Metal pioneers Black Sabbath have returned with 13, their first album of new material with singer Ozzy Osbourne since 1978’s Never Say Die! A week before its official release, the band are keeping up with the ways of the whippersnappers and are currently streaming the entire record on their iTunes artist page, click on ‘View in iTunes’ to hear the album in full. Now get off my lawn.
13 will be officially released on June 10, and features Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk on drums (replacing original percussion giant Bill Ward) as well as revered producer Rick Rubin.
For his part, Ozzy savors the fact that the album doesn’t sound like old men trying to recapture a 35 year-old sound. “The one thing I’m really happy with the new material is that it doesn’t sound like what we’d have done next if I hadn’t left in 1979,” he explained. “It isn’t like we’ve tried to make “Paranoid” again. It sounds like Black Sabbath, but it’s very current. I mean, with Pro Tools and computers and everything, we could make us sound like anything.”
The candid admission that Pro Tools played a considerable part in the album’s sound goes a long way towards explaining the razor’s-edge sharpness of the record, as well as some less-than-thrilling live performance footage of Ozzy struggling to keep up with the material.
Check out our full review of Black Sabbath’s 13 right here.
