Black Sabbath Set Release Date for '13' Album
Black Sabbath's first album with Ozzy Osbourne in 35 years finally has a release date: '13' is slated to come out on June 11th, according to the latest official update for the band. The news was accompanied by a behind-the-scenes video of Sabbath recording in Los Angeles' Shangri-La Studio with producer Rick Rubin.
"I've been a fan of Black Sabbath my whole life, and getting to come in to work everyday and hearing Black Sabbath play, it stimulates something in me just like when I was 14 years old," Rubin says in the clip. "They just want what's best, and we're all sort of working together to find whatever works best for them."
"He looks like a bit of a guru, but he knows what he's looking for and when he's satisfied with what he's got," Osbourne says of Rubin.
Recorded last fall, 13 finds Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and guest drummer Brad Wilk (of Rage Against the Machine) resurrecting the ultra-heavy sound of early Sabbath records; tracks like "End of the Beginning" and "Age of Reason" stretch out to as long as eight minutes. "I don't know what's going on in the music world," Osbourne recently told Rolling Stone. "My wife mentions bands to me and I don't know what the fuck she's talking about. We just do what we always did."
Although Osbourne describes the new album as "Satanic blues," Iommi's illness isn't the only thing that's changed about Sabbath. Osbourne admits he is no longer the "crazy, raging alcoholic drug addict" he was during the making of his last Sabbath record, 1978's Never Say Die. ("It should've been called I Wish I Was Dead," he grumbles.) And even a new Sabbath song like the provocatively titled "God Is Dead" takes an unexpected turn. "It starts off, 'God is dead,'" Osbourne says, before adding a bit wistfully, "but at the end it says, 'I don't believe that God is dead.'"
