Black Sabbath guitar legend Tony Iommi recently revealed his plans to remix the band’s 1995 album, Forbidden, in 2019. He wrote on his official Facebook page: 

“Next year there will be the Forbidden record coming out which Mike Exeter and myself are remixing at the moment. And that’s been interesting to, pulling that apart and at least trying to get some better sounds on it as it should be. I know Cozy (Powell) was never happy with his drum sound. None of us were really happy with the sound of that album. So hopefully now it will be sounding better.”

Iommi recently spoke with The Midlands Rocks about this latest project. An excerpt from the interview follows:

The Midlands Rocks: Forbidden seems to occupy a slightly uncomfortable place in the back catalogue…

Iommi: “Yes that’s right. I’ve had the time, on and off, to start to remix the Forbidden album, I never liked the final mix and sound of it – none of the band did actually – so I’ve been working on that. I’m taking my time and there is no rush with it, it will be done when it’s done, but it’s been good to go back and pull it all apart and start to put it back together again.”

The Midlands Rocks: Looking back, what was the problem with how that album sounded at the time of its release back in 1995?

Iommi: “Well, we weren’t involved with how it ended up sounding like it did. It was produced by Ernie C from the band Body Count and he also got Ice-T to appear on it on the opening track ("Illusion of Power") and they were from a totally different background to us. So he came in and did a good job at the time but 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. I  met up with Tony Martin recently and I’m sure he will listen to what I have done with it at some point, but at the moment it is just myself and Mike Exeter (the sound engineer who worked with Tony on Fused, The Dio Years and 13 amongst others) who have been working on it.”

Read the complete interview here.

The lukewarmly received opus was the last to feature singer Tony Martin, along with drummer Cozy Powell, bassist Neil Murray and keyboardist Geoff Nicholls. The album sold a mere 21,000 copies in the US in its first week in June 1995 and achieved its ony Top 20 chart position in Sweden.

Forbidden's opening track, "The Illusion Of Power", features Body Count’s Ice-T, while guitarist a fellow band member Ernie C also produced, recorded, and mixed the album.