Tag: "black sabbath"

It was only a week ago that Black Sabbath released the studio version of “God Is Dead?,” and already more new material has found its way online.

While performing in Melbourne, Australia recently, the men of Black Sabbath debuted a new song entitled, “Methademic.” The song is in a similar vein to “God Is Dead?,” with brooding metal pairing with Ozzy‘s atmospheric drone. The quality of the fan recorded footage is not top shelf, but the audio is good enough for sampling. Click below to view the performance.

13 arrives in stores June 11. Continue reading ‘Black Sabbath Debut “Methademic” In Australia’

Making a career out of playing musc is nearly impossible, and even if you do somehow manage to pull it off there are absolutely no guarantees that it will last. In many cases it’s almost impossible to know why some acts last longer than others, while other times there are bands whose music plays in such an indescribable way that you simply know they will be around as long (if not longer) than you. Black Sabbath fall into the latter category, and anyone doubting that need look no further than their new single.

Rumors swirled for months in 2012 that Black Sabbath would return, but metalheads the world over refused to believe it until the group themselves stood on stage and proclaimed reunion. That happened, and now we have a new album fast approaching. The lead single, “God Is Dead?,” found its way online over the weekend and ushered in the most brooding age of Black Sabbath to date. The song is a slow, trudging track with Ozzy waxing poetically about life and death against minimalistic accompaniment aside from a guitar melody that will engrain itself into your subconscious in no time. It never builds to full-on rock anthem, but it does pulsate with life throughout hitting its peak during an all-too-short bridge. You can stream the song at the end of this post.

Sitting down to write about Black Sabbath is the kind of thing that turns my hair gray. Continue reading ‘Black Sabbath Prove They Have More To Offer With “God Is Dead?”’

Sure, there was some kind of election or something last week—at least we think that’s what we heard coming out of the mouths of the TV pundits. Honestly, we kind of stopped paying attention after a while, at least until the news broke about a truly earth-shattering political breakthrough. While the rest of the world was focused on whichever one of those guys with the suits and ties walked away with the prize, we were captivated by a revolutionary piece of legislation that proved to be election night’s biggest surprise: the legalization of recreational marijuana use in Washington and Colorado. While this monumental move has been the dream of stoners all over America for decades, it must be assumed that the passing of what we like to call The Bong Bill will be most widely celebrated in the realm of rock ‘n’ roll. To commemorate the dawning of a new era for uncontrolled substances, let’s look back at some of rock’s most notorious stoners, who are sure to be holding their lighters aloft in honor of these epochal developments.

Black Sabbath

Just for starters, one of their earliest albums introduced the much-covered metal marijuana anthem “Sweet Leaf.” But beyond that musical love letter to THC, Ozzy Osbourne is one of rock’s most titanic tokers, to the point that he ultimately changed his stance on legalization in recognition of the damage drugs had done to his neurological system. Granted, we’re talking about a lot more than merely pot in Ozzy’s case, but nevertheless, Sabbath are still stoner-rock Continue reading ‘Riffs, Rants & Rumors: Celebrate the Weed Laws with Rock’s Top 10 Stoners’

Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Bucky Covington Proves ‘I’m Alright,’ with New Album, Sold Out Tour, and More’

Classic is a term used by people in the arts to define the highest standard of works; something that has withstood the test of time, something that has been inserted into the cultural canon. If we’re talking literature, we could use the Iliad or Odyssey as an example, or perhaps something more modern like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. These works undoubtedly shaped their medium since brought into existence. But what about classics in the world of metal specifically? Compared to most art forms, metal is still in its infancy, being somewhere around 40 years old now. Are there really any works that can be universally regarded as groundbreaking and genre-defining?

Starting with the obvious, Black Sabbath‘s early albums have to be considered since they’re widely regarded as the forefathers of metal. What about their contemporaries and bands that came shortly after? Surely Motörhead, Iron Maiden and others deserve consideration. For posterity, let’s just take the landmark works, Overkill and The Number of the Beast respectively. If we include Judas Priest, which of their works should be included? One approach would be the early work, something more landmark for less studied fans, but on the other hand Painkiller is one of the best metal albums of all time and quite a bit more aggressive than the band’s early material, making this a tough decision. The list of bands and albums goes on and on.  Continue reading ‘Metal Monday: Classicism In Metal’

The metal world, historically, has been known mostly as an insiders-only club. People on the outside don’t usually get metal, and people on the inside can rarely communicate what exactly it is about metal that is so compelling. As Sam Dunn says in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, “Ever since I was twelve years old I had to defend my love for heavy metal against those who say it’s a less valid form of music. My answer now is that you either feel it or you don’t. If metal doesn’t give that overwhelming surge of power that make the hair stand up at the back of your neck, you might never get it, and you know what? That’s okay, because judging by the 40,000 metalheads around me we’re doing just fine without you.”

Just because you don’t “feel it,” though, doesn’t mean that you have to go on misunderstanding things about the genre, the people who make metal music or the people who enjoy it. I’m here to dispel some pretty common rumors and misconceptions around the metal world. Perhaps you’re someone who might think some of these sentiments are true, or maybe you know someone who does; whatever the case, it’s time to learn a thing or two.

Continue reading ‘Metal Monday: Metal Urban Legends’

UPDATE: The lineup leaked below has been confirmed, including the previously questionable inclusion of Black Sabbath. Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell told Rolling Stone, ”They mean so much to me, and they mean so much to music in general, that I kind of feel like I’m dreaming to know that Black Sabbath is actually gonna perform at Lollapalooza.”
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The holiday weekend brought more than just Easter eggs for music festival fans. That’s because the entire 2012 Lollapalooza line-up has been leaked online, in the form of this picture:

Headliners for this year’s festival reportedly include the Black Keys, Black Sabbath, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Other big acts are Florence + The Machine, Sigur Ros, The Shins ans M83. And it seems that this list, unlike the other one that was released in February, is apparently legit. So what do you think of this year’s festival line-up?

Before you say anything about the title of this post, hear me out. I know it’s weird to give that much credit to bassists, but they’re pretty important—and I’m not just talking about the Geddy Lees, Les Claypools and Cliff Burtons of the world, either. When a guitarist is off wandering around his fretboard during a solo, who do you think is holding down the fort? Yeah, okay, probably a rhythm guitarist too, but the answer I’m going with is the bassist. Many things go into being a really great bassist. Sometimes it’s an unprecedented technical proficiency with the bass (as illustrated by Stephan Fimmers on Necrophagist’s “Stabwound”), or the ability to sink a great feel into numerous different grooves (as evidenced by Geezer Butler in pretty much every Black Sabbath song ever written). Maybe you’re like Justin Chancellor or Paul D’Amour and help shape the very sound and identity of your band. Unfortunately, it’s not always so obvious when a bassist is really holding it down, but we’re here to help rectify the situation. We’ve collected eight really solid bass performances from the deepest reaches of the OurStage Metal Channel— you just have to listen along and maybe slappa da bass right along with them.

Continue reading ‘Metal Monday: Bassists Are Important Too!’