ROCKET REVIEW: BLACK SABBATH

Pioneers of heavy metal music BLACK SABBATH have released a new collection of songs entitled 13 in 2013 with original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. Unfortunately, due to contract disagreements drummer Bill Ward has been replaced by Brad Wilk of rap/metal act RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. So much for this being a reunion affair like it was originally sold to everyone, right? Well there has been tremendous anticipation for this record being that it’s been thirty five years since Ozzy recorded a complete studio album with his old mates. After being inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame already, one wonders why they would take such a risk at damaging their incredible legacy by releasing material that may not live up to the early classics like “Iron Man”, “Paranoid”, and “War Pigs”.

This reviewer is stunned at just how poorly the effort has turned out. There are no monster riffs that stick to you for good, nor are there any real impressive guitar solos to speak of – including no cool, memorable bass parts from Geezer whatsoever. To be blunt, the writing on Sabbath’s ’13’ is some of the most contrived rock music ever released. Geezer was right when he told the media this was not going to be a ‘metal’ album. It’s so slow and disjointed at nearly every turn that it’s difficult to even call it a hard rock record. Producer Rick Rubin was brought in to try and capture the original vibe of the band but I am afraid that he strangled out the life of their classic sound due to the fact that he over compressed during the mixing and flattened out the dynamics so much so that not only does 13 not have the eerie, dark ‘feeling’ of early Sabbath… truth be told, 13 comes off sounding like nothing more than another over produced Ozzy solo album.

The first slow and plodding moments of “End of The Beginning” set up the snore fest that is to follow. Why in the hell would you start the album with two slow tempo songs that are both eight minutes in length? Immediately beyond that problem, I found the new version of Sabbath seriously lacking in any real imagination. The true essence of the great band simply is not there. You must have the almighty riff and lead guitar player Tony Iommi flat out doesn’t show up with any here. Whether it was his battle against cancer that hampered his creative output or not, I am afraid the songwriting on 13 is so poor that not even Bill Ward could have saved this catastrophe from its doom. Each and every song seems half baked and assembled haphazardly. “God Is Dead” is meant to be spooky but unlike the frightening attack of epic past gems like “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and “Children of The Grave”, it lacks any real substance other than Ozzy barking “Is God really dead?” over and over to the point of literally driving me to the brink of madness.

The next cut “Loner” definitely gets off to a more rocking start than the others but it fizzles out soon and things only get worse with album killer “Zeitgeist”. People let me point something out. I am four songs into the big return of heavy music’s most famous act and most the songs do not move faster than an old lady with her walker. That’s not a good thing, no matter who is in the band.

“Age of Reason” and “Live Forever” desperately try to conjure up the early Sabbath magic but like an embarrassed magician who screws up the trick in front of a crowd, Ozzy, Tony and Geezer have literally flatlined the legendary Black Sabbath. I found the solo that Tony does on this song to just be so meandering and goddamn deflating like the rest of 13 that tears of sadness actually formed in my eyes. I know there’s no crying in metal but dammit I just can’t fight back the utter disappointment. The beep of the flatline continues…

“Damaged Soul” I will admit is the best song on the record… by far. It has a cool bluesy feel in the start but as soon as Ozzy begins whine-singing it just becomes another mediocre tune for me. And again it’s another slow tempo song that just goes on forever and ever. It too is nearly eight minutes in length and like the others I feel it could have easily been cut down by a couple minutes at least. “Dear Father” ends the record and thankfully, because it’s the biggest turd out of them all. When I am fighting to get to the end of a song without turning it off – during the first two minutes – that should tell you all something.

In the end, I think that with a different producer, one with more old school recording experience that doesn’t lean so heavily on making it a modern sounding record, things could have gone very different for 13. They should have definitely spent more time on the writing process. They should have gone more retro and recorded it with an edge like they were when first a garage band discovering their innovative doomsday sound that exploded onto the scene like a musical soundtrack to the end of the world.

The only thing really scary about with 13 is that indeed Ozzy sounds totally emotionless like some kind of drugged out zombie getting ready to eat someone’s face off. And instead of Wilk they could have used a real blues drummer like Ginger Baker or Chris Layton, most notably again because they would have brought more ‘feel’ and a ‘pulse’ to this lifeless corpse of a record. Yes, my bet is that Bill Ward is having one hell of a laugh somewhere alone right now.

TMD

ROCKET REVIEW
[starreview tpl=16]
BLACK SABBATH – “13” (CD)
(Vertigo, Universal/2013)

1. End Of The Beginning
2. God Is Dead?
3. Loner
4. Zeitgeist
5. Age Of Reason
6. Live Forever
7. Damaged Soul
8. Dear Father

http://www.blacksabbath.com/