13

This is my third review of quite old artists/bands in a row.

After Bowie and Purple, here come the Sabbath time?My first two opinions were rather average, and I was not really aware of what I was going to discover with this Sabbath album.

The return of the giant Ozzy?

I Was this a joke or could this be something worth? Let's have a listen? From the VERY first notes of "End Of The Beginning", I knew that something special was going to take place. Their incredible and doomy sound, the fantastic Iommi on the guitar and the so special Ozzy voice. I felt like I was brought back in the early seventies (you know, the good old times)!

Just to remind you that my first concert ever was Sabbath in March 1973. At the time they were considered as hard (heavy) rock band?

The same feeling prevails during the fantastic "God Is Dead". It is a long, dark, doomy, heavy and slow paced song. What a great song! What a great come back for this band. From virtually nowhere actually. These two songs only are just a great kick! Second highlight for sure. But there are sooooo many more here!

There are really no weak track on this album (well the long heavy and bluesy "Damaged Soul" is not extraordinary to be honest). Even if "Loner" cannot stand the comparison with the two openers (which is very difficult), it is still a solid heavy song. One can even get an acoustic break in the midst of all this excellent heaviness ("Zeitgeist").

The third long number is another great song: "Age Of Reason" contains each Sabbath's vintage ingredient. I guess that all of their fans were submerged with happiness while listening to this great track (although not my fave). Who knows what the band could have achieved if their line-up would have remained stable (meaning basically with Ozzy)?

I am totally in line with "Vibrationbaby" when he asserts that this could have been "Sabbath 5". The music here is really incredible and so close to the one of their greatest days. "Live Forever" is another fabulous example! And what can I say I say about the closing number "Dear Father"?

This is just FABULOUS my friends.

If I can give you a tip: if I were you, I would get the special edition of this CD because the three bonus tracks are really worth (which is not often the case). "Methademic" is a solid hard rock anthem full of dynamics and heaviness and totally in line with the album. This has nothing to do with filler. By no means! Even more: it is another highlight as far as I am concerned. "Pariah" is just another great song of this excellent and surprising album!

I hope to be able to witness another Black Sabbath concert before they end their career (or before I end my life). This is a great heavy metal album. Four solid stars is my rating.

I wish to witness them once more in my (their) life. They cancelled a concert in 1999 close to my place as well as last year in Rotterdam due to Tony's health problems. See you guys???

"13" is the 19th full-length studio album by UK heavy/doom metal act Black Sabbath. The album was released through Vertigo Records in June 2013. It´s the first album by the group since the release of "Forbidden" in 1995 and the first with Ozzy Osbourne since "Never Say Die! (1978)". The members have of course been busy with other projects in the intermediate years. Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi with solo careers and the two latter mentioned gentlemen also with Heaven and Hell (and with other projects). "13" was originally meant to feature original drummer Bill Ward too, but he bailed out because of contractual issues and his place is taken by Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk. So this is almost a reunion album by the original Black Sabbath lineup. As close as it gets anyway.

35 Years since these guys last recorded an album together and a new drummer do not affect the fact that the music on "13" sounds unmistakably like Black Sabbath. It´s audible that the band have gone for a vintage sound and it is the Ozzy-led albums from the early- to mid 70s that are the reference here. So we´re talking a heavy and organic sounding rhythm section, brick heavy guitar riffing, blues influenced soloing, and of course Ozzy Osbourne´s distinct sounding vocals in front. The lack of any surprises and the fact that the band have chosen to "play it safe" were slightly disappointing upon my initial listen, but slowly the quality of the tracks and the excellent musicianship begin to unfold and combined they actually make for a great listening experience. The Rick Rubin sound production is unfortunately not the best. Especially the drums sound a bit thin.

The opening pair of tracks, "End of the Beginning" and "God is Dead?" open the album in crushingly heavy style. Add a more dark and gritty sound and you´re close to being transported back to the 70s. The mellow and stoned "Zeitgeist" sounds like the younger brother to "Planet Caravan", and is a highlight on the album. Another highlight is "Damaged Soul", which sounds very retro and organic. The material are generally strong but not extraordinary, but if this turns out to the last album released by Black Sabbath, at least it´s a much, much stronger album than "Forbidden (1995)" and a much more suiting end to a great career. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

The perfect Halloween album perhaps as we draw nigh to that date, Sabbath return with a fury on "13" - album number 19 in the studio. It is hard to resist the power trio of Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne, back together at last. If nothing else it is great to hear Ozzy wail and his tone is so endearing. I have enjoyed Ozzy's journey from early dark debut to solo career and of course The Osbournes is legendary television.

