BLACK SABBATH — 13 (review)

BLACK SABBATH — 13 album cover Album · 2013 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Warthur
Butler, Iommi and Ozzy reunited at last to construct what they were acutely aware may be the final Black Sabbath studio album, and perhaps under such circumstances it's understandable that they decided to take a long look backwards. Compare the structure of album opener End of the Beginning and the title track from the debut, for instance, and they're really rather similar, and final track Dear Father fades out into the sounds of a rainy thunderstorm just as the debut album faded in on one, tying the whole saga up in a bow.

In between those bookends, the boys deliver an album which, whilst I don't think it will ever rank on the same level as their early-1970s classics, is a more than appropriate swansong, taking the traditional metal style they originated and making it sing one last time and proving that they can still play slow, crushingly doomy metal which wouldn't sound out of place in a mix with Electric Wizard or Warning. If this truly is the end, it's not a bad way to go; nothing here is genuinely essential the way the band's early releases were, but at least they aren't going out on a total embarrassment.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us