• AllMyVinyl #114
• Band: Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi
• Album Title: Seventh Star
• Release Date: 28 Jan 1986
• Date purchased: 28 Jan 1986
• Location purchased: Unknown, probably Sam Goody
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | My Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

“Don’t leave me standing here….. ”

This album came out in the midst of the 80’s when Black Sabbath was at its most confusing in terms of lineup changes.  The album immediately before this (Born Again) had 3 of the 4 founding members on it.  This one had one.  In fact, most of the next several after this had just one.  But the people around the one changed all the time.  As this came out in an era before websites, social media, and all that.  I knew to some extent the lineup had changed yet again, but I wasn’t expecting it quite THIS much.  Gone were Ian Gillan, Geezer Butler, & Bill Ward.  In their places were guys who were mostly known for being in Lita Ford’s band – and for the second album in a row, a former vocalist from Deep Purple sings all the songs here.  However, I was still relatively new in my Sabbath fandom (this was only the second album they put out new after I got into them).  And Tony Iommi was here, so that’s all that really mattered to me.

I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of how this album came together because I’ve already done that a lot over on my Black Sabbath site – if you’re interested, check out my timeline page where I break down ALL the lineup changes in the entire history.  But suffice it to say the lineup here was much different than we had before this.  This album was supposed to be a Tony Iommi solo album (as is well known), but the record company wanted a Black Sabbath record – the compromise is the oddly titled official band name here – “Black Sabbath Featuring Tony Iommi”.  The album has a much lighter sound and tone than most Sabbath albums.  It’s not like it’s bad or anything – far from it.  But it does sound like it was born from a different place than say the Born Again album which was heavy AF.  This is not, but still has some awesome music on it, despite the name, and despite the lineup changes.

As this was the second studio album they released new after I got into them, I was well aware it was coming, and was there on Day 1 to buy it.  What I don’t remember in 2025 is if I bought the vinyl and cassette at the same time, or what.  I actually do have both still with me in 2025.  The cassette tape I thought was cool looking because back then, US Warner cassette tapes all had a standard look.  Black clam shell, the artwork was in a square on the cover, and the bottom half was all black with the album title and band name there – but it was the same across all the cassettes of that era.  So much so if you line them up, you’ll see what I mean there.  Seventh Star broke the mold of what a Sabbath album pre-recorded cassette tape looked like (at least in the US anyway). Even the cassette itself wasn’t solid white, it was clear – which gave it a fancy look (I thought at the time).  I played the SHIT out of this – I’m really surprised I didn’t have to break down and buy another copy, but the cassette was my main driver as this came during peak Walkman years for me.

One other thing about the cover I wanted to point out.  As I was still in the era of staring at vinyl covers and trying to figure them out, I always felt the picture of Tony looking forlorn was a direct commentary on him being the lone remaining original member left – something that will crop up again in this article).  I mean it probably wasn’t, but that was always my take from it.   The cassette tape doesn’t have this picture of Tony on the front cover.  I always wondered about the art direction choice to not have that on the cover and just have the background art for the cover take center stage.  Always wondered why that decision was made, because it makes the cassette cover different than the other copies (CD, vinyl).

The vinyl was a survivor of my mom’s basement, and the cassette tape has been with me all along.  Oddly I did discover a picture from my office in 1996 that has a copy of Seventh Star on vinyl, but I don’t know where THAT copy came from, because when my brother shipped my old vinyl collection to me, my OG Seventh Star was there.  The picture that was taken of me in June 1996 where I had a vinyl Seventh Star..  I don’t know where that copy came from.  Or went for that matter, because in 2020 when I got a record player I had no copies of it in my possession (on vinyl).  It’s a mystery.  Somewhere in the 80’s I got it on CD too – but not from Warner Bros in the US.  Oddly Seventh Star was not released domestically on CD in the States.  I had to import it from some Europe – the copy I got then was printed in Germany, and cost me like $35 for the CD back in like 1988 or so.   I still have all these copies to this day, and of course in 2010 I got the 2 CD Universal Deluxe Edition.  So I have plenty of copies of this lying around.

