Black Sabbath Announce Final Tour

Black Sabbath have announced their final tour will take place next year.

The rockers will kick off 'The End' concert series in January in Omaha, Nebraska, and have promised the shows - which will run through North America until February - will ''surpass all previous tours with the most mesmerizing production ever.''

The group will say farewell to their fans in Australia and New Zealand in April, and further dates around the world will be announced next month.

A video announcement for the tour stated: ''It's the beginning of the end.

''It started nearly five decades ago with a crack of thunder, a distant bell ringing and then that monstrous riff that shook the earth. The heaviest rock sound ever heard. In that moment heavy metal was born, created by a young band from Birmingham, England barely out of their teens.

''Now it ends, the final tour by the greatest metal band of all time, Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler close the final chapter in the final volume of the incredible Black Sabbath story. Black Sabbath's farewell tour, 'The End,' begins on January 20, 2016 and it promises to surpass all previous tours with their most mesmerizing production ever. ''When this tour concludes, it will truly be the end, the end of one of the most legendary bands in Rock 'n Roll history... Black Sabbath.''

It is not yet clear who will be playing drums.

Tommy Clueftos, who plays with Ozzy's solo group, played on the band's reunion album '13' and subsequent tours, as original drummer Bill Ward had a falling out with his bandmates ahead of making the record.

Though the tour announcement didn't mention plans for a new record, Ozzy, 66, previously admitted he is keen to make another album.

He said last September: ''If we're going to do [it], I want to do it before I'm 70.

''Time isn't on our side. So [Sharon Osbourne] made the call and came back and said, 'Yeah, the record company wants another album.' I believe Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again.''