We still haven't heard more than a single riff from Black Sabbath's upcoming '13' album, but nothing's keeping the band members from telling the press we should expect great things from the new songs.

Bassist Geezer Butler is the latest to join the parade, sitting down with the Metal Forge (via Blabbermouth) to explain the current Sabbath vibe by saying, "Well, we have been together, off and on, since 1997, but it is particularly exciting this time because we finally have a new album recorded. You have to feel extremely comfortable with each other to write and record an album, since we have seen each other almost every day for the last two years, but we persisted and we have done the almost impossible."

All the time off between albums worked in the band's favor from a creative standpoint, as it meant guitarist Tony Iommi arrived at the sessions with "two or three CDs' worth of riffs" already written. As Butler put it, "A couple of the new songs were spontaneous while we were jamming, like the old days, but we needed a starting point for this album, and Tony had more than enough choices."

And from Butler's point of view, technology also helped -- although he remembers wasting "a lot of time (and money) just pissing about in the studio" during the rise of affordable multi-track recording in the late '70s and throughout the '80s, he says now, "It's great, because you can have the equivalent of a major studio on your laptop, so you can save a lot of time and heartache by recording your ideas at home and then playing them to whoever you are working with, to get instant feedback. There is nothing to replace jamming live together, but it is great to have a reference point, to give direction."

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