Album Review: Tony Martin - Thorns

Tony Martin has a reputation for being one of the forgotten talents of metal, and it's for good reason. While I like "Headless Cross" quite a lot, he was Black Sabbath's singer when the band was not cool, and was not at their peak. He was a great voice, but a lot of the material he was singing didn't make much of an impression. In all the years since then, whether solo or in collaborations, the same thing has happened. Martin's voice has remained a powerful instrument, but the songs he winds up singing are rather forgettable. Thus, we learn the lesson that talent alone is not enough to make a name or a legacy. Even the best performers need good songs, and Tony Martin has not written or been given enough of those over the years. Not even close.

So we come to his newest solo album, which promises to be one of his heaviest affairs, and establish a new songwriting partnership the likes of which he hasn't had since Tony Iommi. That's a high bar to set, even if those Sabbath records are not the most beloved. If "Thorns" is as good as "The Eternal Idol", I would consider that a major accomplishment.

The record opens with the first single, "As The World Burns", which was not an encouraging first statement. It's heavy, sure, and Martin still has his voice, but it's the kind of generic metal that thinks attitude is more important than good songwriting. It took hearing the song a couple of times until I could even figure out what the chorus section of the song was. It doesn't have a strong melody, or any kind of a hook at all. The guitars drop out, and Martin cries out about the world burning, but it doesn't build to anything interesting.

"Black Widow Angel" is the same kind of Sabbath-ian metal, with a lumbering main riff that's pretty good, but a melody that once again falls flat. It doesn't help that Martin's lyric in the chorus sings of him being the "black hole son", which whether you want to call it a pun regarding the Soundgarden classic or not, is distracting. Also distracting is the breakdown in place of a solo, where the song almost takes on a dance beat, only to go right back into the quasi-doom without much of a transition to explain why the song took that detour.

"Damned By You" is probably the best track here, sounding similar in vibe to "Cross Of Thorns" from the Sabbath days, but not quite as much of a ballad. The highlight is the lead violin, which adds a lot to the atmosphere of the track. It's a shame it only appears in the intro and the outro, because an album like this with more prominent use of that kind of drama would be incredibly interesting.

Less interesting is "No Shame At All", where Martin sings about a woman having sex in cars in the mall parking lot. Seriously. And this guy is in his 60s. Ugh. We seem to now live in an age without shame, but a little of it goes a long way, such as not putting out a song with a lyric this pathetic.

By the time the album is done, two things are pretty clear; Tony Martin is still an underrated metal singer, and he has the level of acclaim he deserves. Every album he appears on, he manages to put together two or three good songs, but he never has been and never will be the kind of writer who gives himself full records of great songs. What he needs is to team up with Magnus Karlsson, whom he has done the occasional song with, and let him write an album of Sabbath styled tracks. That seems like the only way Tony Martin is ever going to have another album that properly showcases his talent.

If he's left to write it for himself, the odds aren't very good.