

The trilogy of songs The Battle of Tyr / Odin's Court / Valhalla come next. A trilogy which feels like it should be much longer but is in fact only just over 8½ minutes!

The Battle of Tyr is pretty much a waste of time and doesn't even convey the emotion of a battle!

Odin's Court is a gentle ballad trying to capture the heroics of viking times. It's ok there's nothing outstanding about it, but I don't mind it, and it flows well into the next track...

Valhalla is a good uptempo rocker. It's got a nice riff, suitably heroic vocals although Martin's lyrics are a little cliched. I like it, but it's maybe dragged back by being coupled with the first two parts.

[Jack the Stripper]

I find The Battle Of Tyr/ Odin’s Court/ Valhalla trilogy a bit of a mixed bag. Starting with the instrumental intro. For me it just doesn’t sound epic or uplifting enough for its title. The keyboards don’t quite sound right and I think it would’ve served the song better if they took a back seat and Cozy’s floor toms took the front seat and were the dominant part in the song.

The transition into Odin’s Court works ok though which I think is quite a nice song. Martins vocals are beautiful and tender as is Tony’s acoustic playing and its just the right length to not become boring.

As for Valhalla, again it treads too much into AOR territory. The riffs and drumming in the verses are good though as is the outro but nothing much more about the song lifts me enough.

Summing up, I think as a trio of songs it’s fairly good, but as an epic Viking Trilogy, it falls short.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Next up we have Feels Good To Me. For a long time I've felt this was the bastard brother of No Stranger to Love. I much prefer this song though, although in truth I'm not a huge fan of it, but I don't hate it either! A power ballad of sorts that was mis-placed from the 80s, but once it gets going it has a nice riff and a Lonely is the Word style solo that makes me want to put that song on! Martin's vocals are more than up to the task, and it's not a bad song, just not a very Sabbathy song.

[Jack the Stripper]

Yep “Feels Good To Me” is a power ballad from a time when power ballads were all the rage on MTV, except this is a dam good one...Perfect I would even say

Has nice ebbs & flows
Has a great lift and surge in the chorus
Brilliant emotive singing & guitar solo
It’s not schmaltzy or saccharine filled

I would go as far as saying this is the best power ballad from its time period and its a shame it wasn’t a huge hit for the band because it was so much better than all those others that were.

I even have the 12” single of this one

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

The album closer is Heaven in Black, a fast rocker with a nice drum intro. I really like the song, a good riff, a nice solo, the vocals are good too. As a stand-alone song it is good, I just feel on the album it is in the wrong spot, it really feels more like an album opener with Anno Mundi perhaps being the closer or better still The Sabbath Stones. But that's a minor gripe.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

My ranking of the songs is:


1. The Sabbath Stones
2. The Law Maker
3. Anno Mundi
4. Heaven in Black
5. The Viking Trilogy
6= Feels Good To Me
6= Jerusalem

[Zzzptm]

Coming in late, I like Valhalla and Heaven in Black. The rest of the side isn't necessary.

[Jack the Stripper]

I like  “Heaven in Black” as well but agree with Kilo in that it doesn’t really fit as an album closer. I personally would’ve swapped it in the track sequencing with  “The Sabbath Stones” but that doesn’t take away from the fact it’s still a good hard rockin  song. I actually get a bit of a Rainbow vibe from this track with that fast simple alternate picking riff accompanied with those keyboards behind it and Cozy’s relentless drumming, love that opening drum roll.

It also has this rather neat Maiden -esque like celtic playing from Tony after the main solo which is quite different for him but compliments the song really well.

Martins delivery can be hit or miss for me but its spot on for this particular track, he doesn’t over do it or get too repetitive and the lyrics are really interesting in that they tell the story of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible who had architect that built him St Basils Cathedral’s eyes blinded in order to prevent him from building anything as magnificent again for anyone else. Excellent song all round.

[Charger]

I'm not gonna mess this one up for you guys either but I will say that as a whole this is better than Headless Cross. The overall quality of the songs is much steadier...
Well part from Feels Good To Me which has to be the worst song since the Never Say Die album. Very commercial power ballad feel, extremely un Sabbath like....and Heaven In Black has a bit of a meh feel to it as well.

The rest however are very good...The Sabbath Stones, Anno Mundi, The Law Maker and especially the Valhalla trilogy are all suberb. Tony also showed that he can be very versatile with his lyrics...not everything has to be about the devil.

Overall rating for this one I'd say

* * * *

[Jack the Stripper]

So in summing up TYR I think it’s a more focused and cohesive album than Headless Cross as well as a more consistent listen all the way through. There’s no real clunkers like there are on HC. It’s still far from a great Sabbath album but still a decent listen all the same.

Album Rating 5.5/10

Song Ranking
1. The Sabbath Stones
2. Anno Mundi
3. Feels Good To Me
4. Heaven In Black
5. The Battle Of Tyr/ Odin’s Court/ Valhalla
6.The Lawmaker
7. Jerusalem

[Zzzptm]

I think we're all pretty much agreeing that it's a better set than Headless Cross. I'm wondering what was going on in my life when I first got the CD that I didn't warm to it more when I first got it.