Free streaming on iTunes…. It is absolutely brilliant !

You are the first person I have heard to say that. Every other comment I have heard (literally) has been either “it’s OK”, “whatever” or “it’s crap”.

I think the last Black Sabbath album I bought/listened to was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

You are the first person I have heard to say that. Every other comment I have heard (literally) has been either “it’s OK”, “whatever” or “it’s crap”.

I have read a varied mix of views. It seems to me that the ones that don’t like it are either of the camp:

A – ‘He can’t sing like Dio (RIP)’ – this makes them fans of a completely different Sabbath so fair enough. People are allowed to be wrong.

or

B – ‘Where’s Bill Ward’ – this makes them fans of being on a boring bandwagon whereby they slag off Sharon Osbourne for some explicable reason, normally around the fact that she is greedy and didn’t want to give Bill Ward too much money. Of course they are all blind to the fact that Sharon Osbourne will be acutely aware that the reformed band would have sold many more albums, merchandise and ticket sales with the original line-up.

Anyway, I like it. It sits very comfortably alongside the first four or five albums. Dark and menacing.

I think its all a bit average.

Listen-able a couple of times and then move onto somthing better.

Ozzy still cant sing.

Ozzy still cant sing.

Did you expect him to be able to? He still sounds like he did on all the other albums he recorded with Sabbath.

It’s no Mob Rules is it?

Hey but Tony still sounds great.

It’s no Mob Rules is it?

And that’s the thing – Sabbath with Dio is an entirely different sound to Sabbath with Ozzy. And vastly inferior IMO.

I used to deliver sunday newspapers to Ozzy’s house.

That is all, carry on.

Sabbath with Dio were IMO vastly superior.

Of all the albums with Oz in I can only think Tech Exctasy being worthy, oh and IV.

Sabbath with Dio were IMO vastly superior.

Heaven & Hell was great. Mob Rules was okay. I gave up after Seventh Star, which I had hoped to be good despite Born Again being dire.

But of course that is only my opinion and is probably why I think 13 is a great album – I love the dark style that Sabbath originally had.

Sabbath made their impact years ago. What the majority of fans DON’T want is something wildly different from what the band are known for.
Sabbath with Ozzy is Sabbath. Full Stop.
Sabbath with Dio, whilst good are not Sabbath (to me at least).
Similarly Audioslave are good, but they are NOT Rage Against The Machine.
Ozzy cannot sing, we know this, IT WILL NOT CHANGE!

Tis a rare beast indeed where a band in their retirement years come out with something relevant and forward looking.

Listened to 13 this morning, what has Rick Rubin done :-(. Brad Wilk is a great drummer, he sounds awful on this…worst drum sound I’ve heard in a long time. Wilk sounded awesome on Sound City, how did Rubin make him sound so bad?

I thought I liked Rick Rubin, but he’s starting to produce more and more utter dross.

I loved Sabbath Mk1, this is dire.

Good to hear some polarising opinions on Sabbath.

I did try streaming the album 13 on iTunes but could only get one track snippet as per usual. It would have been good to hear a few more tracks, but I think I’ll just be as happy to replay H&H & Mob Rules.

\ . . /

Surely Rubin cant have made a drum sound worse than on St Anger? That was like booting an oildrum with a hobnail boot.

Surely Rubin cant have made a drum sound worse than on St Anger? That was like booting an oildrum with a hobnail boot.

I always thought the drums on St Anger sounded more like banging an empty tin of Quality Street with a broken paintbrush handle…