by THOMAS O’SCANNELL Staff Writer
Black Sabbath, pioneers of heavy metal music and who are loved by millions, are hanging it up for good with one more album and tour.
Lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne confirmed the band’s plans to retire in late September 2014, explaining that this will be “the last hurrah…then it’s no more Sabbath at all. We’re disbanding the name and everything. They don’t want to tour anymore. I get it.”
Some people even thought that the band’s comeback album released in 2013 (named “13”) would be their last.
“It’s a shame that one of the world’s most classical metal bands is finally coming to an end. It’s probably for the best, though, because the band members are getting too old to perform,” says sophomore Bryan Andrews.
This type of news was expected sooner rather than later. All three current (and original) members – Osbourne, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler – are well into their sixties. Also, Iommi, the only constant member of the band since the late 1960s, was recently diagnosed with lymphoma, making consistent road travel hard.
However, this is not necessarily the ultimate end of their musical careers; Osbourne at least has stated that he plans to continue his solo career after the Black Sabbath name is officially dissolved.
With writing/recording expected to begin in early 2015, fans everywhere are on the edge of their seats, anxious to know exactly how Black Sabbath will wrap everything up.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it if it’s their last album. It’s bound to be epic, and just some hard-rocking, old school Sabbath,” said junior Max Vreeland.
Black Sabbath was formed in a very depressing, industrialized Birmingham, England, and innovated heavy metal music by producing a distorted and controversial music style unheard of in the days of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Being raised in a place like Birmingham and seeing all the negative aspects of life made the band wary of the romantic and positive promises of bands like the Beatles. Thus, the band wrote their dark and heavy music as a way to attract fans of similar perspectives and talk to people about the “other side of life.”
With some of the greatest rock – let alone metal – albums of all-time under their belt such as 1970’s “Paranoid” and 1971’s “Master of Reality,” they have sold over 70 million album units worldwide. Black Sabbath’s 19 studio albums have burned the band’s name into the history of music forever.
Should Black Sabbath have called it quits with “13”, or is releasing another album for the best?