Dehumanizer
| Dehumanizer | |||||
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| Studio album by Black Sabbath | |||||
| Released | 22 June 1992 | ||||
| Recorded | Late 1991–Early 1992 | ||||
| Studio | Rockfield Studios, Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales | ||||
| Genre | Heavy metal | ||||
| Length | 51:50 | ||||
| Label |
I.R.S. Reprise (US/Canada) |
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| Producer | Reinhold Mack | ||||
| Black Sabbath chronology | |||||
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| Ronnie James Dio chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Dehumanizer | |||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| Piercingmetal.com | (3.75/5) |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Classic Rock |   |
Dehumanizer is the sixteenth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released in June 1992.
It was the first Black Sabbath studio album in over a decade to feature Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Vinny Appice on drums. It is also the first in nine years to feature original bassist Geezer Butler. Initial writing and demo sessions at Rich Bitch Studios in Birmingham featured drummer Cozy Powell; bootlegs of these sessions exist.
This album's line-up of Dio, Appice, Butler, and guitarist Tony Iommi later reunited in 2006 for a greatest hits set, Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, and a new studio album in 2009, The Devil You Know (billed as "Heaven & Hell").
The album was re-released, complete with bonus content, on 7 February 2011.
Both lyrically and musically, it is considered one of Black Sabbath's heaviest albums. Lyrical themes vary from a computer worshipped as a god, to televangelists, to individualism and doubts about the afterlife. The album was recorded in Wales, at Rockfield Studios.
The record was originally to be done with drummer Cozy Powell, then Black Sabbath's current drummer, but he was immobilised by a broken pelvic bone he had sustained in a horse riding accident. Dio initially wanted to replace Powell with Simon Wright, from AC/DC and his own band, but Butler and Iommi rejected him. They subsequently recruited Vinny Appice, who had served as Black Sabbath's drummer during most of Dio's previous tenure with the band, from 1980–1982. During the recording session for the album, Tony Martin made a short comeback when invited by the band members to try the songs out but stayed just for a couple of days and the band then continued with Dio. Tony Martin stated: "I had already started my first solo album Back Where I Belong so when I got the call to go back I was committed by that point. And in fact it was just a couple of months after they had started the thing with Ronnie James Dio. I was determined to finish my solo thing and so turned them down at that point. We did keep in touch though and I went to some shows. Ronnie wasn’t too pleased, but eventually they had enough and asked me to rejoin again later so it felt like I hadn’t actually left. In fact, I was never formally fired, the phone just stopped ringing. Ian Gillan (Deep Purple singer, also another ex-Black Sabbath lead singer) asked me once if I had actually been fired and I said, “No.” He said, “Neither have I.” We should just turn up one day and walk on stage!"
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