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This coming weekend, legendary metal band Black Sabbath will be headlining the U.K.'s Download festival. In the meantime, however, it seems the band have been busy writing material for their upcoming studio album.

"We've written about 15 songs so far," Osbourne recently told NME. "Whether they'll get on an album … you just keep on writing. I was trying to [work out]: where would we be now musically if we'd have stayed together?"

He would add, "Next year — 2013 — is a good clue of what we'll call the album."

As for Rick Rubin's role in the production of the new album, it's clear what direction he'd like to see the band go in.

"He sat us down, put the first album on and said 'listen to this'," said bassist Geezer Butler, "imagine it's 1969, you've just done that, what would you do next?"

When completed, the new Sabbath album will be the band's first to feature Butler, Iommi and Osbourne since 1978's Never Say Die!

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