Finally, the Tony Martin era of Black Sabbath Albums will be reissued this year in 2023.
Originally thought to be reissued in 2022, the more recent news from guitarist Tony Iommi has confirmed the reissues are coming in 2023. When Martin was asked about the reissues, he said, the reissues may have been pushed to 2023. He commented, “re-releasing the [Tony Martin era records]. I have no idea what’s happening with it. I know it’s going to be next year, but that’s all I know.”
Black Sabbath has its own history of lineups and vocalists since its formation in 1968. Martin’s tenure with the band was from 1987 until 1991 and again from 1993 to 1997. Back then, Martin replaced the original vocalist Ian Gillan in the band. With Martin on vocals, Black Sabbath released six albums, them being ‘The Eternal Idol’, ‘Headless Cross’, ‘Tyr’, ‘Cross Purposes’, ‘Cross Purposes Live’, and ‘Forbidden’. Despite he had a short run with the band, he is considered one of Black Sabbath’s accomplished vocalists.
On December 29, 2022, Iommi confirmed Martin Era albums will be reissued next year in his tweet. He also honored former drummer Cozy Powell’s birthday. He wrote, “Cozy Powell would have been 75 today, Looking forward to the release of the IRS albums in 2023, a tribute to his great playing.”
Cozy Powell would have been 75 today. Looking forward to the release of the IRS albums in 2023, a tribute to his great playing. pic.twitter.com/sKTQHx4YKB
— Tony Iommi (@tonyiommi) December 29, 2022
He also briefly said, “we’re gonna have the Tony Martin box set and Cozy Powell and Neil Murray. And I’m looking forward to that, because a lot of people have asked about that, which is great. They wanted to see when it’s coming out, when it’s coming out. And we’ve done ’em in succession, really, with these albums. You can’t just bring everything out together; it has to come out in [the right] times. So we’ve had all the original SABBATH stuff come out, box sets, and then we’ve got the Ronnie [James Dio] stuff. And then the next thing will be the Tony Martin and then my solo stuff. So it’s gonna be busy again. But it’s great. And it’s nice to be doing the interviews and talking about what we did and all the rest of stuff.”
Iommi has always loved Tony Martin. Six years ago, while talking with I Heart Guitar, he shared his disappointment with fans. He said, “it’s a shame, it took a lot for people to accept” Martin as Sabbath’s vocalist. Iommi added, “It’s taken all these years later for people to say, ‘Oh blimey, that was a good band with good singing.’ So it took a long time to get people to really realize how good it was.”
Until now, there is no official news on whether the albums will be released on IRS Records or another label. Other than that, Osbourne and Iommi reunited earlier in 2022 during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