If you look at the copy of my vinyl as shown in the attached pictures, you can see the tell-tale signs of an album that’s old – the outline of the platter itself is quite visible on the outside artwork.  Also, when I started playing it, I had issues with pops and skips.  Even on just “In for the Kill” I had a skip that it wouldn’t get past.  I worked around it, but when I continued having issues, I had to abandon actually playing the vinyl and switched over to my ripped CD to complete listening to the album. Tried cleaning it and everything, but had too many issues.  So I really do need a vinyl reprint as my lone copy (RIP 1996 other copy) seems unplayable.  Sad.  That brings up one more issue. What I’d like for them to do is reprint it on vinyl again using the contents of the deluxe Edition CD, make it a nice double vinyl.  I mean why not one more version of it?  I could use it myself, honestly.

The majority of this album is the same lineup of people playing.  Tony Iommi (guitar), Glenn Hughes (vocals), Geoff Nicholls (keys), Eric Singer (drums), & Dave Spitz (bass).  There’s one exception to that, I’ll mention that below when I get to it.

Anyway, enough blather, lets get to some music.

In For the Kill – This song honestly for me fit a pattern.  The last several Black Sabbath studio albums before this all had this kind of fast paced song leading things off.  I mean go back and look.  Neon Knights, Turn up the Night, & Trashed – all fit that mold.  In For the Kill is no different.  It’s a 3:42 fast paced song that showcases both Glenn Hughes & Tony Iommi’s strengths.  I especially love Iommi’s solo on this track.  Specifically the sound made when coming out of the solo and back to the chorus (at 2:28).  The first half of the solo has a sound that is a little different than the traditional Iommi solo – which really works for me.  It’s as I’ve said many times my favorite type of song – 3  to 4 minute fast track, and has a really cool Iommi solo.  Thought it was a banger right out of the gate.  Sadly as far as I know this was never performed live.

No Stranger to Love – This is the song that I think caused a lot of long time Sabbath fans to jump off the bandwagon – Sabbath’s “jump the shark” moment if you will.  While I don’t hate it, it’s definitely not one of my top songs.  it’s not like it’s bad or anything – it just doesn’t jump out at ya.  It’s a ballad for one thing, and it was also the lead single.  I always felt it was an odd choice for a lead single.  They should have one with something like Danger Zone, Turn to Stone, or In for the Kill as a lead single, but no – they went with the ballad.  My guess is it was a record label choice.  I mean it sounds like Iommi – and Sabbath certain did slower songs/ballads in the past – that’s not new.  What is new is that it’s mostly dominated by keyboards in its sound.  Oh sure, Iommi is on this, but he’s not the dominant instrument except for the solo, which even that is a bit restrained.  I tend to go back and forth with this song. Sometimes I get really into it, and the slower vibe works for me.  Some days it goes the other way and it bores me.  Today I’m leaning towards the “I want something faster mood”, but if I wrote this in another month maybe I’ll feel differently.  It’s an odd beast for sure in that my moods on it swing so far over the place.  The original single version is slightly different too – a different mix in the chorus where there’s background vocals too with Glenn’s.  It’s a WAY different sound than Sabbath has ever done, and might the exact moment people were turned off.  That version was only used on the single, and on the music video.  It’s also included on the 2CD Deluxe Edition of the album from 2010.

The music video.  The album got just one (as albums in this era did), and it’s well, odd.  It’s got Tony sitting in a car around a desolate looking area – a factory district somewhere?  He’s meeting up with a girl (more on that in a minute), he hugs her then walks off around the streets here he’s followed by her ghost who pops up in a weird sci-fi way?  Then he gets in the car again and drives off.  All while a dog is running around the area for no apparent reason.  I have to assume the dog was Tony’s dog at the time.  All through this closeup footage of Tony & Glenn is dropped in. There’s occasional shots of Dave Spitz & Eric Singer, but not very often. The entire thing is in black & white which adds to the oddness of it.  It’s just kind of “there”.  The girl in question is Denise Crosby who is more well known for being Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Some time ago I found a video of her being asked at a Star Trek convention how she got involved in the Sabbath video.  I’ve included that on my blog below.  The video is just at two minutes, it’s worth checking out.  It’s obvious Denise doesn’t get asked this much based on her reaction.