The new album impresses with Iommi'as incredible deep resonating riffs and Butler's mighty bass but the real star is Ozzy who is terrific on vocals. He sounds as though he has been put into a cupboard and dusted off to rise again such is the crystal clarity of his vocals. The man has hardly changed over the years in terms of vocal technique. The lyrics have remained as dark as ever too with a few laughable moments such as "Satan's waitin;" and "God is dead". It is not exactly groundbreaking but it is Sabbath through and through.

I could not really latch onto any specific song as a highlight because they all whirl past in a blur with a ton of metal guitar in a classic metal vein and a ton of melodic singing. However I can say I loved the opener "End of the Beginning" and "Zeitgeist" is a psych metal delight, and perhaps a strong contender for a return to the classic Sabbath riff is found on the wonderful 'Age of Reason'.

Overall this is a decent return to the classic lineup. I cannot compare it with the great proto metal sound of vintage Sabbath though as that is definitive Sabbath, however "13" is still going to please many a Sabbath fan.

It reminds me to the seventies ...

I never expected much on this new album by a band that is already old. But surprisingly when I first listened to this album I was really surprised by the music especially with the vibes it produced while I was enjoying the album. Somehow the music brings me back to the first album of Black Sabbath decades ago or during late sixties. The only different thing is that the record quality is now very digital with all sonic production is crystal clear and all subtleties can be enjoyed throughout the album.

The opening track "End of the Beginning" (8:05) reminds me back to Black Sabbath from the first album, at least from the riffs it produces as well as the guitar fills. In some way it's very similar. It's OK as long as it's coming back to the music of thir own. Ozzy's voice is still good and clear. Even though Bill Ward is not around, Brad is doing a good job in drumming. Even though starts slow the music moves in crescendo so that at the end of the track it sounds rocking. Aactually I hat the title of the second track "God Is Dead?" because I firmly believe that God has never and will not ever dead forever. But looking at the end of the lyrics there is a statement that says "I believe that God is not dead" - YES! Musically this second track is terrific and I love it very much especially how the song moves wonderfully from slow paced music with Ozzy's low register notes and it moves to heavier part as well. It's an easy to digest kind of music.

"Loner" (4:59) runs through different mode than previous two tracks but still a very good one to enjoy. I like the combined work of Iomi with his guitar and Geezer Butler with his bass guitar. The mellow "Zeitgeist" (4:37) is beautifully composed with merely using bass guitar with its solid lines and guitar fills. The music blast off again with "Age of Reason" (7:01) in faster tempo than previous tracks. I love all the remaining tracks as well as "Live Forever", ""Damaged Soul", and "Dear Father" are all very good tracks. THE BONUS MATERIAL "Methademic" is really great as well as the other two.

Overall it's an excellent come back for three original members of the band. Listening to this album in its entirety reminds me back to the early albums of Sabbath and also other seventies music like Moxy, Frumpy, Babe Ruth, Mahogany Rush, Grand Funk Railroad, Leslie West, Lord Sutch, Budgie, and many more classic rock bands ....oh what a glory days of seventies ... Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

In listening to this, the first Black Sabbath studio album with Ozzy Osbourne in 35 years (I'm not counting the two studio tracks that were tacked onto Reunion), it's impossible to escape one overwhelming impression: everybody involved REALLY wanted this to sound like a classic Black Sabbath album. This isn't necessarily for the best, as the ways in which they succeed at this and the ways in which they fail at this each undercut the album in their own way. On the one hand, nods to the band's past abound, both in general stylistic imitations of older material and in occasionally coming very close to directly plagiarizing themselves. On the other hand, Ozzy clearly sounds like an old man trying to imitate his younger self, and more importantly the album (as many people have noted) is mixed far too loudly to properly capture the atmosphere the band's classic albums had at their best. Those albums had often been loud and heavy by the standards of their day, but there was enough space in the mix to lend a sense of mystery to the sound, whereas everything here is so loud and in-your-face that that aspect of the band's sound is completely lost. Chalk it up to another Rick Rubin special.

