It’s hard to describe just how happy I was listening to Black Sabbath’s first new album with Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals since the late 70s. 13 is easily the most joyous experience I’ve had listening to a new album in years, and most of that comes from the way the band brings back all of the trademark deviance that established them as the first, and best, heavy metal band to grace the stage.
The plodding riffs, the melodic anthems, and most of all, the decadence that they impart onto every aspect of each song makes this the first truly great metal album to come out from any band in years, and easily the best thing Sabbath themselves have done since the mid-70s.
Sabbath worked best when they dove headfirst into melancholy and darkness on those first four albums, and let the lyrics from Ozzy blend into these gargantuan odes to horror and weighty guitars. With 13, Black Sabbath reestablishes themselves as the metal band to end all metal bands, and they bring the best collection of songs they’ve had with them since Vol. 4. It truly is a back to basics approach, and producer Rick Rubin has to be given credit for the revival of the band’s sound, because he lets them play incredibly long on this album.
Most of the songs on the album are over five minutes, the first two are over eight, and what that does for the feel of the record is incredible. It sounds like Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Brad Wilk (drums, replacing original drummer Bill Ward) were left in a room with Ozzy for three months with no way out other than to come up with some of the best work any of them had done in years.
Sweeping songs with comically evil titles like “God Is Dead?” or “Methademic” bring back the dark humor that was present in Sabbath’s earliest stuff. They were writing horror music, yes, but the music was always so ridiculously heavy and demonic that it was hard not to chuckle at the earnestness Ozzy and the rest were putting on display with each verse or riff.
Tony Iommi sounds as good as he ever has on both the main riffs and solos that litter the album, and the rest of the band backs him up in the best way possible. I was worried a bit about the band having a younger drummer play with them, because Sabbath thrived on the absence of clutter, and that’s something that most modern rock drummers struggle with.
They want to fill every quiet moment in a song with some obnoxious fill or cymbal crash, but Brad Wilk pulls back exactly as much as is necessary, but still delivers thunderous blasts of rhythm when the songs call for it. His performance is a pleasant surprise to anyone who was worried about Sabbath operating without Bill Ward. Geezer Butler is as solid as he ever was on bass, and the result of the way he, Iommi, and Wilk work together on the album is why it sounds so much like old Sabbath.
The chemistry the band has is fantastic, and with Ozzy reportedly rekindling his drug-fueled days of yore during the recording of 13, it’s like stepping through a time machine and listening to a band in their prime. Except three out of the four members of this incarnation of the band are in their mid-60s. Which makes it even better.
“End of the Beginning” kicks off the album with the plodding timing that’s signature Sabbath, but by the time the album comes around to the fifth track, “Age of Reason”, these old men play as loud as humanly possible for the following forty minutes. It’s a master class in volume and tempo that can make even the most pretentious metal fans squeal in joy.
Again, the fact that the band pulling the strings has been around for over forty years makes it that much more impressive. The last half of the album would be a triumph for any modern metal band, but for Sabbath to come back and do it after such a long absence is amazing.
The important thing to note is that there’s a “Deluxe Edition” of this album, and while the songs that bands put on releases like that are usually frivolous, I’d recommend this version to anyone looking for the album because the three songs that are included really do serve to amplify that second half freight train of sound.
If you like metal in any of it’s forms, this is easily one of the best albums of the year. And if you don’t, then let Sabbath educate you on the finer things in life.
