Album per day: Day 8

Artist: Black Sabbath
Album: 13
Released: 2013

The first Black Sabbath album in 18 years was released to mostly critical acclaim. It was the first studio album with Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals since Never Say Die! was released in 1978, and reunited three out of the four of the iconic Black Sabbath lineup: Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler, so this new record was always going to cause a stir. Add Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave to the mix to contribute drums, and you've got a rock fan's wet dream. The excitement generated by 13 caused the album to climb to the top of the UK album charts, which was their first to do so since Paranoid was released in 1970. With all of that background information on one of the worlds most illustrious metal bands, let's get this album from the Brummie Boilers underway.
You would think that a band who have gone through countless line up changes wouldn't be as tight after all this time, but if first track End Of The Beginning is anything to go by, 13 is going to be a very enjoyable record indeed. This is the sort of metal I dig: slow riffs with plenty of groove. Lead single and the Grammy-winning God Is Dead? follows, and you start to acknowledge the quality of the production that Rick Rubin has brought to this album, but is that what Black Sabbath fans want? They're used to the old fashioned, analogue approach that doesn't give songs the glossy finish - take what Foo Fighters did with Wasting Light for example, which was all recorded on analogue tapes. Nevertheless, it still sounds like Sabbath through and through, with Iommi's unmistakeable licks complimenting Ozzy's voice so very nicely.
Stripped back psychedelic acoustic surfaces on Zeitgeist, which is beautifully executed by a band who are so used to turning it up to 11. Age Of Reason is heavy as balls, but drags on towards about seven minutes, and Live Forever gallops along the low string of Iommi's downtuned Gibson SG, and Geezer Butler and Brad Wilk remain as tight as though they have been playing together for 20 years. I'm loving the blues influence that Sabbath bring to the table, and you'd be hard pressed to find a band that does it better. Dear Father is one of the later highlights, with a strong sense of chemistry being expressed. Starting off the bonus tracks is a song that starts off like Enter Sandman, but is really called Methademic, a vicious, gloomy heavy metal anthem with a quicker tempo to boot. Peace Of Mind is the shortest track on 13, and hits hard and slow, only then to turn it into a quick-fire pummelling, and then we end on Pariah, with memorable singalong lyrics, but not the most memorable pieces of music on 13.
As a man who has spent his life shying away from the bands of yesteryear, maybe favouring acts like Guns N'Roses and Queen instead of bands like Black Sabbath and The Who, it shames me that I have taken this long to appreciate anything that this band has released beyond Paranoid and Iron Man. This doesn't sound like a band that are desperately trying to cling onto whatever relevance they have, or attempting to be nostalgic in any way - they still feel like they have a message to convey, and with the way that they have been received since, they definitely still have a place in the hearts of their fans. They deserve a large amount of respect to come back and record an album after the trials and tribulations that they have been through, be it Ozzy's drug dependencies, or Tony Iommi's news that he has sadly been diagnosed with lymphoma. It doesn't matter how much reality television Ozzy sullies his reputation with; he and his Sabbath cohorts will always be one of the greats, and boy have they still got it.

Rating: 9/10
Recommended songs: End Of The Beginning, Live Forever