| | Full Review | Ratings (618) |
Give your Rating |
| 2.0 poor | EXSCHISM | July 2nd 23 |
The official version is a crap album, in a huge way to the obtuse production, & weirdly empty sound, Sabbath sounded neutered, even when riffs get going. The Ray Gillen version is vastly superior in every capacity, and he's a lot better than Tony Martin. I'd give that version a 3.5 or even perhaps a 4. Also can I say Ray reminds me so much of Geoff Tate just not quite as in your face on that, what a vocal ability & range. The guitar just has more oomph, power & Tony is center stage there too, no wah wah on the lead lines.
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | Elmo | January 12th 22 |
gud ablum
Bump |
| 2.0 poor | Santa Koopa | October 24th 21 |
the album 2 models risked their lives for just for some shitty 80s rock alongside a painfully average singer and a corny st reference in title
Bump |
| 2.0 poor | davezillaMP3 | May 16th 20 |
I Can't Believe It is not Christian Rock! Black Sabbath edition
Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | Resident Metalhead Piranha | June 17th 17 |
[Ray Gillen version]. If you found either mild disappointment or enjoyment from The Eternal Idol with Tony Martin, stop what you're doing and listen to the 'raw' version with original album singer Ray Gillen. Mr. Gillen's vocal performance is powerful, passionate, and memorable in every respect and brings a lot of life to these tunes. The songs themselves, although not sparing with cheesy lyrics, are plentiful with enjoyable riffs and solos. The lack of polish on the Ray Gillen sounds more 'fitting' as well, less reliant on the polish and gleam that undermines most 80's music. "Ancient Warrior," "Hard Life To Love," and "Born To Lose" aren't lacking great riffs and memorable vocal lines, and "The Shining" and the doomy t/t play out like Ozzy-era Sabbath while retaining their own sense of character. Overall an underrated and highly overlooked album in their catalog that may be sandwiched by some of their most mediocre works ever but is nevertheless worth a look. Tony Martin version: 3.5/5 (at most). Ray Gillen version: 4/5 (at most).
Bump |
| 0.0 | NeroCorleone80 | September 17th 14 |
Underrated and the best album with Tony Martin on vocals
Bump |
| 0.0 | mandan | February 19th 13 |
The first of the Martin-Era albums, it really fails to impress on every level. Martin's a decent singer, but the music is just average at best.
Bump |
| 2.5 average | Fernando Alves | January 16th 12 |
Some good moments like the title track however "The Eternal Idol" still remains one of Sabbath's most uninspired albums.
Bump |
| 2.5 average | CleanUpBeforeSheComes | December 15th 11 |
I think if any other band had released this album, no one would remember it at all. It's not terrible, but there's just nothing to it besides forgettable, 1980s easy listening, psudo heavy metal. It's nothing like the Ozzy era Black Sabbath of the 1970s and I think even calling albums from this era “Black Sabbath” is confusing to record buyers. It’s a different band besides Tony and even he doesn’t sound the same.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | billdecker8 | January 26th 08 |
To be honest, I had avoided the non-Dio eighties Sabbath until recently. I had heard 1989's "Headless Cross" years ago and thought Tony Martin looked like a 38 Special member and wrote pure "I want to be like Dio" cheesey lyrics (although it somehow works for Dio). Suffice it to say that "Headless Cross", being as awful as it was, turned me off of any Sab album from the late 80's. I gotta tell you though, Eternal Idol is pretty good. It's Iommi's take on 80's metal, but it's still unmistakably Black Sabbath. It holds up well even to this day. Martin manages to sound smooth at times, rough at times, and on "Nightmare" very much like Ronnie James Dio. For this type of sound (a little less low-end and slicker production) it's done really well. I think that mid-tempo Sabbath style on "Hard Life to Love" and "Nightmare" hits a nice groove - "The Shining" has an awesome chorus without sounding like pop metal, and the title track are a truly great album opener and closer. "Ancient Warrior" and "Glory Ride" are the least unique tunes here, but are good enough and by no means filler or failed experiments (of the ilk that appear on the last couple of Ozzy albums) Overall - a good album. It showed that they were going in the right direction and were relevant heading into the 90's.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | Bard0 | February 12th 25 |
| 5.0 classic | jsaadia | February 3rd 25 |
| 3.0 good | JoeTex | January 14th 25 |
| 2.5 average | nbats | July 2nd 24 |
| 3.0 good | Futures CONTRIBUTOR | June 21st 24 |
| 4.5 superb | Rob69 | March 21st 24 |
| 1.5 very poor | exciter | March 8th 24 |
| 2.5 average | El Olam | January 12th 24 |
| 1.0 awful | doofy | January 7th 24 |
| 3.0 good | Davey | September 8th 23 |
| 3.5 great | haxxiy | March 4th 23 |
| 3.0 good | Rick64 | December 15th 22 |
| 2.5 average | Peddy29 | November 20th 22 |
| 3.5 great | Mitch | March 18th 22 |
