Tony Iommi

Black Sabbath Teases New Album With YouTube Clip

Yesterday Black Sabbath released a three-minute YouTube clip for their new upcoming album, 13, which is due to hit the streets in June. Producer Rick Rubin is behind the boards and Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk is on drums, as Bill Ward is still involved in a contract dispute with his estra ... More >>

Def Leppard's Rick Allen and 10 More Miraculous Rock Recoveries

Twenty-eight years ago this week (New Year's Eve), Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen became famous. Well, he was already famous, we guess, for being the drummer for one of the finest pop-metal bands of all time. But on December 31, 1984, Allen became even more famous for being pretty much the only pop- ... More >>

Rocks Off's 10 Biggest Musical Disappointments of 2012

Everyone's mother once told them, or should have, that life is not always going to be a puppy mill full of unicorns and rainbows. Remember why all those puppies are there. Sometimes life -- and especially pop music -- doesn't turn out like you were expecting, so now we present Rocks Off's Biggest Mu ... More >>

Lil Keke's Heart of a Hustla

Yes and Zeppelin? 5 True All-Star Near-Collaborations

Quick, what's your dream supergroup, living or dead? When I was a big prog nerd, mine was Peter Gabriel on vocals and lyrics, David Gilmour and Robert Fripp on guitar, Geddy Lee on bass, Bill Bruford on drums, Tony Levin on Chapman stick, and Rick Wakeman on keys. Come to think of it, that still sou ... More >>

Are These the Most Anticipated Albums of 2013? Seriously?

A Web site (magazine?) called Loudwire posted their list of the most anticipated rock albums of 2013. The first question we have is "anticipated by whom?" Because if the answer is "people who love music," then we've got some major problems here. 10. Motley Crue Really? The tenth most anticipated n ... More >>

Squeezing the Lemon: Led Zeppelin & the 10 Most Shocking Rock and Roll Reunions

Five years ago this week, Led Zeppelin fans young and old squeezed their pants full of lemon juice when the band's three surviving golden gods -- Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones - announced that they'd be reuniting for a one-off concert in London. John Bonham's son Jason would man the s ... More >>

Sanctus Bellum Gallops Down Treacherous New Path on Sophomore Album

For a year supposedly prophesied by the ancient Mayans to herald the end of all existence, 2012 has been disappointingly doom-and-gloom free thus far. No ominous comets, no Biblical plagues -- not even a triple-digit heat wave yet. Luckily, local doom/classic metal band Sanctus Bellum is ready to ... More >>

You Got Served: The Top 10 Legal Battles In Rock History

Ten years ago last week, one of the most vicious legal battles in rock history took another ugly turn. Ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl found themselves in King County Superior Court over a dispute with Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, over the band's considerable royalti ... More >>

Which Metal Bands Should Reunite?: Revocation Tells Us

Tony Norkus/ www.facebook.com/Revocationn​The music industry has lit up with some pretty high-profile reunions in the past few months. At The Drive-In and Refused both announced comeback shows within days of one another, and even Black Sabbath decided to reconvene for a new album and a world t ... More >>

The Warning: The 10 Heaviest Albums Before Black Sabbath

Forty-two years ago today, on Friday the 13th, the gates of hell opened up and belched forth Black Sabbath. Upon its release, the Birmingham band's eponymous debut album instantly became the heaviest, scariest, most evil record of all time, and it still ranks right up there. Calling this record "in ... More >>

Drum Kit From Hell: With Bill Ward Out, 5 Replacement Drummers For Black Sabbath

Drummer Bill Ward, furthest right, has left the band.​Black Sabbath's big reunion plans seem to be cursed. First, guitarist and the only consistent member of the band Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma. Then they had to drop out of playing Coachella due to Iommi's diagnosis. The latest spe ... More >>

Five on Five: Fender vs. Gibson, Who Had the Better Players?

​For guitar players, it's an age old question: are you a Fender guy or a Gibson guy? Over the years since both companies became popular in rock music, many other guitar manufacturers have made inroads, but none have been able to surpass the power and tradition of these two giants in the guitar ... More >>

Iron Men: Five Rock 'n' Roll Cancer Survivors

Sad news emerged today that heavy metal godfather Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma. It was a big shock for Black Sabbath fans, as the group's original lineup have a new album and a world tour planned for 2012. Though already counted among rock and roll's ultimate sur ... More >>

Amplified Heat

Tony Iommi: Music's Other Man In Black Proves His Heavy Mettle

​Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath By Toni Iommi with T.J. Lammers Da Capo Press, 416 pp., $26. Imagine this passage being read in your best "Behind the Music" narration: It was in the center of a dirty, grimy sheet-metal factory in Birmingham, England, when a 1 ... More >>

14 Things You Didn't Know About Rick Springfield

2. Rick Springfield is a stone cold sex fiend... ​In recent years, many musicians have put down their instruments (at least temporarily) and picked up the computer keyboard to produce some pretty revelatory memoirs. And in one case, perhaps too revelatory - Billy Joel recently pulled the plug ... More >>

Ozzy & Sabbath Songs We'd Like To Hear Tonight (But Won't)

​It's the curse of being a fan. You want to hear all your favorite songs, but you know that the artist only has so much time onstage, and what with trying to shill a new album nobody has heard and playing the requisite classics, may only have time for an obscure nugget or maybe two. With Ozz ... More >>

Dio's Last Stand: Heaven & Hell Live In Europe

​Heaven & Hell Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell Live in Europe Eagle Vision, 150 minutes, $14.98. When Black Sabbath 3.0 got together a few years back to record some new material for The Dio Years compilation, neither Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, nor Vinny Appice probabl ... More >>

Five More Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Last year's unholy Christmas metal list was so popular, we decided to reach back into our quasi-Santanic bag and find five more songs for you to blare while trimming the tree and wrapping presents. We made our list too late to catch Rob Halford's Christmas album, Winter Songs. Otherwise it ... More >>

Throwing The Devil Horns For Dio One More Time

Ed. Note: This article first appeared in the Houston Press in August 2003, when Dio (the man and the band) played the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. ​It's a ubiquitous sign for the ages. Whether thrown in rapture or irony, the pinky-and-index-finger extended "devil horns" might mean something di ... More >>

Monoliths & Dimensions: The Best Metal Records of 2009, Part 1

​This year was such a good one for heavy music, I wound up having to cheat when putting this list together. I just couldn't settle on ten albums that kicked my ass the hardest in 2009; there were dozens of candidates. The best I could do was fourteen, so each of my top four slots are ties. 10. Meg ... More >>

In Wishing Ronnie James Dio a Speedy Recovery, Our Life as a "Holy Diver"

​Metal legend Ronnie James Dio is one of those musicians you've probably always been aware of, even if you haven't counted yourself a huge fan. Rocks Off can sympathize, for while we've personally gone out of our way to seek his music, we've always taken it for granted that Dio would be there, hov ... More >>

Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know

The Best Christmas Album of 2008 is... Metal?

Aftermath: Masters of Metal at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Black Sabbath: The Rules of Hell Box Set Reviewed

Get Lit: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Joel McIver

Rotation: Heaven and Hell (CD); Live at Radio City Music Hall (DVD)

Heaven and Hell

The Heaven and Hell tour stops Wednesday, May 2, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Robbins Dr., 281-363-3300.

Free the Sabbath in the Park 20!

Heady Metal

In 2005, longhairs got more progressive than ever

Soaring on the Wings of a Demon

Ronnie James Dio has rocked for a long, long time

Rotation