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Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath
‘God Is Dead’

www.blacksabbath.com

It took 35 years for Black Sabbath to write and release a new track and here it is, an 8:51 minute heavy metal journey for 2013.

God Is Dead‘ is the first piece of music released last night from their new album ’13’, Black Sabbath’s first studio LP with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978. The question is though, is this any good?

The song was produced by legendary producer Rick Rubin, famous for his work with the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Slayer and plenty more. It was said that he asked the band to deliver something for him to work with that would be up there with the first 4 Sabbath albums. On reflection, ‘God Is Dead’ has taken elements of those classic breakdowns we all know so well; the graveyard production and those trademark Iommi heavy riffs and even Ozzy’s voice sounds like he just about gets away with it, although some will argue that he clearly has nothing left to give due to the effects on this recording. For me, the end section of this track is where it all comes together. Seven minutes in, Sabbath are absolutely flying, Ozzy is on point and you are shipped back to 1970 where it all began.

You have to give it up to them on actually making this record. We are talking about 60 year old men here. Most old codgers can’t even make it to the john in time, let alone write and record a nineteenth album. The Stooges made a complete mess of their comeback record this month; in comparison, this track kicks its arse.

The chances of this song going down in rock history like classics such as ‘War Pigs’, ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Paranoid’ though is slim. ‘God Is Dead’ lacks any of the songwriting skills needed to be logged in the Sabbath hall of fame and lyrically it’s about as entertaining as the news of Rolf Harris being arrested this morning. The fact that the band have left drummer Bill Ward out of the band for this whilst he is fully active in Orange County and added Audioslave’s Brad Wilk adds more mental torture ahead of the release of 13, but have a listen and make your own opinions.

Overall, this tells us that metal’s darkest lords could have have some good stuff up their wizard sleeves and with the positive force from Nietzsche here on their cover, maybe their new album scheduled for release on June 11th will pull off a miracle we never thought would ever happen.

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Doctor Charged Over Slipknot Bassist’s Death

Slipknot bassist doctor charged with involuntary manslaughterLate Slipknot bassist Paul Gray‘s former doctor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with his death in May 2010. The physician Daniel Baldi prescribed the “high-dose prescription narcotics” that killed Gray. Gray was found dead in his hotel room with an autopsy showing that the 38-year-old overdosed on morphine and fentanyl, a synthetic morphine substitute.

Reportedly Gray’s death is one of eight over which Baldi has been charged following fatal overdoses. Baldi has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His lawyer, Guy Cook made the following statement:

“It is unprecedented to turn unfortunate deaths or medical results into a crime against a doctor. Unexpected deaths can occur in severe, chronic pain patients unrelated to medical treatment. This is especially true with patients who are drug addicts or drug abusers.”

Meanwhile Slipknot have also released a statement concerning the sensitive issue:

“As the loss of our brother Paul Gray is still very fresh for us in the Slipknot family, this new development has us all in a state of anger and sadness. The fact that this person took advantage of our brother’s illness while he was in a position to help others has outraged everyone in our family.

We can only hope that justice will be served so this can never happen to anyone else ever again! Our thoughts go out to the families of the other victims. We plan to cooperate as much as we possibly can to ensure this tragedy is never repeated, and to make sure this man pays for what he has done.”

At Crossfire our thoughts are with all those concerned, in particular Slipknot and Gray’s family.