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A few words about God is Dead?, the new Black Sabbath single

I was really sceptical of the idea of a new Black Sabbath album with Ozzy on vocals, 35 years after Never Say Die (their last album with Ozzy). But the first single, God is Dead?, is really good. Thundering riffs from Tony Iommi and classic vocals from Ozzy make this track a worthy addition to the Sabbath canon (much more than the 2 studio tracks included on 1998’s Reunion album)

But the song goes on for too long. Much has been said about the fact that all the songs on the album are quite long (most are over 5 minutes, with 5 clocking above 7 minutes), but at 8:52, God Is Dead? is about 3 and half minutes too long. They’re paying Rick Rubin a lot of money to produce this record; he should have made them trim the fat and make it more concise.

I love long songs; hey, I’m a huge prog rock fan, so it comes with the territory. But you need the material the support the length. In this case it’s not there. But I’m still looking forward to the album!

Jean-Frederic Vachon
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3 Comments

  • Pris , May 31, 2013 @ 8:51 am

    A lot of their finest songs from the Seventies are also quite long. I guess they wanted to recapture that feeling.

    • jfvachon , May 31, 2013 @ 8:53 am

      Absolutely! But these classics never felt too long. This one feels like a 4 minute song stretched to close to 9 minutes. I love prog rock so I have no issue with long songs when the material is there! 🙂

  • Pris , May 31, 2013 @ 8:56 am

    Agreed, it truly seems to drag on and on. And I have another complaint – it doesn’t feel as organic as some of other records Rubin has produced.

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