When Black Sabbath announced their final tour back in 2015, everyone seemed to kind of take it with a grain of salt. Ozzy Osbourne had “retired” back in the ’90s, only to return with the “Retirement Sucks” tour. There was talk of another Black Sabbath album after 13, even if they weren’t going to tour. And even as they played the last show of the tour last month, Tony Iommi suggested that there might be more Sabbath material coming, or perhaps some one-off shows. However, Black Sabbath’s Facebook page yesterday posted the above image, hinting that the door has been shut on the band’s career.
If this had gone up a month ago, just after the band played their last show in Birmingham, it would have made more sense. However, one month later suggests that there’s some finality to the whole thing. The fact that they also changed their cover photo to a vintage Sabbath picture also suggests that things have drawn to a close. There’s been no official statement from the band about any of this, nor does there necessarily have to be. 49 years is a long time for anything, and if the band wants to officially end instead of drawing out their retirement, there’s no reason they shouldn’t.
