Here's my opinion -

FINALLY - There is an OFFICIAL Black Sabbath website.
http://www.blacksabbath.com/

For years, this 'fan site' has served as the closest thing to such
http://www.black-sabbath.com/news/

Well....I totally see the point of this in a ton of ways. But I would liken this site more to the official Taco Bell or McDonald's site before I'd liken it to any band. There is a need for this. Certainly. The older I get, the more I see a need for anything associated with money, property, and so forth. Not trying to hate either. Not taking anyone's side. Black Sabbath has been my favorite band for almost 30 years. It's been nice to see them get their due in the last 15 of those years. Seeing the original line-up play at Ozzfest was fantastic. I loved every second of it. "Born Again" was the current release when I got into them. I'd always wished they'd done another with Ian Gillan. But, yeah, I guess it was a bit of an odd fit. And until they reunited with Ozzy they were treading water much of the time it seemed. Not because the material was bad ("Forbidden" was pretty bad), but they were really never viewed as being contemporary, or 'current' by the public at large. "Seventh Star" was a little hard to get into at first, but now I look at it as a gem. The Tony Martin albums (other than "Forbidden") all contain some good songs with "Headless Cross" being a bona-fide classic. How can any of that be ignored? I haven't even mentioned the Dio era stuff. R.I.P. to Ronnie James Dio. R.I.P. to Cozy Powell. There's at least as much greatness without Ozzy Osbourne in the band. It just wasn't as groundbreaking. I totally support Black Sabbath and would love to see them play again. And yes, the original line-up will always be the most classic, which this website is devoted to. Now to my point - Without Bill Ward there is no original line-up. Business is business. Not gonna take a side between Bill and the rest of the band. But without it being THE original line-up on hand, it feels like even more of a slap in the face to everything which has been 'omitted' here.