Tony Martin and Tony Iommi Explain Why Black Sabbath Album ‘Tyr’ Was So Different
Black
Sabbath’s
15th
studio
album,
1990’s
Tyr,
was
definitely
a
departure
for
the
legendary
metal
band
as
then-vocalist
Tony
Martin
shifted
from
Satanic
themes
to
those
of
Norse
mythology.
In
a
new
interview
on
guitarist
Tony
Iommi’s
YouTube
channel
(transcribed
by
Metal
Injection),
Martin
and
Iommi
explained
the
sudden
departure
in
style,
with
Martin
explaining
that
it
was
largely
an
attempt
to
move
away
from
the
signature
styles
of
both
of
Sabbath’s
other
two
most
prominent
vocalists,
Ozzy
Osbourne
and
Ronnie
James
Dio.
Explains
Martin:
“I
couldn’t
really
do
Ozzy’s
kind
of
thing,
and
Ronnie’s
thing
was
unique
to
him,
so
I’m
searching
now.
I
thought,
theme…
‘Vikings.
I
could
write
a
whole
thing
around
that.’
I
started,
but
see
by
that
time
we
were
doing
a
lot
of
harmonies,
which
Sabbath
hadn’t
done
before.“Geoff
was
playing
keyboards
and
I
was
doing
harmonies
and
it
started
to
get
bit
mad.
Cozy
Powell
said
‘I
haven’t
heard
harmonies
like
that
since
Three
Dog
Night.’
So
I
said
‘is
that
too
much?’
He
said
‘no,
no
keep
going.’
So
I
persevered
with
it,
really.
The
melodies
sort
of
bubbled
up
and
became
what
they
were.
But
I
did
enjoy
doing
it.”
Iommi
then
chimed
in
with
this:
“It
was
the
lineup
at
that
time,
what
we
were
presenting
at
that
time.
It
was
good.
You
can’t
always
just
do
exactly
the
same
thing,
and
it
was
presenting
it
in
a
different
way.
We
had
riffs,
but
then
the
way
Tony
sang
and
the
way
we
presented
the
songs
was
different.”
On
the
one
hand,
it
makes
sense
not
to
copy
other
singers
from
the
band’s
past.
On
the
other
hand,
the
band
is
called
Black
Sabbath
and
not
Black
Midsummer,
so
you
do
come
to
expect
more
satanic
themes
from
them.
But
it’s
probably
for
the
best
that
they
switched
things
up
from
time
to
time.