Black Sabbath, such teases.
Slowly, all this information is leaking out about the album. Yesterday, Ozzy described the new album as "satanic blues", which many commenters assutetly summized: "so he's saying it sounds like a Black Sabbath record." Yes, indeed.
Today, we get a video tease. The band is releasing what I assume is a long form video to hype the album release, due out in June, according to Geezer, and this is a teaser for that longer tease. Got that? Here's the video:
In related news, Revolver just posted a very lengthy piece on their recent sampling of the new music, and it reads very promising. Yesterday, we gave you some song titles, and Revolver goes in depth on the sound of each song:
But whatever trepidation we may have is quickly put to rest by the slab of prime Sabbath sorcery that is “End of the Beginning,” the first track we hear. “Is this the end of the beginning? Or just the beginning of the end?” Ozzy asks mournfully over Iommi’s doomy opening riff, sounding like an older but not necessarily wiser version of the dread-filled oaf who wondered “What is this that stands before me?” at the beginning of 1970’s “Black Sabbath”. Boasting more badass riffs than you can shake a sack of dwarves at, the track only staggers to a close after some eight gloriously demonic minutes, with Iommi’s stump-fingered outro solo leaving a spiral-shaped exclamation point on the proceedings.
Equally impressive is “God Is Dead,” a nine-minute track that moves effortlessly from an ominous opening powered by Wilk’s tribal tom-tom pattern into a swinging groove reminiscent of Sabotage opener “Hole in the Sky.” “Up from the gloom, I rise out of my tomb,” intones a double-tracked Ozzy, and you can practically smell the clouds of crypt dust wafting up with him.
After the sonic feast of “End of the Beginning” and “God Is Dead,” it’s almost impossible to fully digest the seven-minute “Epic,” which could also easily pass for a previously unheard outtake from Sabbath’s highly creative 1972-75 period. And unfortunately, it’s also the last song we get to hear today, in part because there’s apparently still some confusion over which (and how many) of the other tracks recorded during the recent sessions with Rubin will actually make into onto the album—something we learn as soon as we sit down with Butler and Osbourne in Shangri-La’s living room lounge. (Iommi is currently back home in England, putting the final touches on a couple of solos at his studio, and continuing his treatment for the lymphoma he was diagnosed with in early 2012.)
Sounds very promising. The whole Revolver piece is worth a read. I'm getting really excited for this new Sabbath album.
