At a press conference in Los Angeles this morning at 11:11AM on 11/11/11, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, & Ozzy Osbourne appeared to announce that Black Sabbath Mk I is back together again and will be releasing their first new full album of material since 1978's "Never Say Die!". Granted, the last official full album by "Black Sabbath" was 1995's Forbidden, and the last full album of material that could be called Black Sabbath was 2008's "The Devil You Know". And don't forget the 1998 Mk I release, "Reunion", which had two new tracks on it.
They would be putting out a full new studio album with the original lineup. No release date (although Fall 2012 is mentioned), no title yet. It will be produced by Rick Rubin, though. It has been announced it will be on Vertigo Worldwide. Management has told me nothing has yet been recorded, but there has been writing going on for a few months now. I've also been told it's all new stuff. The material they wrote back in 2001, which included "Scary Dreams" won't be used. But until the album is in our hands, one can never be 100% sure, eh? Just one live date - the Download festival on June 10, 2012. There will be more after that, but just one gig announced now. For the love of God, PLEASE do not ask me about dates. When I have them, you will have them. I have nothing at this time. Other thoughts:

I do wonder what effect this will have on other projects in various stages by the guys, like Tony's writing with Ian Gillan in the spring for a possible full album of material from that collaboration, the previously talked about fourth GZR album, as well as Bill Ward's "Beyond Aston" (where the fuck is that, Bill?) Ozzy just came off a large world tour for his Scream album, so he's probably not doing anything else solo for a bit. I inquired about who might be handling keyboards for the project, and was told it hadn't yet been announced. But my gut feeling says either Adam Wakeman or Geoff Nicholls. We'll find out soon enough on that. The press conference was filmed, I was told that video of it will turn up online, but when exactly isn't known. Will post more news as it comes out.