Cross Purposes - Song By Song

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

It is no secret that this is my favourite Sabbath album outside of the Dio albums and the best of the Ozzy albums and I rank it No. 6 on the Sabbath listing. It's probably not a coincidence that Geezer stays on for this album but I suspect the lyrics are all Martin, but that's not to say he didn't offer suggestions.

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We start with I Witness. A nice uptempo but not super fast introduction to the album. It has a nice groovy riff, Martin is fine on this but I have no idea what the lyrics are about ! Far from the best song on the album but not bad at all, a good start.

[Zzzptm]

I love the opener, hits on all key points. I don't pay attention to the lyrics, but the singing sounds just fine. The riff and feel have a lot of Dehumanizer energy in them, which is a great thing. Iommi has a great solo and Geezer/Rondinelli lay down a strong rhythm groove. I don't hear any cheesy synths, so yeah!

[Vyn]

Cross Purposes, wherein we see the return of The Cat. I actually like this release better than the previous several, overall. I Witness is a decent tune, and I would probably like it better (along with the rest of the album) if it wasn't Black Sabbath. That's just my problem

[Zzzptm]

if it wasn't Black Sabbath

The Dio-era lineup got branded "Heaven and Hell". What would the brand for the Martin-era lineups be? The Headless Idols? The Cross Cross?

[Vyn]

The Dio-era lineup got branded "Heaven and Hell". What would the brand for the Martin-era lineups be? The Headless Idols? The Cross Cross?

The Undulating Contract Fulfillers?

The Throw Away Band?

Seriously though, Sabbath's output up to Born Again set a high bar in my mind, and whereas the material after that is all good stuff in its own right, it has always been "lesser" when held up to that bar. To me, of course

[Jack the Stripper]

Cross Purposes definitely has some remnants of Dehumanizer on it with Tony’s tone and riffing. Seems Tony was still very much in that Dehumanizer mode when writing and recording this album which was very welcome by me at the time.

Also enjoy Martin’s grittier vocals and him showing more restraint with his delivery which was probably deliberate on his behalf with his voice issues staring to surface at the time. He was also really starting to better understand vocal melody with Tony’s playing and his lyrics were more real life subject matter which I also prefer.

 “I Witness“ is good start to the album with a great groovy riff and loads of energy in the bass and drumming. My only nitpicks are that it does seem to take forever to get to the hook and that slow doomy breakdown riff right at the end could’ve really taken this song to another level had it went longer with Geezer & Bobby allowed to play of it.

Good strong opener though.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Cross of Thorns comes next. I think this is a contender for the best track on the album and if it had been a couple of minutes longer it would have been a shoe in. A short epic with multi-facets to it, a gentle verse, heavy chorus, repeat, heavy mid-section and gentle finish. One of Martins best vocal performances and one of the reasons I think he's underrated.

[Zzzptm]

I hear the synths on Cross of Thorns, which makes me wonder if this track will go over to the cheesy side. It's restrained, overall, in the slow parts, which does help with its intensity and delivery, as it gives somewhere to go with the louder parts or if it wants to have a fast section. The chorus does get louder, but not faster, with a fluid bass part that we've been missing in other Martin-era works save Daisley's work on Eternal Idol. As it so happens, it does not take on a fast section, but I don't think it's the poorer for it. It's not a power ballad - it's a proper slow song with some good contrasts in terms of dynamics and playing.

But we're gonna need a fast song, next...

[Jack the Stripper]

Not much a fan of the next track “Cross of Thorns.” Leans back too much into 80’s Martin cheesy AOR fare. The keyboards don’t help either and are too high in the mix for my liking. Tony’s acoustic riff is a little monotonous and boring but I quite like the riff when he switches to his heavy tone. His solo is killer also. It would’ve been better if the song started with the slow acoustic part and then not revisited it until the very end. It’s not a terrible song or anything but it’s just too typical in his structure and delivery. 

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Psychophobia*

A nice uptempo rocker, a good fast riff, a nice fast vocals from the Tony's. The lyrics may be a little controversial as they may refer to the departure of Dio "It's time to kiss the rainbow goodbye", The last two verse I particulalry like they have a fluid rhythm to them that I really like.



* I fancied playing with the fonts

[Zzzptm]

A number of songs on Cross Purposes remind me of other bands. This one reminds me of Led Zeppelin in terms of how the song builds, develops, and flows. It also reminds me of St. Vitus Dance as a fast number that doesn't faff about very much at all.

[Jack the Stripper]

Psychophobia seems a little grunge influenced in the playing and his fairly heavy but the vocal melody and delivery sounds uninspired and let’s the song down.The whole songs sounds pretty unmemorable actually and the lack of a guitar solo which was a very grunge thing to do at the time doesn’t help. Nothing really gets me enthused about this song except Tony’s riffage is quite heavy.  Maybe it would’ve worked better as an instrumental.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Virtual Death

This is a strange one. I don't dislike it but it is probably the weakest song on the album IMO. A slow, dirge, where the music is minimalist but still quite heavy. It doesn't really excite me it is okay.

[Zzzptm]

Virtual Death... Sabbath in Chains?

I can certainly pass over this track, as I'm not really a fan of Alice in Chains.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Immaculate Deception

This song takes an age to get going, the opening riff is uninspired and repetitive (very un-Iommi-like) the chorus is basically just the uptempo drumming! But then it gets going and I really enjoy the second half of the song, Martin sings it well and it has a nice solo, but this song is Rondinelli's with some great drumming.