Black Sabbath are notorious party animals, or were at least. The band has a song dedicated to marijuana and another one dedicated to cocaine. But 40 years of partying can catch up to anybody. With the band in their 60s, working on their new album, 13 due out this Spring, they are taking a different approach… doing it sober.
Bassist Geezer Butler was interviewed by KCAL when he revealed that the band is taking it easy for this recording process:
"None of us have been drinking or doing drugs or anything. It’s a bit more professional in that way. We stuck to a schedule: every day we’d go in at one o’clock and finished at six. Five hours a day and that’s it."
For those worried that because they are sober, the album might not be up to par with the classics, Geezer is thinking pretty highly of the material:
"It’s got the feel of the first three albums, back to the basic rawness. The lyrics are about life, death, doom and everything else. You get Prozac with each album…"
On why the album is being called 13:
"Originally we were going to put 13 tracks on the album," Butler says. "We ended up doing 16, but I’m not sure what’s going to be on the album or what isn’t."
Finally, the world was a bit befuddled when Rage Against The Machine Brad Wilk was announced as the session drummer for the album. Butler defended the pick:
"[Producer Rick Rubin] didn’t want a typical heavy metal drummer on the album because it's not really a heavy metal album. It's more heavy rock.
"Rick suggested Brad because he’s more in the vein of Bill Ward. We jammed with him and he sounded great with the stuff, so we went with that. We’re sort of back to the way we used to be in the 70s and that’s Brad’s feel – a sort of jazzy, bluesy feel."
I am really intrigued by this album and can't wait to hear what Sabbath comes up with.
[via Classic Rock]
