Black Sabbath will revisit their oft-overlooked Tony Martin era with the upcoming Anno Domini 1989-1995 box set.
The collection arrives on May 31 in four-LP and four-CD configurations. It will feature newly remastered versions of 1989's Headless Cross, 1990's Tyr and 1994's Cross Purposes, plus a new version of 1995's Forbidden that guitarist Tony Iommi remixed specially for the collection. It does not, however, feature 1987's The Eternal Idol, the album Martin made his debut on after replacing singer Ray Gillen late in the recording phase.
Anno Domini marks the vinyl debut of several of these albums, while the CD version contains three exclusive bonus tracks: the B-side "Cloak & Dagger" and the Japan-only songs "What's the Use" and "Loser Gets It All." The box set also includes a booklet of photos, artwork and liner notes, as well as a Headless Cross poster and replica concert book from the Headless Cross Tour.
Martin served two stints in Black Sabbath: first from 1987 to 1991 and later from 1993 to 1997. Despite fronting the band during its commercial nadir, he remains their second-longest-serving frontman behind Ozzy Osbourne.
Martin's recording career with Sabbath concluded with Forbidden, their last album until 2013's Osbourne-fronted 13. Iommi has long sought to improve the sound of Forbidden, originally produced by Body Count guitarist Ernie C. (Ice-T also guests on "The Illusion of Power.")
"I was never happy with the guitar sound, and Cozy [Powell] was definitely never happy with the drum sound ... so, I thought it would be nice to do it for him in a way," Iommi said in a statement. "I just felt that, without changing any of the songs, there was an opportunity to go back and bring out some of the sounds and make it more what people would expect Sabbath to sound like."