UPDATE, 2:06 pm: Reader Joe Siegler tells me that Ward didn’t “hold out” in ’97 — he was never asked to re-join the band. I apologize for my lapse in knowledge of Sabbath reunion lore. If he really wasn’t asked in 1997, that makes this whole thing all the more dramatic and dispiriting. Original story follows below…

Hope you weren’t too excited about Bill Ward participating in the upcoming Black Sabbath reunion.

Ward has always been the hold-out with these reunions. He didn’t participate when the band got back together for Ozzfest in ’97 (although by 1998, he had indeed rejoing the band), and he wasn’t a part of Heaven & Hell, the Dio-era Sabbath reunion, either. Now, according to a statement on his website, he may not be part of the Sabbath’s recently announced new album and tour, either:

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It’s 2012 at last!  Remember that press conference back in November where Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill Ward (yes, that’s what makes it Sabbath finally – the insertion of one BILL WARD!) sat down at the Whiskey A Go Go and announced to the world that they were finally making a new album with Rick Rubin? Don’t call it a comeback. Call it a reclamation.

There’s something very intriguing about watching a band make a colossal misstep and then recover. There have certainly been a good share of them — most recently and horrifically that towering monolith of  “what the fuck was that?” known as Lulu — albeit, no one has redeemed themselves from that one quite yet. And with the exception of one great Maiden track, “The Klansman,” (which Bruce has to explain before every time they play it live), there were those Blaze Bailey Maiden albums.

In the wake of all the hoopla of their classic line-up reformation I give you Black Sabbath’s self admitted career low-point: Forbidden. First off, let’s make this clear: I do consider the Tony “The Cat” Martin era of the band to be a legit part of the Sabbath legacy, just not Forbidden. In fact, The Headless Cross is on my  top 5 list of  Sabbath albums. Truthfully, the Tony Martin era of the band doesn’t get enough credit; The Eternal Idol and Tyr are solid records as well. Maybe they’re not proper Sabbath records, but good ones.  Incidentally, Tony Martin should also be credited with one of metal’s most spectacular mullets.

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After months of “speculation” (by which I mean we all knew this was happening, but no one would officially confirm it), Black Sabbath announced today at a press conference at LA’s Whiskey A-Go-Go — where they played their first American show back in 1970 – that they are, indeed, reuniting for both a world tour and a new album… which will be produced by Rick Rubin. Rubin says the band has written half the album already, and that recording will begin in early 2012.

The above video montage, also heralding the reunion, appeared on the band’s website at 11:11 am PST. The video also reveals that the band will be headlining this year’s Download Festival… so now we know who two of the headliners will be. I wonder if the only reason Metallica are playing the Black Album in its entirety is because of Black Sabbath? If so, that’s pretty silly. And it makes me wonder if AC/DC, doing all of Back in Black, will be the third headliner.

We know from Heaven and Hell that Tony Iommi still has some good riffs in him; now I guess we just have to wait and see if they can make this cool without Dio or what.

Debate in the comments section below.

-AR

UPDATE: Uh, maybe this isn’t happening — check out Tony Iommi’s official statement.

They are, according to  MetalTalk.net, who broke the news yesterday, and now the Birmingham Mail, who have gotten a confirmation from Tony Iommi.

It’s not exactly shocking news; after Dio passed away, putting an end to Heaven and Hell (which was really just a reunion of a different era of Sabbath), it seemed like an inevitability. And it’s not exactly bad news, either; last time I saw this reunited line-up, at Ozzfest 2005, they put on a fun enough show, even if Ozzy is Ozzy and none of these guys are exactly vibrant and youthful. But it’s the kind of thing where I’d say if you’re either a huge Sabbath fan or you’ve never gotten to see them before, it’s worth checking out a show.

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If you’ve ever wanted to hear Dio’s “Holy Diver” transformed from one of metal’s most powerful anthems into a hair metal-style sad sack power ballad complete with Casio keyboards and a synth violin so shitty it wouldn’t have been considered fit to be the ringtone on the cell phone you owned in 1999, then you are going to fucking love, love, LOVE Axel Rudi Pell’s The Ballads IV.

