I haven't written for a while it seems due to having a 6 foot pain in the ass removed, which has mean life has been utterly mental. Trying to keep in the spirit of positivity for the New Year I have hesitated on pulling the trigger on several issues that may or may not be connected with certain Lou Reed collaborators, but that horse is well and truly flogged.
I had discovered that last year my favourite band to never really trouble the annals of fame, Earthtone9 had recorded a new EP on the back of touring and reforming. So I thought I would treat every to some metal history as occasionally happens in between fits of ranting about how truly fucked everything is.
However I haven't written that yet and I have been side tracked by a couple of things, one in particular should be considered important by all fans of Heavy Metal...
But firstly the good news that Jessie Leech is now back in Killswitch armed with a seriously heroic beard. Having gotten over the issues that lead to his departure back in the early naughties, the original (and best) voice of KsE has come home and hopefully will help them jettison the boring dross that has become their staple output in favour of, well something intense and interesting again.
But the reason for abusing a keyboard this time out has to undoubtedly be the Black Sabbath reunion...
Now I must confess to being slightly underwhelmed by their inclusion as headliner for Download having seen the original reunion back in 1998 at the NEC in Birmingham. Since then I have seen Ozzy and Sabbath in a few guises - Ozzy twice as his own solo show. The first time was excellent and the second time was fucking awful as he was clearly having one of his legendary 'off nights' and wailed like an ally cat having it's nuts removed without anaesthesia. By a blunt, rusty spoon.
Sabbath has been a mixed bag also; the Reunion shows were great - check out the CD released (imaginatively titled 'Reunion') and listen out for me. You can't actually hear my voice, but a 19 year old me was drunk as shit dressed up like Ozzy and and screaming myself hoarse...
Next time they didn't have Bill Ward, they were average, the time after that they still didn't have Bill Ward and were solid even if Mike Bordin didn't pull off the drumming with the same aplomb.
Now if I had my reservations about the live shows, the concept of the album was an even more frightening prospect thanks to the last time they got together to write and produced the execrable 'Psycho Man' or whatever the hell it was called. So having endured Rick Rubin phone in the last Slayer album and Death Cliptastic the only plus in the column is that at the end of the day the man barely inputs into the process and who in their right mind needs to tell Iommi how to make a Black Sabbath album anyway?
Then the wheels started to come off.
Iommi as I mentioned last time round was diagnosed with cancer.
However it seems that this is not going to derail their plans, so fingers crossed they got it early enough.
However on February 2nd Bill ward released a statement saying that he was going to be sitting out the reunion unless he was given a contract that wasn't 'unsignable'.
A contract that looked to give him the respect and the credit for being an original member of Black Sabbath.
This was a strange statement in itself really.
There is little secret that Ward's health has been questionable since the eighties and long ago sold his publishing rights to the early material, so is this a financially motivated holding the reunion to ransom?
It seems not and bang, almost straight out of the gates Black Sabbath released a statement expressing their regret that Bill had declined the reunions saying - "we have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open."
Rumours that the vacant drum stool was to be filled by anonymous member of Osbourne's touring band Tommy Clufetos brought further outrage from the internet.
What Sabbath's statement failed to address was that in Ward's first salvo was that he clearly stated he had been given the cold shoulder and was sat with bags packed waiting for a contract that was fitting for his status.
When you peel back the layers a little bit you find that this disregard of Ward has happened for years from the Sabbath camp.
The man who fired Ozzy from the band back in 1979 left the second incarnation of Sabbath partly because of health and partly because he, as a childhood friend of Osbourne, never gelled with his replacement, the much missed Ronnie James Dio.
When they reconvened for the Dehumanizer album in the early nineties Ward was first choice name behind the stool and the same again on the fantastic Heaven & Hell project.
However the drum parts that appear on those albums were prewritten and the skin beater was expected to just play the rhythmically unadventurous lines that appear on those albums as opposed to spending time organically writing the songs with Bill's jazz/blues background, because if Chinese whispers are to be believed, Iommi is not a fan of the whole drumming set up and time it would consume working with a drummer with input. As such the songs are effectively written and the introduction of Ward as a creative writer would slow the process.
And then there is the thorny issue of those pesky publishing rights...
Back when everything was 25% it was fine for a band starting out. Now these days in the age of declining record sales publishing rights do make a phenomenal difference to how much you'll take home from album sales.
So this has all been quite factual and laying out of issues so far... I commend my measured self.
Well, Aron Ward came to his father's defense over the issue in a lengthy and passionate statement on Facebook in which he outlined that this was not greed, he was definitely committed and sat with his bags packed waiting for this contract that would give him the respect he deserves.
All of which comes down to the rub of the matter when fans started expressing anger towards Sharon 'Puppet Master' Osbourne who felt the need to respond on Facebook stating (somewhat out of the blue and irrelevantly) that she manages her husband and not Black Sabbath...
Now no disrespect Shauron, but when the original Sabbath reformed at the end of the 1992 Ozzy Osbourne retirement leg of the No More Tears tour Osbournes management (that's Shauron for those of you not paying attention) assumed mantle of 'brand control' which effectively meant that Osbourne had final say on the use of the name Black Sabbath. That's right Tony Iommi, the only consistent entity in Sabbath since it's inception effectively handed control of the name to the Osbournes - which is why The Devil You Know was released by Heaven & Hell and not the name the line up had first time round.
