13 (studio album) by Black Sabbath

This, for me, was one last hurrah for the band, although with Bill missing it was never going to be a complete Sabb album. The choice of Rick Rubin to produce it was inspired (I loved his work with Johnny Cash).

The song writing and performances on this album are right up there. I'd like to single out God Is Dead? A great doom metal track.

From VictorVale 01/24/2023 11:15

Volto o peso, volta um blues, bom acerto.

I held off on getting this for many years as I was expecting to be disappointed. Turned out to be much better than anticipated. You can hear a lot of the early catalog riffs being recycled into new tunes but that ain't a bad thing. They done well. I find this better than the vast majority of Ozzy's solo albums

From InsanityPrawnBoy 01/19/2022 22:11

I love Ozzy era Sabbath. But this album has never grown on me. I have tried, but... no. :-/

From StefanR10 06/12/2020 16:58

I think this is something different like the question God Is Dead? I’m glad that i bought it and hear nicely to the songs.

I don't really agree that the magic is gone. If anything I am hearing a return to the heavier sound of the first album, Paranoid and Master Of Reality. The opening track is an absolute blinder with some superb guitar soloing not to mention a really heavy opening riff. Yes, the production is better but isn't that a good thing given that the underlying heavy raw sound is there? The keyboards have been stripped back with some very subtle touches in the right places. I like it, in fact I like it very much! And the orange vinyl double album is a real bonus for me!

From Goliath 01/05/2019 15:01

In my dream world this album would be produced in the same way as the first album, not with all the rough edges knocked off. Number 1 in the UK, 43 years after their first number 1 in the UK. A good album, that could have been great. There were 103 albums better than this in 2013.............

From Fischman 12/15/2016 16:44

This album was a pleasant surprise, but only because I had no real expectations going in. It is definitely a step up from the last Ozzy album before the breakup (Never Say Die), but it doesn't have the magic of the first six. The group are in surprisingly good form, but this thing is overproduced to the point of being muddy rather than just classic-Sabbath sludgy. Could have been more, but still glad I got it.

From RoundTheBend 07/02/2016 21:24

Miss the mix being equally mixed for guitar and bass. Geezer is an amazing guitarist and I feel it didn't shine through as much in this mix as other mixes of the past with solid mids of the bass in the mix. 90% of people don't even notice that, but whatevs. Metalheads be all, what's a bass again?

Anyway, I agree with most that the songs aren't quite like they used to be, but this is totally on par with Metallica these days and they are like half their age. Sounds totally metal instead of maybe classic rock metal, if that makes any sense. Kind of like they are borrowing from new metal ideas instead of their original dark/deep sound. They went from a believable dark place to the typical metal dark place (contrived).

It sounds like Black Sabbath but the magic is gone. Mediocre and rather flat it could have been much worse.