TONY MARTIN Reunites With His Pre-BLACK SABBATH Band THE ALLIANCE

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Tony Martin's pre-BLACK SABBATH band THE ALLIANCE will reunite after more than three decades to record some of its early, mostly previously unreleased material. Martin recently shared a photo of the reunited band on Facebook and he wrote in an accompanying message: "Its really exciting to be doing this .. We have discovered potentially 35 songs, which could mean 3 albums worth of material, mostly previously un released. Rock on!!" Based in Birmingham, England, THE ALLIANCE got a break in 1985 when it was invited to record three songs for Tommy Vance's BBC radio program "Friday Rock Show". A short time later, THE ALLIANCE signed a deal with Warner Bros. and few more songs were recorded in demo form before the group disbanded without ever making an album. Some of THE ALLIANCE songs eventually ended up on a 1993 album from the band's onetime guitarist Misha Calvin, titled "Evolution". "Evolution" was re-released in 2001 (Panoramic Music) and 2004 (Majestic Rock), including six bonus tracks, listed in the credits as the "Evolution Studio Sessions" archive tapes featuring Martin on vocals. As previously reported, Martin has set "Thorns" as the title of his long-awaited new solo album, due in the coming months via Battlegod Productions and Dark Star Records. Among the guest musicians set to appear on the LP are Scott McClellan (who helped write the album), Danny "Danté" Needham (VENOM), Magnus Rosén (HAMMERFALL), Greg Smith (ALICE COOPER, RAINBOW, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT) and Martin's youngest son Joe. BLACK SABBATH released six albums with Martin on vocals: "The Eternal Idol" (1987), "Headless Cross" (1989), "Tyr" (1990), "Cross Purposes" (1994), "Cross Purposes Live" (1995) and "Forbidden" (1995). Eventually, Martin and his "Forbidden"-era bandmates were ousted when guitarist Tony Iommi reunited with SABBATH's fellow original members. Martin's last solo album, "Scream", was released in November 2005 via MTM Music. Photo credit: Rob Billingham