This song is the one with a band exception.  The bass on this song is played by Gordon Copley, not Dave Spitz.  The reason for this is that in the earliest days of this project, some of the band Tony was using was basically Lita Ford’s band as Iommi & Ford were dating then – he just kind of used those musicians, one of which was Copley, but only this song has him on the final version.  Singer was another that came from there.

But to wrap up No Stranger to Love – it’s a very divisive song in the overall Sabbath catalog – as I said above, I’ve had moments where I like it, and moments where I don’t like it – depending on what day you ask me.  Today – I’m kind of “meh” about it, but get back to me in a month or so.  It might change.

Turn to Stone – A track much in the vein of In For the Kill.  Turn to Stone is 3:29 and is another fast track, one of my favorites.  Starts off with a drum intro that definitely doesn’t sound like Bill Ward’s style of playing.  Not that it’s bad, but if you didn’t know that, you’d listen and go “hang on, that’s not Bill”.  Tony has a cool guitar thing – right before going into the solo there’s some notes that remind me a little (just a LITTLE) of what Steve Van did with DLR in making the guitar “talk”.  It’s not the main part of the song, but it’s not the kind of thing that Tony did with his guitar usually.  As I recall, when I saw them on this tour, they did do this live.   It’s a slight step down from In to the Kill, but I still enjoy it – has another great Iommi solo.

Sphinx (The Guardian). This is a very short intro that leads right into the next song – separating this out into its own song kind of makes me think they’re doing that thing they did on the first couple of albums by faking you out making you think there’s more songs here actually.  You know that “Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener” stuff?   There’s nothing wrong with this piece of music, it’s basically just Geoff Nicholls noodling around on the keys for a minute before it goes into the next track.

Seventh Star – This is another one that I thought worked well.  I do love the slow beat here.  It doesn’t vary too much – it’s pretty solid and simple beat that runs through it, but in combination with Glenn’s vocals, it works super well for me.  Sometimes those songs that keep the same beat the whole way through don’t work as much for me, but this one does.  Tony’s not playing on top of the song, he’s mixed in with everything else.  It’s a very well balanced track.  I have no bloody clue what the lyrics are about.  I get the feeling if they did this track back around the Vol 4 album, it would have that classic Sabbath sludge sound.  You can sort of hear it, but the mid 80’s production values are all over this song.  I know it sounds like I’m building the song up and tearing it down.  I’m not – not really.  I do genuinely love the song, I just feel it could have been an all time Sabbath classic if it had production values from a decade prior.

Danger Zone – This starts off with a riff I quite like.  I also like the drum and bass parts – great rhythm.  It’s not complicated musically – it’s one of the more simple tracks, but those can work – this one does.  This also one where I like Glenn’s vocals more than the tune itself.  Tony sounds like he’s playing both lead and rhythm together in the solo section.  I mean he could be multi tracking of course, but it sounds cool.  Not a ton to say here – it’s a fairly straightforward song that works, for me mostly due to what Glenn Does.

Heart Like a Wheel – This is the absolute best song on the album.  It was quite an epic track the first time I heard it, and it remains awesome to this day.  6:37 piece of awesomeness.  It contains some of my all time favorite Iommi riffing.  It harkens back to the old blues sound early Sabbath had.  While Black Sabbath isn’t generally the kind of band for me that gives me that “close your eyes and let the song wash over you” feel, this song does.  The beat is solid – some good old fashioned power blues.  But with the vocal dexterity of Glenn Hughes doing what he does, and some Iommi guitar work that feels like it would be right out of some of those early 70’s live jams we’ve heard (or even on Warning from the first album).  This is a masterpiece of a song, some top shelf stuff.  When I tell people to listen to non Ozzy era Sabbath, this one always gets a recommend from me.   Had to play this twice.  It also has a fade IN as well as a fade OUT, something you don’t normally see.  This song will remind you why Iommi is as good as he is.  It’s not just things like Iron Man – it’s stuff like this too which remind me of how damn good he is.

