Sharon Osbourne, wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne, has just released a video announcing that Ozzfest will be returning to Japan later this year. She also casually dropped the bombshell that Black Sabbath‘s headlining slot on the second night of the festival will be the band’s farewell performance.

Watch the announcement video here below.

Ozzy himself had previously stated that the band would record one more album and do one last tour. No word, as yet, on whether those plans are still on. Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has been undergoing treatments for lymphoma since 2012. His health issues did not derail the band from releasing the critically acclaimed comeback album 13.

The past couple of years have been quite eventful for the godfather of metal, Mr. Tony Iommi. The guitarist has seen the reunion of his band Black Sabbath with original singer Ozzy Osbourne and the release of their first album together in 35 years, the impressive 13. That album’s opening track, “God Is Dead,” went on to win the band their first ever Grammy for “Best Hard Rock or Metal Performance” in 2014.

Iommi’s personal life has been no less eventful. He was diagnosed with cancer during the recording sessions for 13 and has been undergoing treatments while also undertaking a massive world tour. It has been a grueling process for Iommi, who recently celebrated his 67th birthday. It hasn’t been all bad news for the six-string legend though; he was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Coventry University “in recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music.”

And now as we all celebrate the 45th Anniversary Of Black Sabbath’s debut album this month, Iommi is the subject of a new VH-1 animated short about the origins of his unique iconic riff mastery.

Watch the animated short, The Complete History of Heavy Metal: Fingers Bloody Fingers, here below.

In honor of the 45th anniversary of the release of Black Sabbath‘s self-titled
debut album this past Friday, today’s edition of Massive Metal Monday is dedicated to the album’s eponymous opening track. Watch the band perform the song live in Paris from 1970 here below.

Born Again is Black Sabbath‘s highly underrated album from 1983. Having suffered the loss of their second singer and drummer in five years when Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice left to form Dio, many folks had written Black Sabbath off as a going concern. But guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler roared back with a new “supergroup” lineup and a killer lineup of new tunes. Legendary Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan came aboard as front man and newly sober Sabbath founding drummer Bill Ward was back behind the kit. By the time the album was released, Ward was drinking again and unable to tour while he sought treatment. Legendary drummer Bev Bevan, who had been in both The Move and Electric Light Orchestra filled in for the tour.

The album proved to be very polarizing among critics and fans alike and its album cover is widely considered to be one of the very worst in the history of metal, but the music contained therein possesses an immediacy uncommon to Sabbath and lyrical content very atypical of the band. It is a very unique album in the band’s pantheon and a cult classic among metal fans. The album’s one and only single “Trashed” helped push the album into the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the video for the song provides a brief glimpse into this short-lived but storied period in the Black Sabbath’s history.

Watch the video for “Trashed” here, below.

When it comes to metal, it doesn’t really get any more massive than 1970’s Black Sabbath. The band that almost singlehandedly invented the genre with their 1970 self-titled debut album would see its original lineup collapse under the weight of heavy drug use and artistic stagnation by the end of the decade. But in 1973, at the time they released their fifth album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the band was firing on all cylinders.

Here, with the title track of that monumental release, are Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, and Ozzy Osbourne, the original Black Sabbath.