BLACK SABBATH 13 BREATHES BEASTLY FIRE INTO METAL'S MOST ANTICIPATED REUNION

13
2013

548 Miles To Go

Black Sabbath 13 breathes a beastly fire into heavy metal's most anticipated family reunion.

Rock's sweatiest hobgoblin Ozzy Osbourne reassumes his role as ringleader, while bassist Geezer Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi create the musical thunderstorms with drummer Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave) who mans the seat of the only original member not returning for 13, Bill Ward.

Rick Rubin, perhaps the most prolific and certainly most diversified producer of his generation, leads the studio charge into the spookiest swamps of Sabbath's early efforts and adds an updated metal muscularity - in part from his work with bands such as Slayer, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Wilk's former gang Rage Against The Machine.

All the expected lyrical images real and metaphorical are on 13 - good, evil, God, Satan, death, destruction, thunder, graveyards. And no matter how funny the phrasing, Ozzy always sounds sincere in his delivery.

Arguably, Ozzy's all-time most memorable lyrics are the coughs at the beginning of Sweet Leaf, the "All aboard! Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa!/Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay" from his solo Crazy Train, and "I am Iron Man" from perhaps Sabbath's greatest hit.

Ozzy's antics made him a member of rock's one-name legends club, but Iommi wields the sharpest ax in making Sabbath metal's most influential royalty.

And, at its core, 13 is a showcase of Iommi's metal mastery.

The accomplishment of Iommi's guitar play is made even more impressive by the fact that the making of 13 along with the tour that followed happened while fighting a real demon - the blood cancer lymphoma.

If 13 is Sabbath's last original stand, it's more than worthy of a mention on their hall of fame headstone. 

13 Sound For The Soundtrack: Live Forever

Running Data for Thursday, June 20:
5.13 Miles
55:16

Mileage In The Change Jar: 0.95 Miles