BLACK SABBATH: Australian Tour Dates Announced

BLACK SABBATH will embark on an Australian tour next April. Confirmed dates are as follows:

Apr. 25 - Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Apr. 27 - Allphones Arena, Sydney
May 01 - Rod Laver, Melbourne
May 04 - Perth Arena, Perth

General public tickets go on sale midday Thursday, November 8 and an exclusive presale will be available to Live Nation members from 9 a.m. Friday, November 2 until 5 p.m. Monday.

Original BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler are working with producer Rick Rubin on their first recording project together in 34 years for a tentative April 2013 release. According to Metal Injection, 15 songs have been written for the CD, with 12 making the final cut and the additional three serving as bonus tracks for different special editions. The band has one songtitle confirmed: "God Is Dead".

Apparently, Iommi completed all 15 guitar tracks during the band's sessions in England earlier this year, and judging by the way most bands record, that would mean drums are done as well. Ozzy and Geezer are working to complete the tracks in five-song increments, with the first five being worked on currently at Shangri La Studios in Malibu, California. Ozzy is tracking vocals, with Butler writing all the lyrics.

As for Iommi, Ozzy told SiriusXM Liquid Metal DJ Jose Mangin that he spoke to the guitarist recently and he is in good spirits and recovery is coming along very well from his cancer scare earlier this year.

Iommi, Osbourne and Butler discussed their new album in a video interview posted at NME.com. Osbourne dropped a clue about the set's title, hinting, "Next year, 2013, is a good clue to what we're going to call the album."

As for how Rubin influenced the band's approach to writing together again, Butler explained, "He sat us down, put the first album on and said 'listen to this', imagine it's 1969, you've just done that, what would you do next?"

Iommi added, "It's taken on the flavor of the old stuff in the way we put things together, but with a different look on it."

BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward announced earlier this year that he was declining to join his former bandmates for its scheduled 2012 dates, as well as the recording of a new album, due to a contractual dispute.

In addition to Download, the members of SABBATH played at Lollapalooza in early August in Chicago, their only U.S. gig. The rest of the scheduled SABBATH tour dates were played by Ozzy and billed as "Ozzy & Friends."