Tony Iommi has shared details about his plans to remix Black Sabbath’s ‘Born Again’ album, explaining that the band has recovered the original tapes after a long search. He discussed the project during an interview with Planet Rock.
Iommi explained that the tapes for the album had gone missing for some time before being located in a record company storage facility. He noted that the tapes have now been transferred and are ready for work to begin on the remix.
“Yes, there is a plan,” Iommi said. “To be honest, we couldn’t find those tapes for a long time. They disappeared. And I don’t know who located them at the end, whether it was Ralph [Baker], my manager, or who found them. But they were in some record company storage. And anyway, we’ve gotten them back and they were transferred. So they are ready to start work on.”
Iommi acknowledged that some fans may resist the remix because they have become accustomed to the original sound. “So many people have got used to the Born Again sound, with all of its production flaws,” he said. “Some of them liked it. And I’m sure if I do a remix on it, it’ll be, ‘Oh, no. It’s not as good as it was before.'”
Despite these concerns, Iommi confirmed that the band will proceed with the project. “We’re definitely gonna give it a go,” he explained. “Because when we actually did it and we heard it in a studio, it was great. And then we went on tour, and the next thing, it’s in the charts here, and we heard it. We thought, ‘God, it’s really muffly. What happened?’ Somewhere in the process along the way, something happened.”
The remix project came about after the band recovered the original recordings and realized the album’s sound had changed during the production and release process.
The history of Born Again explains why the remix is so important to the band. Released on September 12, 1983, the album was recorded at The Manor studio in Oxfordshire between May and June 1983 with lead vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Geezer Butler. It reached No. 4 in the UK charts and the top 40 in the United States, making it a commercial success despite receiving mixed reviews from critics.
The band members have long been frustrated with how the album sounded when released compared to how it had sounded in the studio. Something went wrong during the final production process, possibly at the mastering stage, which made the overall sound much muddier than intended. The bass level was so high that radio stations could not play it properly, significantly affecting how audiences heard the record.
In July 2021, Tony Iommi confirmed that the original master tapes had been located after years of being lost. This recovery of the tapes finally made it possible for the band to pursue the remix project that Iommi is now describing. Ian Gillan has stated that he thinks the album is great and is glad they are going to remix it, reflecting that the songs themselves are excellent but that the mix was problematic because all that could be heard was the bass.
