BORN AGAIN-ERA BLACK SABBATH: THE REDONKULOUS VIDEOS

I have never listened to Born Again, the first and only Black Sabbath album featuring Ian Gillan. Nothing against Gillan or Sabbath, there’s just only so much time in my day and there are/were other Sabbath albums higher up on the list, ya know? I was about to suggest that someone at Decibel do up one of those “Justify Your Shitty Taste” columns that’ve got us all so hot and bothered, until I searched Decibel’s site (MetalSucks readers: take note) and discovered that Greg Moffitt wrote up Born Again just last week! Said post might’ve inspired MS reader Bonytown to write in to us about the album, but we can only guess.

Listening to the two Born Again songs that Bonytown sent in isn’t really making me reconsider my decision to skip this “classic,” but watching the videos is another story entirely. They’re completely ridiculous in that way that only ’80s heavy metal videos (and modern White Wizzard videos) can be; simultaneously cheesy and completely serious with an entirely non-sensical plot (at least WW have Black Sabbath beat there), and absolute, utter hilarity. Like this video for “Trashed;” what the fuck did I just watch? And what in the fuckity fuck is that one clip of a Formula 1 race car wreck doing at the 1:17 mark???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEawt270iGI&NR=1

“Zero the Hour” isn’t any better. There’s some chickens… and some rats… and some live footage of the band… and some of the same wonky zombies from the first clip… and ketchup??? ok, I give up:

I gotta hand it to Mr. Moffitt, though; it turns out “Zero the Hour” ain’t a bad song after all. If it didn’t say “Black Sabbath” on it this song might’ve faired a lot better, though I can’t necessarily say the same about the record. These videos, though… man, cinematic gems in their own unique way. Possibly the best Sabbath ever made!

-VN