You read a lot about how Sabbath apparently became cool again in the US in the '90s due to their influence on grunge and alt metal, but did the "grunge godfathers" tag actually do anything to help them at the time or was this just a retrospective thing people took up following the reunion of the original lineup in 1997? Despite still being successful in Europe, Sabbath were floundering in America during the Tony Martin era and were stuck playing clubs and small theaters, while Dehumanizer heavily underperformed in the States (while doing worse than Tyr in Europe) despite a heavy marketing push from Warner Brothers.
>>131385150That's because the Tony Martin era stunk and had nothing to do with what made Sabbath great or influential to the people who were praising them at the time.
>>131385150it was the original stuff those people cared about, none of the "cool" bands talking up sabbath in the press at the time was influenced (or even if they were they wouldn't admit it) by mob rules or eternal idol or whatever probably not so much in europe and japan because they never really gave up on sabbath in the 80s but that original line-up reunion was a huge deal in the usa at the time
Dehumanizer was a good album and no amount of gaslighting and diaper shitting by /mu/ will change that
>>131387159I didn't think anyone really disliked Dehumanizer.
>>131385150>Sabbath apparently became cool again in the US in the '90s due to their influence on grunge and alt metalDid things really work that way back in the 90s? I can’t imagine an artist or genre getting a significant bump in popularity today just because someone like Olivia Rodrigo or the guy from Geese reps it.
>>131387992It sounds like a meme but Cobain really did that for several bands, whether he was aware of it or not. And also, the 20 year cycle applies. late 60s-early 70s art in general was coming back much like 50s aesthetics, especially space age and rockabilly, were en vogue in the 80s, and so on.
>>131387992Neil Young had a serious resurgence after getting discarded by the music industry due to grunge bands in general and Pearl Jam specifically often bringing him up to the point of making an album together. This also brought back Crazy Horse which was the greatest thing that any of the Pearl Jam guys have ever done.
>>131388021This is true. He got a bigger bump in that period than any other “has beens”
>>131387992So many alternative acts got their major label contracts simply because Cobain name dropped them in an interview. There was no way those risk averse vampires would sign an act called something like Butthole Surfers otherwise.
>>131385150Their musical cred was set in stone because of their back catalog. Whatever they were doing 20 years after that wasn't all that relevant and didn't have to be
>>131385150>Sabbath apparently became cool again in the US in the '90sno they didnt. i lived through the 90s and had no idea this band was even together back then or at any time they were so ignored. nobody bought their music and they never had any hits>>131388021>Neil Young had a serious resurgenceno he didnt. he got dragged out on stage by pearl jam once, but nobody cared. its not like aeosmith and how they came back in the 80s and had continued success
>>131385150Ewww the Tony Martin lineup. When they forgot how to write good songs.
>>131387992Yes, there was also a general trend in the 90s of people rediscovering music from the 60s and 70s and a lot of musical artists actively promoted and even covered their music. A lot of that had to do with people growing tired of the 80s music scene and feeling like they needed to "look back" for influence.
>>131387992Roy Orbison, Gary US Bonds, and Del Shannon were revived by their fanboys.
>>131388921>There was no way those risk averse vampires would sign an act called something like Butthole Surfers otherwiseThat was no more unprecedented than the R&B sounds of the early 50s becoming mainstream pop in 7-8 more years.
>>131391917Look to today's underground, it will tell you what the mainstream will be like in 20 years, so the saying goes.
Nobody bought those late 80s-early 90s Sabbath albums except in Europe and Japan.
>>131385150I remember hearing Faith No More's cover of War Pig and thinking it was keeno...not sure what year- 89? 90?
>>131385150Tony Martin was a decent studio singer but that guy couldn't perform live worth a shit.He had zero stage presence and was always a poor choice for a frontman. Dio''s comeback unfortunately arrived at a time when metal was at a low point in the United States. Metal was already on the decline by 1992 and absolutely bottomed out in the mid 90's before finally making a recovery. If Dio had stuck with the band throughout the remainder of the 90's I think that lineup would have achieved great success eventually but unfortunately he left again paving the way for Ozzy to return. I don't hate Ozzy reuniting with Sabbath but it killed the bands momentum. They just became a greatest hits after that and while it definitely helped Iommi and Geezer make money it basically killed their creativity.
>>131385150On one hand, there's a sort of generational divide between grunge and metal where bands like AiC would open for the likes of Anthrax but they never returned the favor, which broke an unwritten law in music (the one that makes it look like all older musicians are "friends"). On the other, a 20 year gap was huge in an ever changing music landscape. People who went to see NIN in the early 90s would often complain about the "weird old guy" Trent chose to open for him. It was Bowie.
>>131392789it couldn't be worse than the Stones bringing along various rock-and-roll and R&B boomers from the 50s on tour with them
>>131385150It was a different band. Only the doomy era of Sabbath had an influence on grunge.
>>131392817I mean, they did. A lot of black musicians from the 50s like Bo Diddley and stuff would be touring with 70s rock groups and they were guys the black audience had long since dropped and considered dinosaurs, it was like w/e you white folks can have them.
>>131392677what you can do with your music depends a lot on the singer, different singers allowed them to explore different playing styles and arrangements
>>131387992The "Nativity in Black" and "Masters of Misery" tribute albums might have helped. And don't forget Ozzfest. Operating like that you become unavoidable for teh kidz. But yeah I don't think something like this would be possible today due to a startling lack of fresh actual rock bands.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2Qt9TtwtjnzN_hiPBnsgzwIxfuGcZDRyhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyNkh-wQ2KB2LZuLQNU2uLn3vvcECf1aKhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ0XIeyU8CZbCkRNhxx4qxXCNQouqpxKP
>>131392789John Lennon looked thoroughly washed in the mid-70s when he was doing features on Elton and Bowie's albums and he was only six years older than them.
>>131385150And???Does that take away from any of the value of the music?
>>131391949>Nobody>except millions of people
>>131388021lol even slint namedrops neil young in their interviews
>>131392677>>131392879Granted he wasn't a great frontman, but he wasn't a bad singer live. He was tired and running out of gas by the Cross Purposes tour but up until then he sounded good live, especially on the Dio material. People tend to go on like he's Graham Bonnet or something because he'd often use playback via the backing vocals rather than going for the high note in the chorus of Headless Cross.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8dffuZjJd0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVmI-JzWrF8
>>131395338And he still brought it on some shows on the Cross Purposes tour.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9jQBGrn24k
>>131392879those downtuned sludge riffs on the classic Sabbath albums were highly suited to Ozzy's droning voice. since he couldn't do soaring NWOBM material they had to ditch him for a different singer.
>>131385150Most people didn't even know Sabbath still existed between Born Again and Reunion. It was Ozzy's popularity then Ozz Fest that bade them cool again.
>>131385150When the cool in people would talk about Sabbath it was only the first 4 albums. The shit with the gay 80s vocals was pretty much seen as a different band and fake black sabbathn
