The third release with 'Tony Martin' fronting the band and while the sound has changed pretty dramatically since 'Ozzy' left, it's still identifiable as 'Sabbath'. There are plenty of decent tracks to be found on 'Tyr' but for me, few go that extra distance to make them great songs. 'Tony Martin's' 'Dioesque' vocals do the songs credit, but personally I don't think he delivers with quite the same conviction as 'Ronnie', all the same he's still a class vocalist. The theme for 'Tyr' appears to be Norse mythology, a millions miles away from the sort of thing 'Ozzy' used to sing about, but for me this keeps the release structured and overall the song writing is pretty good.

'Anno Mundi' kicks the album off impressively, this melodic, medieval inspired piece features some fine lyrics and combine with a quality rhythm for a well structured opener. The pace in picked up further with the hard rocking 'Law Maker', a pretty simplistic number, but I like it, 'Tony Martin' sounds especially strong and the brisk tempo is enjoyable, lyrically it's all a bit obvious but it still works. 'Jerusalem' is a more weighty effort and while not as heavy as most, it's a well layered track, full of fine guitar licks and soaring vocals on the chorus. The first half ends with an epic 'The Sabbath Stones', the song starts out fairly ordinarily, in fact a little laboured, thankfully it picks up throughout and matures into powerful thumper, laced with potent lyrics and some great 'Tony Iommi' guitaring. Side two commence with the 'Tyr' trilogy, the intro to which 'The Battle of Tyr' is an atmospheric instrumental, that acts a nice lead-in to 'Odin's Court', a graceful melodic number which it sung exceptionally well. It's the last section that really shines through though, 'Valhalla' is a cracking fist raiser set at a brisk tempo, the fret work is as you would expect from 'Tony Iommi' inventive and potent, why 'Cozy Powell' and 'Neil Murray' lay down some sterling work for the albums top track. The pace is significantly dropped for the balladsy single release 'Feels Good to Me' and while a decent slower effort, when you think of 'Sabbath', this 'Whitesnake' style offering is not what you expect. Lastly we are gifted the uncompromising belter 'Heaven in Black' an energetic rocker that close the album off nicely with plenty of crashing guitars, galloping rhythm and the usually clinical vocals.

Another decent release with 'Tony Martin' fronting, while I personally prefer the 'Dio' / Classic 'Ozzy' era, this period of 'Sabbath's' career is regrettably often overlooked, as there's some quality music to be found. 'Tyr' could do with a couple more tracks, nine including one short instrumental and the lead-in 'Odin's Court' is a bit light, but there's still enough here to please fans of this period of their careers.