Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe (2013)

Way back in the mists of time, in the days when rock giants walked the earth, the name Ozzy Osbourne was synonymous with subversive and dark. Back then, Ozzy was the singer in Black Sabbath, and they meant business. In an era when it seemed possible to measure a band's musical prowess by how 'heavy' they were, they didn't come any weightier than Black Sabbath. There were, it's probably fair to say, none-more-black.

Symptom of the Universe tells their story for the first time in mind-boggling detail. Why they sacked Ozzy - and why he and his all-powerful wife and manager Sharon Osbourne came back to save them. How guitarist and leader Tony Iommi spent years in a cocaine-fuelled haze working his way through dozens of line-ups trying to find his way back to where he had started - only to give up the ghost after winding up in a Californian jail, before being bailed out for the first of several careersaving reunions with Ozzy. How drummer Bill Ward lost his millions through drink and drug addiction and became a beggar panhandling on the streets of Venice Beach. And how bassist Geezer Butler walked out three times over the years before being enticed back by the prospect of making ‘a couple of million dollars' with the latest 2013 comeback. And how, shamefully, Ward has been excluded because of the ‘unsignable contract' offered to him by the band.

Table of Contents
PART ONE: Children Of The Grave
I, Awake
The Devil's Interval
Bringers of War
Pope On A Rope
Killing Yourself To Live
Born To Die

PART TWO: Unlucky For Some
Neon Nights
Train Wreck
Mob Rule
Upside Down Crosses
Dehumanised
Saviour
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