This week marks eight years since Black Sabbath released 13, the first album to bear the band’s name in 18 years, and the first to feature Ozzy on vocals in 35. Its predecessor, 1995’s Forbidden, was a turkey, while the last two albums to feature the band’s classic original line up – 1976’s thin-spread Technical Ecstasy and ‘78’s lousy Never Say Die! – were the sounds of an exhausted band fumbling, and then simply falling apart. “The last album I did with Sabbath was Never Say Die! and it was the worst piece of work that I’ve ever had anything to do with,” a solo Ozzy told After Hours in 1981. “I’m ashamed of that album. I think it’s disgusting.” The reasons are many and well known: personal differences, musical differences, boredom, management pr...
