Not Satan, nor Crowley, nor any unexplained force of darkness can lay claim to broken, divisive history of Black Sabbath.

England's venerable purveyors of metalhead occultism lead volatile, uncertain lives ruled not by the less-that-saintly adornments of their trade, but by something a little more common: the good old fashioned rock 'n' roll personality conflict.

Guitarist Tony Iommi is still leading the lumbering pioneers out to the adoring masses, but he is alone among the first generation. Black Sabbath's only other clear link to the past, bassist Geezer Butler, has been sacked. Again.

"Well", intimated Iommi, 46, the day after arriving in New Haven, Ct. for a Noth American tour, "there was a few things I wasn't really happy with."

"I had sort of a disagreement with Geezer's wife", he said, laughing, "and you know how that one goes."

The horse's mouth history of Sabbath, tinged as it is with Iommi's working class Brit midlands accent, has a decidedly Tufnelesque ring to it. Through 27 long years Birmingham's loudest sons have racked up a staff list awash in departees bearing single names: Geezer, Gillan, Dio and the most celebrated pseudo-Satanic joker of them all, Ozzy.

Sabbath's lineup rivals King Crimson, Hawkwind and Spinal Tap in sheer number. Never certain enough to write names in cement (Ronnie James Dio's in, out and in out again; Geezer's here, Geezer's there; drummer Bill Ward has come and gone repeatedly), Black Sabbath is holding, for now, with the off and on lineup that brought the band into the 90's: Iommi on guitar, jack of all bands Cozy Powell on drums, Neil Murray on bass, Geoff Nicholls on keyboards and Tony Martin on vocals.

"We're not an oldies band", Iommi insisted. "We're a current band. We can play the old hits, plus the new stuff as well, and that's what I'm liking." Forbidden, the band's new album, is an attempt to throw off the dead weight of the past. Produced by Body Count guitarist Ernie C and featuring a guest vocal from rapper and Body Count leader Ice T, Forbidden sports a cartoon cover drawing of the Grim Reaper patrolling the cemetery as a gaggle of Sabbath members and friends motorcycle their way out of a grave.

"That's exactly what we wanted", Iommi said. "We got fed up with, as soon as you mentioned Sabbath, the gloom and doom. I just wanted a lighter side of it to be looked on. When I saw the rough drawings... I thought 'That's great, that's just up our street, what we want to do.'"

The death of the occult trappings hasn't taken War Pigs and Paranoid down with it; people want the songs, Sabbath obliges. But on this tour with Motorhead (which has a new album of its own, Sacrifice, out next Wednesday) Iommi's focus is definitely on the rawer strains of Forbidden.

The album grew out of what was to be a quick four song collaboration with Ernie C, a longtime fan of the band who had flown to England to produce. Eight days later Black Sabbath had all of Forbidden's ten tracks in the can.

If that sounds fast, consider that the band's 1970 debut with Ozzy Osbourne was laid down in a two-day studio binge.

"We didn't know any different", Iommi said of the early days. "We were just used to playing a lot, seven days a week -- or seven spots a day. When we used to play in Hamburg (where Sabbath reportedly broke the Beatles' attendance record at the Star Club) we used to play a lot, seven three-quarter-of an an hour spots. You get pretty used to doing stuff like that. When we walked into the studio, it was luxury to just be able to play and tape it."

Forbidden's leaner, meaner sound is a slate-claning attempt to acquaint North America with this edition of the band. Though a hit in Europe, the new Sabbath hasn't done much over here.

Last time the band tried touring with Martin at the microphone (between tours with Dio), Iommi had to bail and fly back to England. Carpal tunnel syndrome numbled his arm and forced a wrist operation. Ed Note: This sounds like an error. Between tours with Dio would make it either Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, or Tyr. The Iommi Carpel Tunnel thing happened during the Forbidden tour.

While Iommi regained his chops, the revolving door kept spinning. Geezer's exit leaves the impression that perhaps Sabbath is an empire in which all who disagree are banished.

"No" insisted Iommi. "It's just the way things are. You see with Ronnie, he's had his own band for so long now. You become set in your own ways, really, same as Ozzy, same as a lot of people who've had their own bands. It's difficult to work as a team again when you get back. And that's what you've got to do when you're in a band -- you've got to work as a team. You can't have one person saying 'This is the way I want it' because it doesn't work."

Somehow this rickety entity has maintained a faithful following. Megadeth and Therapy? are among the bands who covered Sabbath songs on the recent Nativity In Black tribute CD, and Iommi found Ice T's contribution to Forbidden quite telling.

"I was mostly surprised by the rap artists, actually, that were influenced by Sabbath", he said. "That was a surprise. But it's very nice and I'm very honored. It's nice to know after 27 years now that what I said in the first place has stuck, and that was the belief in it."