MetalSucks

It was way back in May that we first told you that Ozzy Osbourne was suing Tony Iommi over use of the Black Sabbath band name, accusing Iommi of illegally claiming sole ownership of the group’s moniker in a filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Well, unfortunately, The New York Post reports that yesterday Manhattan federal judge John Koeltl can proceed with his lawsuit:

“Lawyer Andrew DeVore argued yesterday that Osbourne signed away all his rights to the Black Sabbath trademark after he quit the band in 1979.

“Osbourne’s lawyer, Howard Shire, called that agreement a ‘red herring’ that was ‘repudiated’ when the singer rejoined in 1997 and took over ‘quality control’ of the band’s merchandise, tours and recordings.”

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For those of you who won’t spend today at the movies prior to enjoying dinner at a Chinese restaurant… have a great holiday! Here’s Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Rudy Sarzo, and Simon Wright doing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” If only Christmas carols were this metal…

-Axl & Vince

I made a joke earlier this week about Zakk Wylde taking the news of Ozzy’s new guitarist so hard that he wound up in the hospital for blood clots – but this has turned into some apparently serious shit. Not only has Wylde and Black Label Society been forced to drop off the Pedal to the Metal tour with Mudvayne, Suicide Silence, and some band where the dude has a stupid hair cut and is married to an ex-porn star, but he has to visit the hospital every 48 hours. A statement from Zakk (by way of the always helpful Blabbermouth):

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So I’ve been living in the UK for about four months now, and have managed to take in quite a lot of this “culture” thing they’re so fond of over here. I’ve been to nine countries, eight major metal festivals, and a handful of cities in Ol’ Blighty itself; I’ve gate-crashed hotel parties in Norway with the drummer of Swallow the Sun, stage-dived into a sea of muddy grind freaks in the Czech Republic, gotten roaring drunk with Wolves in the Throne Room in the Netherlands, met Gaahl’s boyfriend in France, gotten lost in Rome, watched Electric Wizard blow an amp in Manchester, lost my mind to Eyehategod at Hellfest, seen Manowar (‘nuff said there) – and that was just the first couple months. Between all the metal, mud, bruises, whiskey, calimocho, hard cider, and terrifying Czech liquor (Becherovka and Fernet are no fucking joke, even if it is Kevin Sharp and Danny Herrera pouring you a shot), I realized that, somehow, something was still missing.

To my immense chagrin, I had yet to take that all-too-necessary pilgrimage up through the Black Country and into the Unholy Land itself – to Birmingham, England. Every metaller worth his leather (and several million other music fans besides) knows exactly why this unimpressive, coal-smudged city matters so much. Birmingham is the ancestral home of heavy metal. Everything – whether it be doom, black metal, powerviolence, or even the plague that is deathcore – everything came from here. The famed Mermaid Pub provided a fertile breeding ground for extreme metal, nestled as it was in a dodgy part of town where the cops ignored the punkers and longhairs milling around out front as the early rumblings of a deadly new sound thundered away upstairs The city itself was the original stomping ground of the dirty sexy hard rock’n’roll of Led Zeppelin, the NWOBHM gods in Judas Priest, the crusty proto-grind of Sore Throat, the scummy grindcore forefathers of Napalm Death, the industrial noise terror of Godflesh, and the one and only BLACK FUCKING SABBATH.

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Here’s something else Zakk Wylde can hear about for the first time over the internet.

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UPDATE: Our friend Dan Rodriguez over at Metal Insider has a much more detailed explanation. Check it out!

…but with every move the old fucker makes, it’s as though he’s begging me to.

So.

According to local newspaper tabloid the New York Post, Ozzy is now suing Tony Iommi over the Black Sabbath band name:

The “Godfather of Heavy Metal” claims guitarist Tony Iommi illegally claimed sole ownership of the band’s name, in a filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Osbourne is suing Iommi for a 50 percent interest in the “Black Sabbath” trademark, along with a portion of Iommi’s profits from use of the name.

The Manhattan federal court suit also charges that Osbourne’s “signature lead vocals” are largely responsible for the band’s “extraordinary success,” noting that its popularity plummeted during his absence from 1980 through 1996.

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There are probably more old farts making relevant music than I usually give credit for. For every Ozzy or Metallica, whose later years have been more or less a total fucking disaster (creatively if not financially), there’s a Testament or Napalm Death who are still making music worth listening to after two or even three decades in the biz.

Of course, few of those artists have been at as long as the members of Black Sabbath – now re-christened Heaven & Hell – and even most of the Sabbath peers who can still pull it out live (Priest, Maiden) aren’t really releasing albums that are worth a damn these days. So the fact that The Devil You Know is so freakin’ sweet makes it feel like something of a marvel.

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The Devil You Know, the new Dio-Sabbath record, is every bit as rockin’ as I’d hoped it will be. I’m working on a review before its release a week from today, but if you’re anxious to hear it – and you really, really should be – it’s currently streaming on The Leak, which, for better or worse, is a VH1 sub-site.

GO LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM. IT IS AWESOME AND PUTS ALL OTHER VETERAN BANDS TO SHAME.

-AR

In 2004, the Painkiller-era Judas Priest line-up reunited and blew Black Sabbath off the stage at Ozzfest, so I supposed it’s only fair that in 2008, Sabbath should return the favor on the Metal Masters tour.

Of course, swapping out Ozzy Osbourne for Ronnie James Dio didn’t hurt.

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