Geezer Butler talks Born Again: “Some of the songs are great"

Geezer Butler and Born Again cover — (Image credit: Vertigo / Rick Kern/FilmMagic)

Geezer Butler has stood up for maligned Black Sabbath album Born Again, saying there was great music and great performances on the record.

It’s generally agreed not to be one of the best records in the metal icons’ catalogue, although it’s also agreed there are worse ones. But the 1983 release – their only one with Ian Gillan – also marked the point at which Sabbath began to spin into the wilderness.

“Some of the songs on there are great,” bassist Butler insisted during a recent appearance on the Eddie Trunk Show (via Metal Injection). “I thought the band sounded great. I mean, we're playing great on there. I thought Gillan was singing better than ever.”

He listed Zero The Hero, Trashed and the title track as songs containing “some great riffs” and continued: “It was great doing the album – but somehow the mix didn’t get done right. I thought the mix wasn’t great on it, but I listened to it about six months ago, I thought it was a really good album.”

Last year Tony Iommi told Trunk that his long search for the Born Again master tapes had been successful. “They discovered where they were in some library in some record company somewhere. Obviously, I'd love to do that – I'd love to get that one sounding right.

“I think that was a really good album. And when we’d first done it in the studio, it sounded great. But when it came out on record, it was really muffly and not good. So I want to try and do something with that.”

Artists

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.