Last year, when helping assemble SPIN‘s 50 Best Albums of 1971, I wondered if that year could have been popular music’s absolute peak. Now I’m asking myself that same question all over again. As I built a spreadsheet for 1972, gathering our writers’ votes alongside my own weird choices, I was once again struck by […]
As one of rock’s most legendary guitarists, the creator of the ominous riff for the song “Black Sabbath” — not to mention the soundscape of the ubiquitous chant-along “Iron Man” and many dozens of other iconic Sabbath songs, Tony Iommi is one easygoing, unassuming bloke. His melodic sense has even led some to term Sabbath […]
While it’s been a challenge for bands to collaborate in person over the last year, archival releases have been booming. And over the course of this first quarter, lots of goodies have dropped. Here are some of the most worthy entries in the reissue world. Black SabbathVol. 4 Deluxe Edition (Rhino)Heaven and Hell Deluxe Edition […]
It’s become a cliché, even for post-Baby Boomers, to look back wistfully on the early ’70s as some kind of untouchable golden age for popular music. But when you survey all the era’s best albums in list form, it’s hard not to trust that instinct. I mean…holy shit. In 1971, the psychedelic era hadn’t completely […]
Bud Light Seltzer’s New Year’s Eve livestream was appropriately headlined by the human incarnation of Bud Light itself, better known as Post Malone. But if fans were expecting Posty to stick with his own tracks, they clearly hadn’t been paying attention to last year. Much like how the Crocs collaborator busted out his own take […]
Old guys and hating on mildly controversial new music, is there a more predictable combination? Black Sabbath’s founding bassist, Geezer Butler, apparently doesn’t care for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” and called it “disgusting” in an interview with Kerrang! magazine. “A friend of mine didn’t know what the song was about but his […]
In a wide-ranging Rolling Stone interview ahead of tonight’s (Sept. 7) debut of Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne on A&E, Ozzy Osbourne said he was “done” with Black Sabbath even though guitarist Tony Iommi is up to play with the legendary lineup again. Osbourne did admit, however, that he regrets not doing Sabbath’s 2017 […]
Mastodon’s Brent Hinds teamed with Marcus King Monday night to cover Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral” during a livestreamed charity concert. Watch below. The duo swapped lead vocals and metallic guitar solos throughout the track, playing the brooding main riff in unison. Hinds also joined King during the show for a version of ZZ Top’s “Thunderbird,” Jambase […]
Take it from Rob Halford: It is difficult pulling leather chaps over sweaty legs. The Judas Priest frontman would learn that lesson anew when his band arrived at the since-demolished John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia to perform as part of Live Aid, which unfolded on two continents 35 years ago today. “It was an […]
The late, great Ronnie James Dio would have turned 78 today (July 9). Though he wasn’t around to celebrate, his longtime pals did instead. In a video that was released by the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, a number of Dio’s peers and friends honored the late-singer in footage that was […]