No one could have guessed that there would ever be another album recorded with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler playing together again as Black Sabbath. So much time had passed, and all three were in different places. In fact, it would almost certainly never have happened if the Heaven and Hell project, featuring Tony and Geezer alongside Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, had not occurred and then done so well. After two sell-out tours and one critically acclaimed album The Devil You Know, it was only the untimely death from cancer of Dio that halted it in its tracks. However, it showed that these old dinosaurs COULD recreate lightning in a bottle, and after time had been allowed to pass in respect to Dio's passing, Ozzy was able to rejoin his original band mates and reform (for all intents and purposes) Black Sabbath. Despite the problems surrounding the inability to have Bill Ward also join the reunion, as well as Iommi's own cancer scare, excitement abounded for what these three Immortals of Heavy Metal could produce so many years after their initial recordings. The band has gone all out to throw in every kind of reference or memory bite from their first albums together 43 years ago, and though I guess it is an effective ploy the first couple of times that you hear them, after a while you can only feel that it was an unnecessary effort which over time just makes you think they couldn't come up with any new fresh ideas for the modern age.
The song structure of "End of the Beginning" is remarkably similar to that of the song "Black Sabbath", "Zeitgeist" is the same tempo and broad musical brooding of "Planet Caravan", even incorporating the bongos, which is the signature sound of that song. At the conclusion of "Dear Father", the final song of the album, we are exited by the same sound of falling rain that we were greeted with at the very beginning of that first album. Full cycle perhaps? Closing that circle forever? Most probably.
Add to this the solo that closes out the song "Age of Reason". It is immediately reminiscent of the solo at the end of "Lonely is the Word" from Heaven and Hell. There is also the riff within "Live Forever' which brings unmistakable comparisons to parts of "Hole in the Sky", and the harmonica in "Damaged Soul" obviously makes you think of "The Wizard". So there are plenty of sounds on this album that remind of previous Black Sabbath releases. Whether you find this to be a comfortable setting, that these homage's help to make this a real Black Sabbath album, or whether you find that it takes away the originality of the album, is something only the individual can answer. Perhaps after listening to the album 100 times, or 500 times, this will become irrelevant. After the 20-odd occasions I am up to, it can be a little off putting.
I'm not really sure why the opening songs on the album are so long. Both clock in at over 8 minutes, which for both is about three minutes too long. By being this long, they both become repetitive in the first third of the song, which is a shame because the last third of both songs is where they really kick in and drive along at a decent pace. Along with Ozzy's increasingly diminished vocal range, at times all of these songs seem to just be plodding along for the sake of getting the album up over 60 minutes, instead perhaps of tightening them up for a shorter, sharper burst, and retaining the energy and enthusiasm that comes across in all the songs for a span of time, but not the entire span of the song's length.
I like "Loner", it comes closest to what I was talking of above. It's length is just a tick under five minutes, has a great riff, a terrific bass line running under the guitar and Ozzy's vocals suit it down to the ground. The groove works well, and it doesn't feel as though it is marking time on the album. More of this would have been better. "Zeitgeist" does concern me. It really makes me think I'm listening to Paranoid instead of 13, and surely that should not be the intention. I'm not against the band doing a song in this similar vein that they did on their early albums, but one that hints so closely to "Planet Caravan" is a little disturbing. Still, Tony and Geezer's sombre guitar work here again proves their mastery of their instruments.
"Age of Reason" is close to my favourite song on the album. Not only does it flow beautifully, it's conclusion is dominated by the aforementioned solo from Tony Iommi, and is arguably the best part of his writing for the album. Just wonderful. "Live Forever" is another good example of a good length of song. It doesn't outstay its welcome, and doesn't become overly repetitive, which for me occurs again in "Damaged Soul". Its tempo doesn't get the song out of second gear, which may have been fine during their early days in the 1970's, but I find just a little dated and filler in the current day. Again, the tempo change for the last third of the song is the best part, and if they had incorporated that into a tighter first half of the song, it would have worked much better. For me, in my opinion, anyway. Ditto for the last song, "Dear Father". I would just loved it to really kick away when it moves up a notch during Ozzy's invective in the middle of the song, but it cut straight back into the slow tempo riff it had come from. An opportunity lost to really let all four members cut loose to complete the album.
There is nothing ground breaking on this album, which is probably not unexpected given what this band created in its heyday. Whilst I have picked apart the songs here to some degree in regards to their length or somewhat repetitiveness or their similarities to other Sabbath songs and riffs, I don't want to denigrate it from what it is. Led by the incredible and enduring guitaring of Iommi and Butler, interwoven with Ozzy's familiar vocals and the pleasing and suitable drumming from Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk, this is still an album to be reckoned with. Other bands have been trying to reproduce Black Sabbath's sound for years, especially in the modern age. This ain't no cover band ladies and gentlemen, this is the real thing, and they can still outplay the majority of young guns out there in the marketplace.
