HAPPY FUCKIN' NATIONAL METAL DAY!!!

HELL YES!!!!

http://www.billboard.com/news/black-sabbath-reuniting-for-new-album-tour-1005511372.story#/news/black-sabbath-reuniting-for-new-album-tour-1005511372.story

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To be produced by Rick Rubin...if he actually shows up to the studio, this could be huge. Look what he did for Johnny Cash and Tom Waits, just to name 2.

http://gunshyassassin.com/news/black-sabbath-officially-reunite-to-record-with-rick-rubin/

It has potential because Iommi and Butler were the creative force in the band to begin with, and seem to have remained pretty into making music, whereas ozzy has become a product.

If Rubin can coax a decent performance out of ozzy then this really could be pretty good.


*edited out redundancy

I was just listening to Never Say Die the other day and I realized that Butler fucking carries that album. the bass lines rage through every song. Its a shame Iommi was so burnt out and Ozzy was so blown out on drugs while Geezer was firing on all cylinders...

You know, something in me is saying it might be better to leave well enough alone. God knows Ozzy's most recent material has been forgettable at best.

Rubin is mostly a coordinator of bands and a listener. He's my all time favorite producer because he just sits back and says "That's great" or "I think you can do better" while he lays on the couch and acts like he's sleeping. Why he was awesome with Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Donovan, Tom Petty, etc is that they were all willing to trust him and be willing to sound like they originally did...and not like whatever studio trickery was popular at the time. Metallica didn't really work because Metallica has no interest in sounding like "Metallica"....

A huge part of it will be who's engineering it.

And really....think what Death Magnetic would have sounded like without Rubin.

I have thought this same thought...admittedly Iommi is a riff machine bar none, but Geezer's bass playing just stands out more and more as the band progresses through the 70's until, like you're saying, it's really carrying the rest at the end of the line.


As for Rubin, I look earlier than Cash to Slayer and Danzig...if he can provide that aesthetic to a new Sabbath album...like I said, could be good.

Rick Rubin simply reminds bands of their legacy and insists they play to those strengths.

I don't know if Rick has the passion anymore. Slayer said he was hardly ever there for "Christ Illusion"....

As cool as it is in theory, it gets to be more and more difficult to get fired up about any band getting back together that had both A) disbanded when they were at the low point in their creativity together and B) had so much acrimony and bitterness between certain members that a genuine reconciliation out of anything but sheer monetary figures seems implausible. Don't forget that this is C) likely Sharon's doing, making it even more difficult to accept it as motivated by the desire to create good music, rather than milking it for whatever money can be raked in. If they're genuinely inspired to get back together to create some great music and bury the hatchet, that's awesome. If it's a phoned in effort, i'll have to pass.

If their last outing with Dio was any indication, I'm actually optimistic. I get it; Ozzy's shot. Well, let's see what happens. If they're making announcements like "new studio album in 2012", chances are the album already in the can, or at least the bare minimum they need.

I'll see how the Rubin-produced ZZ Top album turns out before I get too stoked about a new Sabbath album.

My concern as well. Punching a clock at this point. We can only hope he has a personal interest in this one, whereas slayer has just been a repeat client.

Good call.

The thing with Rubin, is that I think that he was more effective when he was working with underground bands in the early days, and then with bands that he was brought in to "fix", whether that be RHCP with BSSM, to get them to tap into a more mature and saleable side, or Johnny Cash and AC/DC, by fixing them by taking off all the extraneous commercial gloss that they'd endured in the 80's.

I think that the impact of his production style had more effect when people didn't automatically expect him to deliver a "back to their roots" style performance. Ted Jensen--who mastered "Death Magnetic"--had publicly expressed his disdain of Rubin and the engineers slamming the mix before he even had got it. Rubin falls into a predictable template of overcompressing/ overlimiting masters and mixes, which is ironic, since his style of delivering a sound that is relatively free of modern studio trickery is completely at odds with those bands' original more relaxed masters--which was a big part of that magic, back when records were made with more dynamics.

In other words, i'd expect the VU meters to be absolutely screaming on the new Sabbath record, whereas on something like "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath", the band's self production varied wildly in the dynamic on that record. Brickwall limiting is the new gated reverb.

Absolutely. I certainly hope no one has any preconceived notions of some kind of 'return to form' album for Ozzy-era Sabbath. I'm fairly certain it will be a little better than average, by the numbers Iommi riffing that gels with whatever Ozzy is capable of doing.

It will sound like a 'modern' Black Sabbath, you can take it or leave it. Those two studio tracks on Reunion didn't sound like 1974 to me either. Bill will probably be sound replaced, the guitars will be stacked and Ozzy will be given whatever help is necessary to keep the sound together.

But it's something new and it's better than nothing at all. If I don't like it, I don't have to listen to it. . As long as it's not completely sterile and boring (and Geezer writes some good lyrics), I'm still happy to hear it. Should have happened over ten years ago but good on them anyway.

Honestly I would rather see them return to that open-ended creative period (no doubt fueled by acid and coke) that they explored on SBS and Sabotage more than just a stripped down rock record.

But I do hope it's not an overcompressed mess.

Not something to get your hopes up over, but I'll be interested in giving it a chance.

The fact that they're even willing to attempt a new album at this point might be a good sign; they've tried at least twice in the last fifteen years or so to make a new album and the spark wasn't sufficient to follow through...I'd hope Tony and Geezer still have that same standard.

I honestly hope the new album has a mellow track or two on it. That'd be a welcome surprise.

Never Say Die is actually one of my favorites because of Geezer's playing.


Anyways, this is good news. I love the original Black Sabbath.

I'm stoked. I'll be buying the album and seeing them on tour.

Why's it always gotta be Henry Rollins hanging around Black Sabbath these days?

I don't expect much. There is not much of a chance that they regain the old chemistry. And the live-shows will be ridiculously expensive.

I work at Download every year so I know I'll be seeing that show, looking forward to it. I think I'll have to make sure I get a stage pass if I can :)