On the other hand, if you actually have decent taste, you will probably think that this album, y’know, fucking blows.

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Norwegian black metal is a genre whose history is fraught with controversy and full of murder and church burnings and all other manner of awfulness.  So, naturally, Norway has now given twenty of its diplomats “a black metal crash course,” according to this report:

“The objective is to show Norwegian culture in all its diversity. In the musical field, it goes from (Romantic music composer) Edvard Grieg to black metal,” its deputy head Steinar Lindberg said, adding he hoped to repeat the experience.

“In Italy, Japan or France, young people are learning Norwegian to decrypt the lyrics. Black metal is an export product and it’s important that future diplomats are interested in it,” he added.

Of course, I’m only kidding about the looming shadow of some assholes from twenty years ago being a good reason not to teach this stuff to Norwegian diplomats. Really, I guess Norway deserves a pat on the back for being so chill. So, y’know, three cheers for Norway.

On a semi-related note, my favorite part about the article where we found this story is that they opted not to use a photo of a member of Emperor or Mayhem or Enslaved, but, rather, a picture of Ronnie James Dio, who was neither Norwegian nor a black metal musician. Oh, the mainstream media. So lulzy when they try to cover metal!

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this.

And we can’t believe you’ve been gone a year already. Metal can never replace you.

The Revolver Golden Gods Awards will air on VH1 later this month (or something… I know we got a press release but I was too lazy to read it), and it will be interesting to see that, because I was there, but I didn’t actually see very much of the show. I saw the schmuck from Asking Alexandria drop his mic two seconds into “Youth Gone Wild,” and I saw some of Avenged Sevenfold’s performances with Duff McKagan and Vinnie Paul, and I saw enough of Chris Jericho performing “For Whom the Bell Tolls” to consider throwing myself over the balcony and ending the awards in spectacular fashion (sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good). But by and large I was too busy snorting coke in the bathroom with a girl who fucking swore to me that it wasn’t a herpes sore that lying bitch! to be bothered.

So one thing I had absolutely no idea even transpired was the below montage paying tribute to the five guys who died in the past year that are relevant to the readers of Revolver, which is to say, not Phil Vane or Frankie Sparcello.

But I shouldn’t be a jerk about it, it’s really a very touching video.

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

After listening to Psycho’s female blowtorch, Penny Torture, and Ava Inferi’s haunting distaff elemental, Carmen Susana Simões, I realized it’s time we just chill and admit that women are all-around better at this metal-singing thing.

Is this mad exaggeration? It feels like that when I’m away from an MPEG player, but then I listen to those two radically different bands, to Psycho’s primal-scream old school death or Ava Inferi’s doomed-out, gothy whatsit, and it feels I’m not over-reaching, I’m underselling.

And it’s not just two superior releases (Ava Inferi’s Onyx and Psycho’s Pain Addict Pigs). It’s just become impossible to ignore the fact that females are not only doing equal or better work in the same genre jobs as male counterparts, they’re also making metal records that go places no male on Earth — none, nada, zip-ol-lina — could go. That 2011’s best metal so far — Subrosa’s No Help for the Mighty Ones — is an almost all-femme effort of relentless pan-genre awesomeness only adds arsenic and new lace to my argumentative cake.

All of which may have the reader thinking, “You do realize, you silly person, that you’ve just written off the work of one half the human race.”

To which I say, “Yeah, well, I guess I’m pimping a little irony here, since that’s business as usual with women and the metal press. But irony aside, please bear with me.”

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It’s not fair to count Queensryche among the great, horrible post-fame implosions like Metallica or Eddie Murphy; the Seattle band’s descent into crumminess was far less cataclysmic, more akin to a weather-beaten house’s piece-by-piece collapse than the toppling of a high rise by a C4 fireball. But the sad fact remains that post-1993 Queensryche is a patience-testing proposition; albums seem tired and tend to implicate their authors as out of love with the creation of music.