Then again, if Ozzy and Tony and Geezer (Bill Ward didn't contribute for various reasons) really felt the strong need to make another Black Sabbath album together, this approach was probably the best of the realistic options. Ozzy and Tony had each had ample opportunity to try different approaches since parting ways, and I think it would be very generous to say that the results for each had been "mixed." Making a deliberate stab at imitating their style from 40 years previous may be artistically disappointing in that it would limit the ceiling of what this project could deliver, but it would also significantly limit the floor, and given that this approach also represented the chance to make a truckload of money, I'm perfectly ok with them taking this route. At the very least, Tony lived up to his part by writing plenty of great riffs, which he hadn't always done since Ozzy left, and it's nice again to have so many parts with Tony clearly in one channel and Geezer in the other.

The oddest feature of the album is just how long some of the tracks last; the album takes up 53 minutes in a mere 8 tracks. It's as if, among all of the other features the band decided to pull in from its classic period, the band decided they really needed to include "epics" along the lines of the longer tracks from Vol. 4 or Sabotage, and there isn't always a lot of justification for this. "God is Dead," for instance, lasts a whopping 9 minutes, but however good some of the riffs might be, I feel like this could have been easily reduced down to 5. "Age of Reason" has a killer riff of its own, but it's not enough to justify its 7- minute length either. There are long tracks that more-or-less deserve their full running times, though. The opening "The End of the Beginning" starts off as a hilariously blatant rip- off of "Black Sabbath" (both in the riff and in the nervous drumming), but it quickly spins off into a completely different (and kinda awesome) riff before growing into a guitar-frenzied passage that occasionally sounds like "Looking for Today" but only a little bit. "Damaged Soul" is a full-fledged 8-minute slow metal blues, with Ozzy playing some decent harmonica, and given that the band really hadn't done anything bluesy after the debut, I'm very happy to hear them go back in this direction for one track. The closing "Dear Father" also stands out with crushing primary and secondary riffs (there's a riff starting around the 3:00 mark that kicks a tremendous amount of ass, and there's a faster one after it that drives the song to its end), and it's kinda funny how the album closes with the same rainfall/chime sample that started off the debut album.

The other three tracks are a "Planet Caravan" imitation ("Zeitgeist") that isn't as great as the original but still kinda pretty, and a pair of five-minute decent riff-based heavy rockers ("Loner," "Live Forever") that could have blended right into the band's classic period (with different production, obviously). All told, this mix of decent-to-good tracks, hurt some by the excessive loudness and the blatant retreading, earns a ***, but it turns out that the version I have has four bonus tracks, and they're really good (almost enough to make me think about boosting this to ****). My favorite of the lot, and my favorite of all of the tracks from this album, is "Methademic," which grows from a quiet acoustic introduction into a speedy thrash-y rocker with lots of guitar texture in the verses and a killer riff in the breaks, with the best vocal melody of the album by a long shot. "Peace of Mind" is built around a riff where the guitar drops out at the end to highlight the bass (before speeding up in the second half), and if Vol. 4. had this song instead of, say, "Cornucopia" or "Snowblind," I'd think more highly of that album.

"Pariah" is a little weaker, but it has its own share of good ideas (and it has more contrast in the sound than a lot of the material from the main album does), such as the riff that plays when Ozzy sings the hilarious Sabbath-y chorus of "I'm your pariah, for your desire, ain't no Messiah, just your pariah." And finally, "Naivete in Black" is not an original song title for the band, but the song is nothing like its predecessor, reminding me more of something like "Neon Knights" than of an Ozzy-era track, and the blending of past styles works well here. I guess what fascinates me most about these four tracks, and consequently helps me like them so much, is that they strike me as tracks where the band backed off from its deliberate attempts to sound like its classic self, but in the process managed to capture the spirit and quality of its classic self far better than elsewhere; after all, at the time they were making those albums, Black Sabbath didn't yet know what the classic Black Sabbath sound was, and they were just making music the best that they could. The decision to relegate these tracks to bonus tracks that are only available in some editions baffles me.

If you like classic Black Sabbath, you'll probably like this album, but it's also unlikely that you'll regard it as important as the best albums from that era after you've listened to this three times. Still, I do rate it the main album as the equal of Vol. 4, and the version with the four bonus tracks slightly higher; given that my initial reaction upon hearing of an impending new Black Sabbath album was to brace myself that I'd give a ** rating, this outcome makes me very happy. It's a little unjust to live in a world where this got tons of press while the 2013 Deep Purple album Now What?! was ignored, but them's the breaks I suppose.

I was very excited when Black Sabbath announced a reunion tour and a new album on 11-11-11 (November 11th, 2011) and so began the wait for the mid-2013 release date!

