Nativity In Black - a Tribute To Black Sabbath

In 1994 the Tribute Album all of a sudden became a huge thing, the reason was the amazing collection put together for Nativity In Black. A tribute to Black Sabbath featuring 12 classic Sabbath songs re-done by some of the biggest names in music at the time.

This was the best tribute album to come out in that time period, some of the other albums were so bad that the original artists ended up suing (Rush with the Working Men CD). This one on the other hand not only had the original band members permission, but everyone from that line-up except for Tony Iommi is on this album.

Most tribute albums suck for two major reasons. Instead of being a collection of bands performing songs as a unit, it's a bunch of individual artists recording different parts at completely different times, and something is lost in the lack of unity. The other is that most of the time the covers are either too much like the original that it sounds copycat, or way too different to be recognized.

Nativity in Black does have some thrown together combinations, but most of the time it's actual bands, playing Black Sabbath songs as those bands would play them. When it isn't a group/band playing, it's a vocalist mixed with a band. For example Ozzy is with Therapy? and Bruce Dickinson is with Godspeed. The only exception is Bullring Brummies which was made up of Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Rob Halford, Brian Tilse, Wino and Jimmy Wood, but that was due to label disputes that prevented what was supposed to be an original Sabbath reunion.

The album opens with Biohazard's version of After Forever. It's my sesond least enjoyed song on the album. It's a great copy, that reeks of Biohazard, which is why it does nothing for me. I've never been a fan of Biohazard, and over the years I've discovered that there aren't many bands from the New York area I like. They all share a sound, that always seems off. A little too thin, especially since in this case there is so much noticable bass.

The next track on the album is Children Of the Grave as performed by White Zombie. This is my favourite Black Sabbath song, especially with the Embryo opening. I think this was also one of the last songs released by White Zombie, before the break-up. This version is clearly Zombie's take on a spectacular song. Is it as good as the original? I don't think so, but it's still really good. This was the song that introduced me to this album, and lead me to buy it. The samples, and musical changes all work in ways that are completely acceptable.

Paranoid is the most overplayed Sabbath song ever. It's been covered non-stop by any band thinking they are Hard Rock or Metal, Ozzy performs it in every show, and I'm sure that Black Sabbath without Ozzy also performed this song constantly. Megadeth, did a great job Thrash Metalling the shit out of this song. It's faster, more furious, and pierces with a shrapnel that the original version wanted to do, but couldn't back during the original recording.

The cover of Supernaut on this album is pretty much the biggest song 1,000 Homo Dj's ever released. they are a band that is better know by the name of Ministry. It's a good cover of a song that I don't mind, but could live without. The only Black Sabbath song more common than Paranoid is Iron Man. Hearing Ozzy perform it with another band is no different than listening to Ozzy do it solo. It's basically an updated version of the original.

Lord Of This World is performed by Corrosion Of Conformity, a band that at the time I had no use for due to overplay by one specific friend I shall call Varg. He played Clean My Wounds over and over to the point where I wanted to clean my ears with a revolver. I often skipped this track for that silly reason alone. However, this is a good cover, but I would have liked to have heard more of that Sounthern Rock sound that COC normally have.

The only song I can say I have ever remotely liked from Sepultura is their cover of Symptom Of The Universe, on this album. First off, they are too angry for me, and there's no need for all that yelling. Though they do a fantastic performance of this song. They play it in their own way, and it's really well done, but I could still do without all the yelling. Also the instrumental breakdown at the end is beautifully spot on to the original, but showcasing Sepultura showing some accoustic flare.

I already mentioned the group of guys that make up Bullring Brummies, and they perform one of my top ten favourite Sabbath songs. The Wizard, has always amazed me since I first heard it's awesome harmonica opening. This cover has a harmonica opening too, but it's not quite the same as the original. Except for that, this version's just as good as the original. If Halford had been able to open up vocally, producing those mighty wails of his, this song could have been better than the original.

It's hard to believe that the vocalist that got Iron Maiden kicked off Ozzfest for making fun of Sabbath, would be on a cover album for said band. This was recorded only a of couple years after Bruce left Maiden, and years before the incident. His vocals are Operatic performance genius as always, and Therapy?'s musical performance is spot on. I don't know the musicians at all, so I don't know how much of them are honestly in the song. It is a top notch song, and it's performed so well.

When I saw Ugly Kid Joe was on the album I started shaking my head a bit. Sure, I like Everything About You, it's fun, but I didn't think they could do such a complex song any justice. I was wrong. N.I.B. was not only well played, it was spot on. If it were not for the slightly modern sound and clearly different vocalist, it could easily be mistaken for the original group.

War Pigs (live) is the only song on this album that had been released elsewhere first. Oringially off Faith No More's Live at the Brixton Academy, this track is faithful to the original, right down to the siren. However, I don't care for the vocal performance at all. It sounds more like a mocking of Ozzy and less like a tribute.

The first time I heard Type O Negative's version of Black Sabbath, I pretty much cursed them out. I thought they had totally ruined a marvelous piece of audio culture. It took until the keyboard kicks in soloing around the six minute marker beore I could start enjoying the song. It didn't help that at the time I had no clue who Type O Negative was. This was the first song I heard from them. I don't think Christian Woman or Black Number One had recieved much, if any, airplay at this point yet. Once I discovered Type O, I discovered I liked this song a lot more. It's the bad fungus song of this album.

All in all this is still one of my favourite albums. It's the best tribute album I've heard, still to this day. The tracks on this album, although a bit typical, are great selections and amazingly done. I would suggest this album to anyone that likes Black Sabbath and 90's Metal.

8/10 - content

8/10 - production

9/10 - personal bias