Hey, it’s understandable if for no other reason than their grueling tour for 1990’s triple-platinum Empire. Shows numbered in excess of 150 over 18 months, and each 2.5 hour show opened with an mini-set of mostly Empire stuff, then Operation: Mindcrime in its Tate-exhausting entirety, plus two encores. That’s enough worldwide grinding to snuff out inspiration in even the most prolific, expressive songwriter, of which Queensryche soon found themselves one short following the 1997 departure of guitarist Chris DeGarmo. By that point, Queensryche was sounding downright ragged and, evidently, uninterested in quality sonics.

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Back in December 2008, Ozzy Osbourne’s manager-wife Sharon hosted the reunion special of VH1′s Rock of Love Charm School and was being her usual unjustifiably smug self. But then RoL girl/giga-fox Megan Hauserman (above left) took the stage and had the nerve to return-volley each of Sharon’s old lady sour-grapes insults — culminating in a fist-pumpingly astute observation that Sharon’s only claim to fame is shepherding a sad drug casualty to creatively dubious solo success — at which point Sharon “doused Hauserman with her drink,” “punch[ed] and grabb[ed] her by the hair and refus[ed] to let go,” and “scratch[ed] her.” Three months later, Hauserman formally filed suit against Sharon for battery, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress.

The case was finally headed for court today — nearly two years after the filing — but then the parties reached a settlement Monday. It seems that part of the deal is non-disclosure of its terms, but two separate big-shot legal professionals I know each kinda conjectured to me that Sharon’s strategy likely was to wait for Hauserman to initiate settlement for a smaller amount in advance of the court date. But Hauserman doesn’t need quick cash ‘cuz she’s marrying a rich Italian hunk (as all babes should do), nor does it seem that Shosbourne holds any career leverage over her (or over anybody except for her kids, her manicurists, and Ozzy’s fleet of increasingly off-brand sidemen). So no dice. The concept of punitive damages is to ensure that even the very rich are held responsible for their wrongdoings; as such, it’s possible that Hauserman was awarded a sum large enough to be able to move me into a house opposite Osbourne’s from which I could moon, curse, and otherwise taunt Sharon on a daily basis. ‘Cuz fuck her.

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We bid fuck off to 2010 tonight ,and that’s sad cuz this year contained the last days of  Type O Negative’s Peter Steele and metal’s Babe Ruth, Ronnie James Dio. We also have to prematurely turn the page on Paul Gray of Slipknot (see you in lefty heaven, dude), Bay Area legend Debbie Abono, and Makh Daniels from Early Graves. It’s like we’re leaving them behind in ’10 and will be forced to forge a path beyond 2011 without their support. What a rip-off.

Okay, this is turning into a real bummer and, worse, it’s redundant to our oft-blubbery reportage of these deaths and others. But today, let’s quickly acknowledge that outside of the MetalSucks coverage umbrella fell the passings of two friends of metal, actor Tony Curtis and filmmaker Satoshi Kon. Curtis may’ve been a marquee leading man and master of frantic comedy in the ’60s, but he first delivered the single greatest, metallist, brilliantest line of dialogue in the history of cinema in 1957′s The Sweet Smell of Success (see headline). Even Mike Patton and Tomahawk made it the refrain of their jam “Laredo” (above, at 1:40). Which is odd cuz that album also has a track named “Sweet Smell of Success.”

Then there’s Satoshi Kon, whose mind-mangling 13-part series Paranoia Agent is one of those works that metal people can love for its non-damning treatment of outsider fuck-ups and its flip, fatalist depiction of mankind’s collective narcissism. It brings to bear the desolate panic of Hitchcock, Lynch’s themes of futile struggle against unfathomable evil, and inevitable dead-end violence, as found in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Which is odd, cuz the star of that movie reminds me of Mike Patton.

Cheers everybody! See you back here in 2011!

-ADF

Well, here’s a story that should make everyone happy: It looks like next year may see the release of a new Dio song — the last one the legendary vocalist got to record before he passed away earlier this year. It’s not official yet, but Dio guitarist Craig Goldy tells Classic Rock:

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Christmas cards — actually, just all holiday cards in general — tend to be pretty stupid. They either feature some generic design, like a Christmas tree or a snowflake or Santa or whatever, or otherwise they’re a picture of the sender and his or her stupid ugly family. What a colossal waste of paper.