In 2008 Iommi sued Ozzy over this, in 2009 Ozzy sued Iommi for 50% of the Black Sabbath name and profits associated with it and the Manhatten judge sided with him citing his signature vocals as contributing to the trademark sound which is why sales declined after his departure.
Fucking shit.
Now I like the Ozzy era Sabbath above all, but without the ringing doom of the music - propelled by a drummer with a feel for groove as opposed to a fucking metronome - Ozzy could have catawalled the alphabet on Sesame Street for all I care. No doubt he contributed, as did they all, it could be argued as Butler wrote the majority of the lyrics Ozzy should have taken home less than his allotted 25% back in the day...
Just doing the maths here 50% for Ozzy, plus (I assume) 25% for Iommi and 25% for Geezer doesn't really leave a lot for a drummer and hey there are loads of people who can hit things right?
I joke, but the Osbournes have a history of this - Blizzard Of Oz and Diary Of A Madman had their drum parts re-recorded due to a contract dispute with original rhythm section Bob Daisley and Lee Kerkslade. The duo had to take Ozzy to court to gain their partial song writing credits and unpaid royalties from those albums which lead to Sharon having Rob Trujillo and Mike Bordin (both contracted under the Osbourne band pay role) to play the parts for a fixed fee on the 2002 reissues...
Ward sat out the last round of reunion gigs for very similar reasoning and Mike Bordin accepted a flat fee as did Vinnie Appice before him...
Despite lengthy periods of disharmony between Shauron and her late father Don Arden it seems the apple didn't fall far from the tree, what with them both being underhand ruthless cunts.
Now nothing surprises me with Shauron anymore; having ruined her husbands legacy on MTV with a reality show that portrayed him as a slow witted bumbling fool, incapable of doing anything for himself, it seems highly unlikely that Ozzy is the driving force behind this latest slap in the face for Ward, as despite Zakk Wylde's protestations that he is as sharp as he has ever been you need to consider the man once bit the head of a live dove in CBS Record's boardroom.
And Zakk Wylde is a moron.
So it is no wonder that the eyes of the metal world have turned to the egg throwing former wank karaoke competition judge and discoverer of fucking Chico Time for some answers.
Answers which she seems incapable of providing...
The now deafening silence coming from camp Sabbath speaks volumes.
With a tour and album deal projected to make roughly $100m over the next year we are talking big business here.
It seems the brand manager, Ozzy's manager, Iommi's manager and Geezer's manager can't quite agree on how to divide the pile equally (spot the deliberate ignoring of facts).
But frankly fuck the facts; I am sure that Ward would happily receive a large fee to be on stage with his former band mates again for the honour of actually giving the band they formed back in the late sixties the send off it deserves, but Christ on a bike the guy wants to be in Black Sabbath, like he was when they wrote Paranoid, NIB, Snowblind, War Pigs, Paranoid... the list goes on - back when he was a quarter member that had an equal say in the way the songs were written. You know, to actually decide whether to hit the Ride, Crash or High Hat symbol for himself like a grown man who has written some of the most defining metal songs of all time.
This is more than likely (or maybe even hopefully) their swan song and this is a chance to leave all the drama of the past behind and get the original and best heavy metal band of all time back together, to have come full circle and leave a resounding triumph as their legacy for future generations.
But no, the fucking business side of everything has gotten so distorted and so poisonous that four guys who clawed there way out of the slums in Birmingham to conqueror the world and pretty much invent this form of music cannot get in a room together and write a bunch of songs.
At their age.
After all the money they have made.
After everything they have been through.
I can't even begin to imagine how fucked up a situation like this must be.
I am begging you Tony, Ozzy, Geezer and especially YOU Shauron as 'brand protector' or chief gold digger, whatever the fuck you are to pull your heads out of your ass and figure out a way to get these guys back in a room and this whole thing back on track with some dignity.
I'm sure there is a way you can give Ward what he wants and still cream a great big fat packet off the top.
For fucks sake, Iommi has CANCER, Ward and Butler aren't getting any younger, Ozzy shouldn't even be alive right now. We have already lost Ronnie - was that not a wake up call to you all that time is ticking?
If Ward isn't in Sabbath in June I'm going to watch spangly yank punk poppers Rise Against instead, out of disgust for the fact that the remaining members of Black Sabbath aren't reminding their managers, wives, business representatives, whoever cannot say, for the sake of the millions of fans out there who want this, that this was about the music and the legacy of this great band.
The answer is not Tony fucking Clufetos... he might be the greatest drummer ever for all I care, but he has no right to sit there under the banner of a Black Sabbath reunion whilst Bill Ward sits at home because you can't give him the respect he deserves.
I'm not a big fan of Facebook campaigns, but seek out 1000000 Black Sabbath Fans Say Yes To Bill Ward and sign up to make it abundantly clear to whoever has the ear of the remaining members:
Just pay the fucking Bill.
Or words to that effect.
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