Do you remember the first CD you ever bought? Do you remember when it was? I certainly remember mine.

It was Babylon Zoo’s The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes, in the summer of 1996. Our family had just bought our first CD player, Spaceman was a hit, and the CD was cheap. I also remember my second CD, the first one bought with my very own money: Metallica’s Load, freshly released. One of the earliest CD’s our family bought was also Black Sabbath’s Dehumanizer – partly because it was cheap, partly because it had awesome cover art, and partly because I already owned a Black Sabbath compilation tape, and both me and my brother loved it. It was actually my brother who also bought Dehumanizer.

Released in 1992, Dehumanizer was a reunion album for Black Sabbath, seeing the other lauded line-up come together for the first time in ten years: Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, who’d released the iconic Mob Rules in 1981, before egos clashed, the line-up fell apart and Black Sabbath entered a long period of constantly changing line-ups. Iommi, Butler and Dio, with original drummer Bill Ward had released Heaven And Hell in 1980; both of these albums are every bit as outstanding and legendary as anything Black Sabbath put out in the 70’s with Ozzy Osbourne and naysayers be damned.

But in 1992 Black Sabbath’s fortunes were seriously on the wane – as were heavy metal’s. Grunge was coming. 90’s indie was coming. Electronic music was, for a change, killing guitar rock. So what might have seemed like a surefire recipe for a hit didn’t really turn out as one: Dehumanizer was expensive to make, didn’t make much waves, and once again the line-up dissolved before being able to cement its existence on the live circuit.

Whilst the album itself is a far cry from the epic, poetic beauty and sheer heavy metal extravagance of the first two Dio era Black Sabbath albums, in retrospect it would have deserved better at the time of release. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio is in fine form, Iommi cranks out some classic heavy riffage, and both Butler and Appice give expert fire support. Especially faster songs such as TV Crimes, where Appice’s work behind the kit really brings the songs to life, are worth getting into. However, some of the slower and heavier tracks such as Letters From Earth just don’t work as well – they’re not bad, but Dio and Black Sabbath always geled best together when they were either epic or fast. Or both.

Like most of Black Sabbath’s post-Ozzy discography, Dehumanizer received a lukewarm reception at the time, and was far better than it was given credit for. The passing of time was given some restitution to this album as well, and whilst the album deserves this, out of the four Dio/Black Sabbath albums (I count the Heaven & Hell album The Devil You Know among this lot) this is my least favourite. Tracks like Master Of Insanity and Time Machine – again, faster tracks – make me question this judgement, but then a rather trite track such as Sins Of The Father comes on, and I understand why. That spark of genius is missing.

But at the time of purchase, me and my brother worshipped this album. As you can see from the picture above, showcasing this mid-90’s CD edition – the only version I own. The cover is worn and crinkled, it’s got some dents, blemishes and weird stains from being handled frequently and perhaps with not as much care as I would today. This is a CD that has been listened to, with love and dedication. The lyrics have been studied with gusto. This is an album that, once upon a time, was a steady part of my musical diet, and helped shape my conception of “good music” – and certainly further widen my acceptance of non-Ozzy Black Sabbath as being part of the genuine article.

Listening to the album now, almost 20 years after first hearing it, I can hear the things I used to like about it. There are great songs. But it’s also obvious that one of the reasons we listened to this so much was that we owned maybe four other CD’s – of which one was that accursed Babylon Zoo CD, which I quickly discovered I didn’t like at all. As far as Black Sabbath’s discography goes, this does belong to the bottom rung on my list. But as I’ve often said, Black Sabbath have only one album I don’t like… and it’s not Forbidden, it’s 13. So low as though Dehumanizer’s position is, it’s all relative.

And regardless; Dehumanizer represented true heavy metal to me, and illumined the path I wanted to follow. Not grunge or alternative metal and their looks. No, black leather jackets, jeans, boots, long hair, band t-shirts. And loud fucking heavy metal. Listening to Dehumanizer, a snot nosed me knew that that was what I wanted.

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In From The Vaults we take a dive into the record collection at Only Death Is Real HQ and write about about items of iconic stature or personal significance; rarities and oddities from the archives; obscure gems that deserve more attention; classics of yore deserving of a moment in the limelight; and so on.