Of course, I wouldn’t be too cranky about it if someone sent me a Dio-themed Christmas card. And now they make such a thing, so you should buy ‘em instead of wasting time on the aforementioned picture of your family, who I don’t give two shits about.

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We didn’t cover Dimebash 2010, a simultaneous tribute to Dimebag and benefit for the Ronnie James Dio Stand up and Shout Cancer Fund. Why, you ask? I don’t have a good answer. It was on literally every other metal site in the world, we don’t flatter ourselves that you read MetalSucks exclusively, and while I can’t speak for Vince or any of my other peers here at MS, I personally didn’t have anything even remotely interesting to say about it. A bunch of really cool people got up and jammed on some classics. It was for a great cause. It looks like it was a lot of fun. Go to Metal Insider if you still haven’t seen any footage from the event.

One thing which really might have pushed the event over the top from really cool to HOLY SHIT AWESOME, though, would have been an appearance by Phil Anselmo. Of course, Anselmo and Dime were on bad terms when Dime was murdered, and Dime’s family — specifically, Vinnie Paul and Rita Haney — have not made amends with Anselmo since, and have even speculated that some violent statements Anselmo made in the press prior to Dime’s shooting may have inspired the murderer. So when rumors started circulating that Anselmo was actually gonna be at Dimebash, well, that was a pretty big deal.

Anselmo didn’t appear at the event, though — but he was, Haney has now revealed, supposed to. You can watch the below video interview to get the full scoop, but the gist of it is that she no longer feels that Anselmo bears any responsibility for Dime’s murder, and while the situation is still sensitive, she seems to have finally come to peace with Anselmo. Perhaps more interesting — and sadder — still: Vinnie Paul still hasn’t.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

For its season opener in October, VH1′s That Metal Show dedicated a broadcast hour to hailing the late Ronnie James Dio (view episode here). With access to the MTV vaults, TMS dredged up some old interview clips of RJD being totally cool and very metal. The first of them didn’t need much unearthing, though, ‘cuz it was from Dio’s last public appearance back in April at the Golden Gods thang. On my first viewing, I immediately got a lump in my throat, and was about to get downright blubbery when my attention was derailed by something totally amazing: Me! On the television! Well, really just my neck and head, bobbing stalkerishly beyond RJD as he cuddles on-air with TMS host Eddie Trunk and the other two. Lolz. Even in death, the man continues to ram fun into my life.

And fun can be similarly rammed into yours cuz Dio’s new/old live set is streaming freesies right here. It comes from remastered BBC tapes of a 1983 show (promoting Holy Diver) and a longer set from 1987 (Dream Evil), each at historic Castle Donington in England. Tasty. And and and Tuesday brings the release of the little-ballyhooed but potentially mind-shattering Heaven & Hell live set from last year’s Wacken Open Air. I say “potentially” because no advance copy has arrived for me yet cough cough. I’m a TV star now and, yeah, and I do not like to be kept waiting. I’ll be in my motherfucking trailer.

-ADF

Dio’s sexcellent double live album Dio At Donington UK is out now on Niji Entertainment. Heaven & Hell’s Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell, Live At Wacken comes out Tuesday.

You may be familiar with guitar whiz/Carvin-endorsee SHRED SEAN from our earlier interview with him, guest spots with bands like Into Eternity, his solo work, or as the lead guitarist for Blessed by a Broken Heart. Sean clearly possesses a work ethic that would put a sharecropper to shame, because it doesn’t stop there. The latest addition to his resume is a DIO cover/tribute, featuring his bro Alan Tecchio of Watchtower, Hades, and some other bands I don’t know about. Only MetalSucks has the industry clout to bring you this EXCLUSIVE TRACK!!!