The band released their first new single God Is Dead? a couple of months prior to the album release and I thought that it was a pretty decent track, even though the track was almost 9 minutes long and had little variation throughout it's first 7 minutes. End Of The Beginning was the second single and it initially sounded like the band trying to recreate the mood and sound of their band-titled track off the debut album. Eventually I've grown to like both these singles but none of them sounded like anything new nor was it all that forward-thinking.

Once I finally got a hold of the album it didn't take me long to begin enjoying it. I immediately found my favorite track off the bunch, Dear Father, which is both strong in its content and performance. The rest of the material felt like it was either in line with the two singles or was even better, which pretty much means that there are no lesser compositions among these eleven tracks! Tony delivers memorable guitar riffs, Ozzys vocals are great and Geezer/Brad provide solid foundation for the tracks. The only negative aspect that I can think of were the lyrics written by Geezer Butler which often felt quite flat, this was especially apparent on the two singles. Still, it's not a huge problem for me considering that the rest of the record is pretty solid.

If you are a fan of heavy metal music then 13 is definitely one of the top 5 albums you should be getting this year, an excellent album well worth the price of the admission. I would definitely recommend grabbing the deluxe edition of the album which features three bonus tracks, all of which are great and one of them, Methademic, even manages to show signs of excellence thanks to the riff work from Iommi. If I were Sabbath then I would call it a day and end on the high note which this record definitely represents.

***** star songs: Live Forever (4:46) Dear Father (7:20) Methademic (5:57)

**** star songs: End Of The Beginning (8:05) God Is Dead? (8:52) Loner (4:59) Zeitgeist (4:37) Age Of Reason (7:01) Damaged Soul (7:51) Peace Of Mind (3:40) Pariah (5:34)

Finally. After 35 years Ozzy, Geezer and Tony finally get together to release a much anticipated album. Bill Ward opted out and Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine took the slot, so this isn't a complete reunion but it really sounds like classic Sabbath. The band stayed as true as they could to the classic 70s era and I have to say that I really like the results of the effort.

What we get here is retro SABBATH in all its glory. The production is up-to-date but the songs feel like this album could have come out right after SABOTAGE and is by far more interesting than either TECHNICAL ECSTASY or NEVER SAY DIE. There is no doubt that there is some blatant self-plagiarism here. The very beginning riff sounds like the beginning riff of the very first album from 1970. The song "Zeitgeist" is a clear reference to "Planet Caravan" from PARANOID. If you listen throughout the album different parts will remind you of older songs.

A recycled album maybe but one that I really enjoy hearing and never really expected would be released after the gazillion attempts over the years to make this happen. Despite this not being a full reunion and also in no way in competition to replace any of the classics as a favorite album, I still find this a very satisfying listen. I can get behind this retro sound only because this is like a new beginning. If they decide to begin releasing new albums I really hope they don't stagnate trying to recreate the past and move on into some newer frontiers. 3.5 rounded up

It can be pretty hard not to feel sorry for certain bands that destroy their own legacy, whether or not they did it intentionally. Even if it was their own doing, there's a genuine desire for a group to succeed and continue making quality records based on how good their old classic records were. There are plenty of obvious examples that come to mind: Metallica, Megadeth, Queen, etc., etc.; however, one of the worst cases of this would have to be with Black Sabbath. Why? Because they were such a significant band in pioneering an entire genre of music, of course the genre being heavy metal. While the band's records with Ronnie James Dio behind the mic were damn solid releases, most of the other post-Ozzy records have ranged from merely passable to downright atrocious (do we even need to mention their last album?). However, the hype train rolled in once the band's 2010 reunion with Ozzy Osbourne was announced. With him back into the fold, the group set out to record their big comeback album known as 13; the big thing to mention, however, is that Bill Ward isn't playing on this one. Due to a disagreement about his contract, he opted out and American drummer Brad Wilk ended up being his replacement. So, after so much hype and everything else surrounding the band, how good is 13? It's absolutely astounding.

