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New song from Black Sabbath, listenable here. The negative aspects are easy to pick out: drumming is sub-par (it's hard to follow in the steps of Ward, Appice, and other past Sabbath drummers) and the drums are mixed a bit too low. Iommi's guitar isn't mixed high enough; it could sound fuller and more raw than it does. The good things are obvious, though: the overall style is classic Sabbath, and there's the interplay of Geezer's pounding bass on the low end complementing Iommi's guitar on the high end, just the way they did it back in the day.

Overall, a conservative effort but fun to listen to. Here's hoping the rest of the album isn't as over-produced (I want the rawness of the original Sabbath albums) and that they come to town soon. If they can autotune Ozzy live, it'll be one heck of a concert.

I felt the last 3 minutes of the song were good - and that the opening was self-indulgent and uninteresting (or as my friend would say the three Fs - flabby, flaccid and flatulent).

Ward had a lot to do with the arrangements too and I feel like that's part of why it's hurting here. Ozzy isn't following the melody line (which shows how he's improved or been forced to since this was a common complaint of Iommi's) which is a positive as is Butler's lyrics. I think Ozzy's singing in a lower register than the song needs. All the snippets I've heard from the album make it seem like a Sabotage follow- on (though sadly without the brilliance).

I end up buying anything Iommi does but so far I'm feeling this is pretty tepid stuff. This is one time that there aren't enough cooks (no Ward, Nicholls) in the kitchen.