Shred Sean and Alan Tecchio – “Rainbow in the Dark”

Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio – Rainbow in the Dark

This is a DIY Garageband recording, so please don’t get all butthurt about the snare sound or whatever trivial detail you want to bitch about in a futile attempt at “sounding like you really know what you are talking about.” Nobody will think you are cool.

Check out Shred Sean on MySpace and look for some exciting news from Blessed by a Broken Heart soon!

-Sergeant D.

In the early moments of our conversation, I confirmed with busy Atheist frontman Kelly Shaefer that we would limit our interview time to the industry-standard 15 minutes. Shaefer responded amiably, “As much time as you need, man.” To this, I replied jokingly, “Gosh, how much time have you got?” And though we shared a chuckle at this, neither of us could’ve expected our little phone chat to stretch to 2.5 hours over two days. (Of course, it eventually became clear that nothing less should’ve been expected from two lefty pothead metal guitarists who drink a shitload of Mountain Dew and love talking metal.)

Last week, part one found Shaefer and I delving into big, brainy, conceptual stuff, like his approaches to songwriting and singing, the birth of his genre, and the right-on-time return to awesomeness by his classic band (the new record is called Jupiter, but duh you know that).

Today, MetalSucks unsheathes partie deux, in which the tirelessly gracious, funny, and plainspoken Shaeffer (above, right) indulges my questions about more tangible Atheist business, like record label politics, the importance of good packaging, former Atheist guitarist Rand Burkey, current Atheist guitarist Kelly Shaefer (he and his “guitar still are very best friends”), the squashing of inter-band beefs, America’s shameful marijuana policies (I started it, sorry), and so very, very much more. (Spoiler: We do eventually stop talking on the phone.)

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Not that you care, but I have a friend named Ken Lee, and we often like to torture him with this video:

Unfortunately, that video is the only exposure I’ve ever knowingly had to Bulgarian culture. But I guess there are actually some pretty cool people there, too, ’cause the town of Kavarna is erecting (Huh-huh, he said “erecting”) a statue to Ronnie James Dio as part of their central park’s “Walk of Rock.” From Blabbermouth:

“According to Radio Bulgaria, the decision to erect the monument was taken by the municipal administration, with the most active proponents being Kavarna Mayor Tzonko Tzonev as well as leading journalists, musicians and singers.”

Holy crap. So this Mayor Tzonev just became pretty much the coolest mayor in the world, huh? Dio’s not even from Kavarna (obviously); he’s not even of Bulgarian descent, at least as far as I’m aware. The town just, like, wants to pay tribute to one of the greatest metal vocalists of all time. Awesome, right?

Here’s a pic of the mayor, one of the artist working on the statue, and the statue itself:

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It’s been a long time since I was a college freshman, a fact which struck me this week as I engaged in my annual tradition of sitting in Washington Square Park and watching the new crop of NYU kids move into their dorms. I love the look of simultaneous excitement and complete fucking terror as a bunch of young men and women between the ages of seventeen and eighteen get away from home for the first time; for many of them, I imagine moving to the big city only adds to the sheer “HOLY FUCKING SHIT!”ness of it all. But this was really the first year when they all looked really young to me, and I suddenly felt very aware of the age gap. Kids starting college this week won’t remember rotary phones or pagers, maybe won’t remember a time without cell phones or DVDs, and only kinda faintly maybe remember the annoying sounds your AOL used to emit as it tried to make its connection. They were being born right around the time “Wherever I May Roam” was making Metallica rich, and they’ve never jerked off to the morning weather girl ’cause internet porn wasn’t readily available.

Do they remember a time without autotune? I know my kids won’t. And I hate to sound like such a grumpy old bastard, but I worry about the long-term effects of such a state of being. If bullshit is the norm, can you have any appreciation for  non-bullshit — e.g., a time when if you couldn’t sing, you either joined a cool punk band or got a job as a bank teller? Lack of skill is no longer impedes artistic success, as anyone can be made to sound as though he can sing, audiences can be distracted from terrible storytelling by an abundance of CGI spectacle, and a woman who has never read Dracula gets away with publishing the most successful vampire books in the history of ever.

This ain’t good.

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