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The mighty wall of power
In a recent interview with News-in-24 Tony Iommi mentioned that the multitrack tapes for Born Again, which for a long time were considered lost, have apparently been found:
[…] I’m also thinking of remixing the album “Born Again”, the one with Ian Gillan, now that we have found the original tapes.
Thanks to BraveWords for the heads up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
This is fantastic news. Born Again was a dream combination of Sabbath musicianship and Gillan’s otherworldly vocals. A remix will bring out its true glories.
June 27th, 2021 at 13:35That’s quite big news!
June 27th, 2021 at 13:50If something could profit from a remix (even to the casual listener), it’s this one.
That’s great news. It will certainly get some attention when released …. and while they are at it, give it a new album cover.
June 27th, 2021 at 14:45Come on Tony we all counting on you to do justice with this album. I recall what Ian Gillan said when he heard the mix and saw album cover and I quote him saying,, ‘he nearly puked!!’
June 27th, 2021 at 17:07Peace
Born Again & Sabotage are both desperate for a proper remix, there are probably a few other Sabbath albums as well as those two. The drum sound when the heavy riffs & the lead guitar kicks in disappears, especially the toms & kick drum. Appalling that that was ever allowed to occur & haven’t they been re releasing Sabotage recently, remastered only of course. Sure I may be biased being a drummer, however I always remember Iommi saying when Cozy joined the band, that he showed him how important a proper drum sound is in hard rock music. Ian Paice was at the mixing desk with Purple for a good reason. Never leave your instrument to be mixed without your contribution to the over all album mix. Pesky drummers, you can’t take them anywhere. Cheers.
June 27th, 2021 at 20:59I Zknow Gillan always had those tapes, he said it over and over ..
June 27th, 2021 at 22:00Anyway it is a great new.
FANTASTICO!!!
I love Born Again!
Great Big Ian!❤
My favorite Black Sabbath album, hopefully this will come true. Been hoping for this for some time since hearing Gillan talk about the mix.
June 27th, 2021 at 23:31I bought the vinyl when it first came out. The album cover is a mess, but I always thought the red handwritten lyrics on the inside record liner were pretty cool. Somewhere along the line I think I had heard/read it was Gillan’s handwriting, I’m not 100% certian.
June 28th, 2021 at 00:46Deep Purple & Black Sabbath make up the majority of my music listening. This is a very underrated album IMO that both fan bases ought to endear. If Tony can improve the mix from the master tapes, then I am buying.
June 28th, 2021 at 04:08One of my favourite Sabbath albums.Check out the reissue from a few years back with the bonus cd live at Reading ’83.
June 28th, 2021 at 10:35Gillan and the band are on fire… probably the best ever live version of Black Sabbath.
@ 8
Sure: it is his handwriting
@ 5
Sabotage has a good mystical dark sound imho from the graves..
Ciaoo my friends.
June 28th, 2021 at 16:11I have also Live In Worcester: Born In Hell!
June 28th, 2021 at 16:35Suuuuupeeerrb!!
Very heavy! Very evil!
Regarding Sabbath’s sound & problems with album production etc, it began with Volume 4. They went much heavier with that overall sound & that is where the mix started to suffer, especially the bottom end clarity. It improved a little with SBS but went down again with Sabotage. They should never have self produced & if they had someone like Birch & not the other ‘producers’ who were helping out in regards to production, some of their albums may have sounded better. Easier said than done of course looking at it from hindsight.
June 28th, 2021 at 22:41A considerable improvement occurred when Martin ‘The Wasp’ Birch entered the fray at H&H & Mob Rules. Alas, a return to the self produced muddy production & a new engineer/ producer for Born Again. Tony Iommi started to dabble with Mesa Boogie amps at that time from my memory, a brutal sound & much heavier in some ways, but far too much emphasis on the guitar & vocal. Throw in the hedonistic party attitude & Bill Ward falling back into alcoholism & there you have it.
No one sitting at the helm ensuring the album is mixed properly & a decent album cover is added. Embarrassing really how Sabbath left things to other people when they themselves were not present at times. Hopefully now we can get a decent sound from a few muddy albums, although that will not change how they were recorded in the first place. Bring it on & please remix Sabotage & Volume 4. Cheers.
The first & foremost we have to hope for is that the original master tapes are in good condition. Hopefully they are in excellent condition. We need a cracking version of Disturbing the Priest, not to mention a few others. Cheers.
June 29th, 2021 at 02:14Don’t forget: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IAN PAICE!
June 29th, 2021 at 09:23Have a nice Day!
Great album, such power!
June 29th, 2021 at 15:46I hope the feel will not be gone by remixing the album.
For example the remixed Megadeth’s Youthanasia sounds like complete garbage to me. Ok, the drums sound 80’s-ish with a lot of reverb, but that kind of defined a lot of the sound and all the other instruments had to fit in with this particular drum sound. So if you take one element out, there may be a problem with the overall sound in the end.
Maybe Steven Wilson could be of interest here 😉
Really looking forward to this one!
I’m with Sebastian: Born Again’s murky production as if heard through a fever dream is part of its dark, unsettling charm.
It’s not so much a bad production as a totally idiosyncratic one. At the time, no album I had heard sounded like it, yet it turned out to be a progenitor of Grunge a couple of years later. When I heard Nirvana and Alice in Chains for the first time, I immediately thought of Born Again. I don’t believe that a, say, Martin Birch production would have achieved the same effect, technically superior as it might have been. To me, the production of Born Again is a somewhat opaque sonic behemoth creating an otherworldly atmosphere of unease; whether you hear individual instruments well – Gillan’s voice came out fine to the point of being overbearing (as some Sab fans complained at the time) – is secondary to that.
But I’m all for a new remix as long as the original mix (pimped with a good remaster) is retained alongside as well. If our resident Scottish Lil’ Drummer Boy apparently wants a Bill Ward drum clinic sound (for the uninitiated: that is what drummers always want in the studio, whether it fits the music or not!), who am I to stand in his way? : – )
BTW, Herr MacGregor, just because of you I have meanwhile amazoned Cozy’s work with Jeff Beck!
June 30th, 2021 at 09:48Happy Birthday Ian Paice n0# 73 💖🎂
June 30th, 2021 at 12:33So looking forward to this. My favorite Gillan Album by far. So glad I got to see that tour and record it. What a shame there is no pro-shot concert footage of that tour. Hard to believe considering the magnitude of this collaboration between these giants.
June 30th, 2021 at 15:00@ 17- I just realised that I could be the ‘Scottish Lil’ Drummer Boy’ you may be talking about. I didn’t notice that comment until I looked today. As I am about 8 feet tall & built like the proverbial ‘brick shit house’ & brandish a huge Claymore & wear a massive kilt, I didn’t think it was me at all. Maybe some other crazed Scotsman who happened to defend the vanquished drummers of this world. Ok that is now sorted & where were we? Ah, the Born Again album remix saga. Obviously the sound of the recorded instruments cannot be changed & nor should it. My issue is with the levels or incorrect levels of all the instruments. They should be able to be equally or thereabouts set, so a lead guitar solo doesn’t totally obliterate everything in it’s path. The lead vocals are also too high in the mix & Ian Gillan’s vocal definitely does not need pushing any higher, pun intended! The album remixed should sound as it already does, hopefully a little clearer, cleaned up somewhat & everything sounding louder than everything else. Cheers.
July 4th, 2021 at 09:03Look forward to this, well overdue!!
A live CD would be appreciated. Gillan screaming his head off, brilliant.
July 16th, 2021 at 15:11