It also didn’t get forgotten about after the Seventh Star tour.  It was played at the lone 1988 Black Sabbath gig – the charity show with Tony Martin on vocals and Geoff Nicholls on BASS. It also was played in part on the Tyr tour when Neil Murray came out of a bass solo – not the whole thing, but it was great to see it pop up there.  The 88 charity show was the only time it was played in full outside the Seventh Star tour.

Angry Heart – This song I always had a bit of a weird relationship with.  It’s got a slower pace in general.  It’s well placed right off of Heart – it’s not like that sonically, but I thought it was paired well. Geoff’s keys as an accent here work very well, I think.  It’s another one where I think I should know what the words were about, but I never figured it out, even sitting here and reading them now beyond “relationships?” – not exactly the usual Sabbath lyrical content – but then this isn’t a standard Black Sabbath album I suppose.   The last minute of this song I like – Glenn’s vocals have a smoothness to them that isn’t seen anywhere else on the album.  Not like his vocals are bad here, but what he does with his delivery in that section is a bit different than anything else on the album,, and I quite like it.  The last minute of the song takes it down musically because it’s essentially a lead in to the last song.  So much so that it almost feels like one song broken out into two.   Specifically the way this section is handled – it’s by far my favorite moment of the song – it has some EXCELLENT vocals by Hughes.

“And it’s been this way since time began
It’s an endless journey, it’s the fate of man
To live each day and never understand
And it’s been this way since time began
It’s a desperate search for a master plan
And the years slip by like water through your hands”

In Memory… – Keep in mind what I’m about to say was from 21 year old me that didn’t know what I know now about Black Sabbath’s overall band backstory.  But when this was new, I honestly thought this song was about Tony’s thoughts on being the only remaining member from OG Black Sabbath.  I mean several parts of these lyrics speak to that to me still.  The “Friend” being original Black Sabbath..

“No one told me the way I should feel
You left an aching heart
Lost and lonely, the feeling goes on
You were the one friend I had
You gave me so much love
Now the tears remind me you’re gone

It still haunts me there’s a silence
Where you used to be
It still haunts me
Just an empty space in history
It still haunts me
But life must go on, and on”

I mean it really isn’t about that, but I can still feel that old feeling of mine now.   Musically there’s not much to this song, it’s short, doesn’t go much of anywhere.  If I were ranking the songs in order like the Deep Purple Podcast guys do – this would be last.  It’s the least enjoyable song on the album, but it does still bring up those old memories I had in 1986 of what the song was about, so that’s good for me personally.

To sum this one up…   The first in the Iommi / Hughes trilogy of albums is one that I still enjoy today.  There’s a lot to like, some glorious shit on this album (Heart Like a Wheel), and a lot of tracks that I like a lot (In For the Kill, Seventh Star), while most of the album is decent, but not great – only really one stinker IMO.   Arguably the other two Iommi/Hughes albums (96 DEP Sessions & Fused) are probably better, but that’s not to say this is a bad album – it isn’t.  I played the ever lovin’ shit out of this when it was new in 1986.  I still listen to it from time to time – and when I did today, I enjoyed it very much.

The album is perhaps not on the top of the heap insofar as Black Sabbath albums go, but it’s definitely better than its reputation would have you believe.  It’s got Iommi on it, so there’s no way it can be bad.  Get it out and give it a listen again.

It also turns 40 next year.  What the fuck.

Video Remark (28 Jan 2025): The No Stranger to Love music video has yet to be officially re-released by Tony Iommi, as such I have to make due to with what’s out there from fans.  The first one below has the video more intact, but someone has replaced the original audio with the version from the album.  The second one is the original version, but it’s culled from the old 1992 era VHS tape “The Black Sabbath Story Vol 2” where it has voiceovers from Geoff Nicholls & Tony Iommi on it.  But it does have the original single/video edit of the song I mentioned above.

Getting this one out just in time on the anniversary day (posted at about 10:15PM Central time in the US).  :)

I did notice today that on the original 1986 vinyl, Glenn Hughes & Geoff Nicholls’ names were both spelled wrong on the paper sleeve that holds the actual vinyl disc. If this gets reprinted, they’ll have to correct that.  Whoops.