What If? Scenarios: Black Sabbath
This is the kickstarter of a new series i'm going to do called What If? Scenarios which is going to be about a certain topic and if we changed certain events that caused a huge change in the topics history and this series will be for anything. In today's post i have several What If? Scenarios about the Metal band Black Sabbath because they have one of the most interesting histories of Metal and change of events with different lineups and such behind them. I will be doing assumptions if a certain event was altered based on what the band were going through at the time and what would have happened. Keep in mind i'm not 100% stating that will have happened if a certain event was changed but this is what could have happened based on what i think and based on what was going on at that point in time. Anyway here are the scenarios and what i think would have happened if a certain event was changed. It will be in sort of a time lime.Important Time Point 1: What If Ozzy Osbourne wasn't fired from Black Sabbath after Never Say Die?
If Ozzy Osbourne didn't leave the band after Never Say Die that would be a bad thing for several reasons. 1) The band members weren't exactly being very friendly to each other and weren't working well together which is why Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die are much weaker albums than the previous 6 albums (In my opinion Never Say Die is the weakest Black Sabbath album, yes weaker than Forbidden although i don't think Never Say Die is a bad album) 2) The scene in Metal was changing with the coming of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal pioneered by bands such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard and several others and if Ozzy stayed with the band they would either try NWOBHM and fall mainly because Ozzy isn't that great of a singer compared to other singers from NWOBHM bands or 2 stick with what they were doing with Never Say Die and do more of a Hard Rock sound, but either way if Ozzy made one more album with the band that album would most likely be worse than Never Say Die and would be critically panned by critics just like Technical Ecstasy and Never Day Die were. Because of the album getting poor reception and maybe poor sales too and that the band members weren't working well together Black Sabbath would have most likely disbanded and the members went to on to their own projects. Ozzy would probably do the same thing he did in real life and make a solo career while Toni Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler would most likely do 1 of two things. 1) Do their own solo projects or 2) Form their own band with a new drummer and singer. Which brings me to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 2: After Never Say Die Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward joined up with Ronnie James Dio to form a new band.
Just like in real life Ronnie James Dio left Rainbow after Ritiche Blackmore wanted to do more of a mainstream sound which Dio didn't like so he joined up with the members of Black Sabbath and wrote a song called Children of the Sea wand then they were supposed to form a new band called "Heaven and Hell" but however the label they were on, Warner Bros wouldn't let them because they wanted them to keep the name Black Sabbath for name recognition. In this scenerio everything that happened would pretty much be the same as real life however we change one thing and thats Warner Bros allowed the band members to form Heaven and Hell and go on to make the albums Heaven and Hell which would now be a self titled album and the song would be a self titled metal song probably the best in all of metal, and Mob Rules and also a live album Live Evil which would contain the same songs that were on the album and yes that includes the Ozzy era Sabbath songs since they would have probably still played them since they were the people who made those songs. But something happened which brings me to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 2: (Scenario 1): What if Dio never left Heaven and Hell?
In 1982 Dio along with drummer Vinny Apprice who replaced Bill Ward after he left to form the band Dio and make the album Holy Diver which left Black Sabbaths future uncertain in this scenario Dio never left Black Sabbath or Heaven and Hell from the previous scenario and made more albums with them. If this happened i think what we would get is a album similar to Holy Diver maybe even be the Holy Diver album but however instead of being by Dio it would be by Heaven and Hell. The albums that came after would probably be the same or similar to the albums Dio did in Dio like The Last in Line, Dream Evil etc hower they would probably much darker and doomier than as we know them and Dehumanizer and The Devil You Know would also be included as albums in the bands discography. The band would have last. up until Dio's passing in 2010 which would end the band. But this is just one of many, many possibilities so I'll go to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 2: (Scenario 2): Ian Gillian Joins Heaven and Hell
In real life Ian Gillian who is known for being the singer of Deep Purple joined Black Sabbath and became very good friends with Tony Iommi and still are to this day, and made the album Born Again In this scenario pretty much everything would be the same in real life except Born Again would be by Heaven and Hell instead of Black Sabbath however after this album Ian Gillan and Geezer Butler left the band which left Iommi as the only original member which leads me to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 3: Tony Iommi goes solo with his first album Seventh Star
This was supposed to happen in real life but once again just like what Iommi wanted to form Heaven and Hell the label Warner Bros wanted to keep the name Black Sabbath. In this scenario that doesn't happen and Seventh Star becomes a Tony Iommi solo album which i would assume that his solo career would carry on with the albums, Eternal Idol, Headless Cross and Tyr untill the year 1991 in which...