| 3.0 good | fadle | January 27th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | dlbk03 | December 30th 21 |
| 3.0 good | Cyuss | June 4th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Vojtino | March 25th 21 |
| 4.5 superb | TommyG | March 16th 21 |
| 3.0 good | Harlz | February 23rd 21 |
| 2.5 average | Gorey13 | February 23rd 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Kf1975 | February 20th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Mandy | January 18th 21 |
| 2.5 average | Basina | December 24th 20 |
| 5.0 classic | CalinD | December 5th 20 |
| 2.5 average | IlNotta | November 9th 20 |
| 3.0 good | Brabiz | November 3rd 20 |
| 3.0 good | vkristi | September 18th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | Samuel | May 21st 20 |
| 2.5 average | Wolfe | May 7th 20 |
| 2.5 average | Vitinho | February 21st 20 |
| 3.0 good | domber | February 7th 20 |
| 3.0 good | GamamJ | February 4th 20 |
| 2.5 average | Rager99 | December 13th 19 |
| 2.5 average | mEyck07 | November 24th 19 |
| 2.0 poor | wojodta | September 30th 19 |
| 2.5 average | shazzyy | August 27th 19 |
| 2.5 average | Wj2006 | August 24th 19 |
| 1.5 very poor | Juca89 | July 23rd 19 |
| 2.5 average | JS98 | March 31st 19 |
| 3.0 good | wrax | March 10th 19 |
| 3.0 good | gk1979 | February 10th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Radex | December 24th 18 |
| 3.0 good | SuzyC | November 19th 18 |
| 1.0 awful | ABond | April 9th 18 |
| 2.5 average | igi78 | February 12th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Rosier | February 9th 18 |
| 2.0 poor | rouges | January 2nd 18 |
| 2.0 poor | orakst | October 4th 17 |
| 3.5 great | jnedi | August 6th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | KyleW | July 31st 17 |
| 3.0 good | kahc | April 9th 17 |
| 3.0 good | acepc | February 11th 17 |
| 3.0 good | mask | December 14th 16 |
| 3.0 good | A.R.O. EMERITUS | December 9th 16 |
| 3.0 good | chape | December 3rd 16 |
| 2.5 average | colen | November 20th 16 |
| 3.0 good | amhc | November 11th 16 |
| 3.0 good | Xurxo | November 8th 16 |
| 2.0 poor | zantxu | November 3rd 16 |
| 3.0 good | natbar | October 30th 16 |
| 2.5 average | cahz | October 12th 16 |
| 3.0 good | Robbit | April 30th 16 |
| 3.5 great | Wajd | February 28th 16 |
| 3.5 great | bobby72 | February 12th 16 |
| 3.5 great | cnrk | February 10th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Cisumla | January 23rd 16 |
| 2.5 average | mEyck97 | October 14th 15 |
| 3.5 great | Kirkt95 | September 27th 15 |
| 4.0 excellent | Sebe | August 26th 15 |
| 2.5 average | manu8a | August 3rd 15 |
| 3.0 good | Aion | March 6th 15 |
| 2.5 average | Abraxas | January 31st 15 |
| 2.5 average | megared | January 9th 15 |
| 4.0 excellent | fuzzbutt | December 29th 14 |
| 2.5 average | CRJ | November 19th 14 |
| 3.5 great | ksoflas | November 17th 14 |
| 2.0 poor | DrDom | October 23rd 14 |
| 3.0 good | Lassie | October 15th 14 |
| 2.0 poor | Guacker | September 30th 14 |
| 1.5 very poor | Amebix | May 15th 14 |
| 2.5 average | ngk44 | April 18th 14 |
| 4.0 excellent | Sithese | February 17th 14 |
| 2.5 average | deslad | February 16th 14 |
| 4.5 superb | eirinn | February 13th 14 |
| 3.5 great | Weirman | November 21st 13 |
| 3.0 good | willow | November 17th 13 |
| 3.5 great | Smial | September 3rd 13 |
| 2.5 average | Ulshad | July 3rd 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | SCR1971 | April 21st 13 |
| 2.5 average | shanks | April 2nd 13 |
| 3.5 great | kual21 | April 1st 13 |
| 2.5 average | MikeC26 | February 26th 13 |
| 3.5 great | slackr | February 21st 13 |
| 2.0 poor | Zeg | December 30th 12 |
| 3.0 good | manosg EMERITUS | December 18th 12 |
| 3.0 good | Kalhur | December 15th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | Atheus | November 21st 12 |
| 3.0 good | elry2k | October 24th 12 |
| 3.0 good | ADM20 | October 7th 12 |
| 3.0 good | mho | July 12th 12 |
| 4.5 superb | mar1s | July 4th 12 |
| 2.5 average | KILL | April 13th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | zyklzy | April 5th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | sam1991 | March 16th 12 |
| 2.5 average | Siamois | January 10th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | itsdark | January 9th 12 |
| 1.0 awful | stotty | September 25th 11 |
| 3.0 good | Rafiki | August 23rd 11 |
| 2.0 poor | true | July 26th 11 |
| 3.5 great | Totes | July 20th 11 |
| 1.5 very poor | telex | June 27th 11 |
| 2.0 poor | War | June 26th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | hetnon | May 3rd 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | Pluto | April 19th 11 |
| 2.5 average | Zaltys | March 24th 11 |
| 3.5 great | iggy00 | March 18th 11 |
| 2.5 average | Lebren | February 5th 11 |
| 3.0 good | Hilty | January 11th 11 |
| 3.0 good | Pace | January 8th 11 |
| 3.0 good | gambs | September 16th 10 |
| 2.5 average | Zoso4 | July 22nd 10 |
| 1.5 very poor | Moosoul | April 17th 10 |
| 3.0 good | M87 | April 4th 10 |
| 3.0 good | Thor | November 22nd 08 |
| 4.0 excellent | Ruthless | December 30th 07 |
| |
Give Your Opinion on The Eternal Idol
|
