If you've been following the development of 13 you already know that it is the first album featuring Ozzy, Tony and Geezer together in 35 years. You also know that original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward did not join them. This was a great blow to be sure. But producing the album was the legendary Rick Rubin who made a quick fix adding drummer Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame. Brad's playing on the album is powerful, loud and loose. He is a perfect fit for the seasoned pro riffs of Iommi. Guitarist Tony Iommi's experience with the album was a matter of life or death. He was diagnosed with Lymphoma at the beginning of the writing period of the album.He began treatment immediately and had the guys fly out to England to continue writing and playing whenever he had the strength. But he fought through the disease and is now recovering but amazingly recorded this album in the middle of it all. Sabbath's upcoming world tour includes breaks for Iommi to get further treatment to keep his cancer at bay. This month's Guitar World magazine shares an amazing article all about Tony's battle and victory with the disease and the band's comeback
Now let's get down to the nitty gritty. This album rocks! Rubin wanted to capture the raw, live room feel of the band's most successful release, Paranoid. They played in the room together and had a minimum amount of overdubs. Most of Tony's solos are live, which must have been terribly stressful for him. The result however is glorious. The band sounds powerful, and electrifying. The Ozzy, Iommi, Geezer combo is just too classic to resist.
I wasn't a huge fan of the single off the album " God is Dead?" but it is growing on me. This is definitely one of the those albums that at first listen you think "yah that was pretty good" but then the more you listen to it the more you realize how fucking awesome it is. That being said there are several key tracks that stand out from the rest of the album as being the jewels of the bunch. First is "Zeitgeist", a clear "Planet Caravan" throwback fully equip with acoustic guitar, bongos and flanger laden Ozzy vocals. The shortest and softest song on the album it also has some of Iommi's most soulful and expressive lead work.
Next is "Damaged Soul". Although 13 is laden with great riffs "Damaged Soul" might be the most memorable sludge fueled hypnotic romp of them all. This song also has like 5 ripping Iommi live solos that will light your socks ablaze.
Finally the most thrashing and hardest rocking tune on the whole album is actually one of the bonus tracks on the deluxe version of 13, "Methademic". This song is the fastest tempo on the album and has the most complex guitar textures which is nice change from all the powerchords. (Not that there is anything wrong with powerchords). It is also my favorite performance from Ozzy on 13.
Overall this is wonderful reemergence of the mighty Black Sabbath. It may not contain riffs as memorable and classic as the tunes from Paranoid, but it rocks twice as hard and demonstrates a matured and battle scared Sabbath that is back and will take no prisoners.
4/5 stars
key tracks: Zeitgeist
Damaged Soul
Methademic
-Sam of BBT