Important Time Point 4: Heaven and Hell Reunites (First time)
just like in real life Dio, Vinny and Geezer came back to Black Sabbath in 1992 to record the album Dehumanizer. in this scenario everything is the same as in real life except Instead it's Heaven and Hell reuniting rather than Black Sabbath (which later on in my scenarios would reunite more than once.) However after the tour for Dehumanizer Dio and Vinny left which left Iommi and Geezer Butler by themselves which leads me to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 5: Tony Martin joined Heaven and Hell
In real life after Dio left the band Tony Martin came back to Black Sabbath in 1994 and recorded a album with Tony and Geezer along with a new drummer called Cross Purposes. In this scenario what i think would have happened is Tony would call Tony Martin and bring him into the band Heaven and Hell after he worked on the albums he did in Tony Iommi's solo career. (Which are the same albums he recorded with Black Sabbath) However after Cross Purposes Geezer left once again which brings me to.
Important Time Point 6: the Tyr lineup of Tony Iommi's solo career is restored which leads to a new album.
In real life the lineup for Tyr was restored after Geezer left and in this scenario i would assume Tony Iommi would go back to doing his solo carreer and would record the Forbidden album which would have probably would have gotten poor reception like it did in real life and would be considered a bad album and the worst of Iommi's solo albums up to that point by both fans and critics. (I don't find Forbidden as a bad album but it is one of Sabbath's weakest) which brings me to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 7: Black Sabbath Reunite for the first time
just like in real life The original 4 members of Black Sabbath reunited and recorded a live album with two new studio songs called Reunion and a tour. In this scenario the same thing happens however on a much grander scale becasue in my timeline Black Sabbath are known as a band from the 70s that lasted up until the 80s in which then they would disband similar to Led Zeppelin and just like Led Zeppelin they reunited for a live show tour. Now we go to the next scenerio
Important Time Point 8: Iommi continues his Solo career
In 2000 Iommi recorded his first solo album however in this time line it would be his 6th solo album and he would record 2 more and then brings me to the next scenario.
Important Time Point 9: Heaven and Hell reunite for the 2nd and last time.
In 2007 a compilation album called The Dio Years was made by Black Sabbath which included songs from Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and Dehumanizer and also had 3 new songs included. In my scenario the same thing happens however its is a compilation album for the band Heaven and Hell and the 3 new songs are included which leads to Heaven and Hell reuntiing for the 2nd and last time to record an album called The Devil You Know and a live album in 2009. However in 2010 Dio would pass away and would end the band Heaven and Hell. Which leads to the last scenario.
Important Time Point 10: Black Sabbath Reunite and make one last album.
After Dio passed away Iommi decides to try and bring the original line up of Black Sabbath back together he almost did in real life but Bill Ward didn't join so they go the drummer from Rage Against the Machine to drum for them. In my scenario Bill Ward does join in on the tour and Black Sabbath record one final album which in real life was called 13 however in this time line its called The End and would include all the songs from 13 and The End Ep plus the bonus tracks for 13 in which a tour would happen which would be called The End tour just like in real life and Black Sabbath would end on the same date they did in real life.
From this point on anything goes Iommi could record more solo albums but as for now this is the end of my timeline and the end of this post so thank you for reading this very long post it took me a while to make this.
Comments
Black Sabbath don't interest me much but I'll be excited to see others - visitor
This is awesome.
You should do What If? Scenarios: Cliff Burton Never Died
A few other ideas:
Dave Mustaine never left Metallica
Bruce Dickinson never left Iron Maiden in the early 90’s - visitor
Good. What if Tony Iommi never lost some fingertips?
He'd be playing different music. - Skullkid755
Hmm, this is an interesting, unique idea. I definitely would like to see more of this - visitor