Album Review: Black Sabbath - 13

The godfather of metal, Ozzy Osbourne, is back in black and reunites with former bandmates Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in the studio for the first time in 25 years for 13, and it's amazing to think that these guys are pumping out this kind of music at an age when most people are tucking their shirts in at their armpits and trying to remember where they left their keys. 

End Of The Beginning is a fitting way to reintroduce Ozzy to the fold, a slow, plodding dirge building to typically classic Sabbath riffery. 

Produced by Rick Rubin, he's seen to it that the band sticks to their strength, that being chunky riffs that are there to complement a song rather than undermine it. The album's shortest song clocks in at four-and-a-half minutes, with over half of the LP falling in the seven-to-eight minute region. This never detracts from the flow, however, as the longer numbers have enough happening dynamically to keep one interested. 

13 has plenty of classic Sabbath breakdowns that never mess with the formula that has had people barking at the moon since the band's inception. Tracks like Loner and Age Of Reason underscore the power of the pentatonic blues scale in the rock music canon; Tony Iommi should be stored in a glass humidified box like Lenin upon his death, so future generations will know what a guitar legend looks like. 

Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk offered up his services for this release and proved an ideal match, getting the job done like a champ. Meat and potatoes heavy metal prepared by the original chefs of the genre.