First of all, rejoice because this goes back to the old 70s Sabbath sound! Tony Iommi's guitar work is as sinister and doomy as ever, and the band as a whole locks in well with the bleak atmosphere that Ozzy conveys with his vocals and lyrical imagery. Going back to Tony Iommi for a second, his guitar tone is exceptional on this record; you'd swear he was throwing his instrument against a giant steel wall because of how thick and metallic it sounds. Geezer Butler's bass work consistently alternates between locking in with Iommi's heavy riffs and performing some very complex (and usually swinging/bluesy) bass lines around a musical backdrop. Brad Wilk is actually a very good replacement for Bill Ward, offering lots of variety and maintaining a heavy degree of precision with the other band members. Speaking of variety, the songs are extremely diverse and let each musician stretch out his skills a bit. There's definitely a heavier dose of doom metal than in previous efforts by the band, as showcased in the first two tracks, "Age of Reason," etc. At the same time though, the album has a more modern-metal slant to it, which is not a bad thing at all in this case. The production is crystal-clear, and the aforementioned guitar tone certainly sounds more befitting of today's metal music as opposed to back in their initial heydey. Take the five-minute hard-rocker "Loner" for instance; the song sounds like a mix of 80s Dio-era Sabbath and elements of modern 2000s hard rock. The difference is that the band have plenty of tricks to differentiate this song from that very hard rock crowd; for example, there's a beautiful clean guitar section that comes before the typically heavy choruses, and it really adds some emotional depth to an otherwise ordinary song. On top of this, there's an insanely heavy bridge section in the middle that almost channels 80s thrash; a fast guitar riff from Iommi and Butler clashes against manic drumming from Wilk, while Ozzy places a neat vocal melody on top to give the section just that extra edge. Great stuff, to say the least.

As I mentioned earlier, the band aren't afraid to switch things up a bit; the biggest example of this is with the gorgeous ballad "Zeitgeist." Tony Iommi switches to the acoustic guitar as Ozzy provides distorted vocals reminiscent to those of the band's 1970 song "Planet Caravan." The song is of a minimalist nature, but including a bunch of embellishments would most likely ruin the song's magic. Iommi swiftly switches between very well-chosen chords and little melodies to offset them. The chorus is especially lovely and displays Ozzy's vocal work at its best as he legitimately sounds brooding and depressed throughout the climactic moment. Also, blues-esque solo at the end fits the acoustic chords very well and doesn't overstay its welcome. However, the most exciting portions of the record come in when the band do what they do best: play extremely doomy, sludgy anthems of darkness! There are plenty of them to choose from on here; "God is Dead" has already been out for quite a while and remains among the album's highlights, but "Age of Reason" and "End of the Beginning" are right up there too. The former pits extremely hollow-sounding riffs with masterfully placed melodic lines that offer a slight glimmer of hope. The barren riff in the bridge is particularly intense, sounding almost like something off Death's album Spiritual Healing. Ozzy's sinister vocals as he sings over the riff are just icing on the proverbial cake. The latter song "End of the Beginning" is a wonderfully bleak opener that actually bears many similarities to the band's very first song, the eponymous "Black Sabbath." The quiet verses and loud doom metal choruses certainly remind one of the iconic 70s tune, but the faster section that begins in the middle is done just a wee bit better than the speedier section in "Black Sabbath." The band enter a bluesy section aided by Brad Wilk's swinging percussion and Tony Iommi's stylish solo, and the climactic vocal section that comes afterwards blends very well with the faster portion of the song. Songwriting like that is what makes this album work so well.

The only flaw with this album is that there are some points that are a little too reminiscent of the band's past songs, but that's to be expected when a group has been around for so long (just look at some of the self-plagiarism in Metallica's Death Magnetic!). Honestly, this album is mindblowing. The riffs are amazing, the atmosphere is great, the vocals are surprisingly good, and the lyrics are very well-written and suitably dark to fit the music. I'd recommend this not just to a Black Sabbath fan, not just to an Ozzy fan, but to any fan of hard rock or metal music. This is a comeback album done the way a comeback album is supposed to be done: with quality and, of course, respect to the fans who have supported the band over the years. Buy this; you won't regret it.

(Originally published on Sputnikmusic)

Butler, Iommi and Ozzy reunited at last to construct what they were acutely aware may be the final Black Sabbath studio album, and perhaps under such circumstances it's understandable that they decided to take a long look backwards. Compare the structure of album opener End of the Beginning and the title track from the debut, for instance, and they're really rather similar, and final track Dear Father fades out into the sounds of a rainy thunderstorm just as the debut album faded in on one, tying the whole saga up in a blow.

In between those bookends, the boys deliver an album which, whilst I don't think it will ever rank on the same level as their early-1970s classics, is a more than appropriate swansong, taking the traditional metal style they originated and making it sing one last time and proving that they can still play slow, crushingly doomy metal which wouldn't sound out of place in a mix with Electric Wizard or Warning. If this truly is the end, it's not a bad way to go.