After invoking the forces of the underworld for more than fifty years, Gothic Rock band, Black Sabbath, is calling it a day. Disciples of Lucifer may retire, the symphony of darkness plays on…….
If doom, gloom and the triumph of evil could be translated into music, then the first name to come to mind would be Black Sabbath.
For about five decades, the band has unabashedly been the fervent promoter of Gothic rock and ‘Mystic metal’ music.
In between, they have courted cigarette smoking angels (Heaven and Hell album, 1980), grappled with insanity (Sabotage album, 1975), and fell in love with a country girl (Mob Rules album, 1981).
On 5 July last, the band that made Satan dance to its symphony, had their last gig together in Birmingham, UK, with their demonic vocal,Ozzy Osbourne, giving one final bite.
Band members, most in their seventies, have said (asserted), this is the last gig for Black Sabbath and for Ozzy Osbourne, battling with Parkinson’s disease, time has come to stop ‘Barking at the Moon’ and go home to read the ‘Diary of a Madman’.
Will the Gothic metal fans be Paranoid? Well, only time will tell.
War pigs live on:
The band,which made the dark forces of hell dance to its songs, has decided to call it a day, although the sociological impact of Sabbath, when it first emerged in the early seventies, cannot be denied.
The band’s obsession with the dark forces was apparent from the very beginning with the doom-layered song, Black Sabbath, where the singer recounts in a voice of terror, the first encounter with the master of the underworld.
However, in an added sub layer, the music of Sabbath reflected the turbulent socio-political period of the early 70s.
The Vietnam War was raging and although the USA was justifying her involvement as a force against Communism, the period saw the global emergence of a libertarian intellectual and artistic circle, which regarded Capitalism as a doctrine of decadence and decay.
The Vietnam War was the overt clash between two political concepts while covertly, battles between the ideologies raged everywhere through art, music, films and fiction.
With the youth ideals of the time rebelling against authority and the official interpretations of existing conflicts, music from all genres, pop to blues to psychedelic to metal, united to denounce bloodshed.
Sabbath began as a band blending rock, Gothic exuberance and the rebellious attitude of the period.
While super powers were locked in a race to develop weapons and engage in proxy wars, Sabbath gave us War Pigs with the poignant lines: Generals gathered in their masses, Just like witches at black masses, Evil minds that plot destruction, Sorcerer of death's construction.
If there’s any Sabbath song that will never lose relevance then it’s certainly War Pigs!
The number was sung on 5 July last,more than four decades later it first appeared in September 1970.
The Vietnam War ended long time ago but wars still rage with people dying to satisfy the whims of politicians and power hungry quarters.
It’s believed Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic vocal of Sabbath, sang it as a protest against not only the Vietnam conflict but also against all wars.
Someone should have asked him how he felt regarding the fact that more than fifty years later, War Pigs, still carried so much ominous significance.
I am certain, if asked, Ozzy’s answer would have been laced with dismay.
It’s alright to go Paranoid:
At the last Black Sabbath concert on 5 July, Ozzy, used to prancing across the stage, was firmly seated.
Looking frail but determined to go mad one more time, he screamed: let’s go Paranoid, one last time, to which came the iconic Tony Iommi guitar rift, setting the audience on fire.
Paranoid is possibly the most recognisable number from Black Sabbath, although this song was conceived as an album filler as a last minute addition.
Reportedly, told to come up with something with athree minute length to fill the album, Iommiplucked up the opening and the lines were added.
In 1986, with the band culture booming in Dhaka, Rock Strata was possibly the first band to cover Paranoid on stage.
Interestingly, despite having a huge following among metal fans in Dhaka, very few bands actually tried to cover Black Sabbath numbers.
Of the few bands that covered Sabbath, the song was inevitably Paranoid.
One plausible reason maybe that the bands were uneasy to replicate Black Sabbath’s dark and gloom dominated aura with allusions to evil forces.
As die hard proponents of Gothic rock, Sabbath and Ozzy carved the early doom metal scenario with lyrics replete with references to the fallen angel, Satan and the wicked sorcerer.
Interestingly, they faced a temporary ban by the Royal Albert Hall authority, which was not thrilled by their on stage black mass simulations andallusions to the fallen angel.
Many music critics maintain that the heavy metal characteristic to intertwine lyrics and album cover designs to incorporate items associated with the Satan, witches and evil forces began with Sabbath.
So much so that when Tony Martin came to Sabbath as a vocal in the mid 80s, most of his songs were about the dark forces, death and the plague.
Heaven and Hell and the voodoo touch:
Although, Black Sabbath cannot be imagined without Ozzy Osbourne, there’s another singer, the late Ronnie James Dio, whose brief stint with the band gave metal fans two unforgettable albums: Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules.
If Ozzy had given Sabbath a particular character, Dio, transformed it to add his special wizardry.
Let’s just say the band explored two distinct paths of darkness, both of course, leading to hell.
Dio, however, had sung in the same style for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and therefore, these albums, while deemed hard rock gems, do not have that typical Black Sabbath desperation/desolation.
Whoever the vocal, guitar maestro Tony Iommi never failed to thrill – during the early years, his style was more heavy riff driven while in the later years, he played the melodious glam metal style.
In the 1983 album Born Again, there’s a track called Disturbing the Priest, which has an interesting story behind it.
At that time, the band was rehearsing near a church and their loud music drew sharp reprimand from the priest who was also busy with the choir.
Anyway, this encounter was immortalised in the song with the rather defiant lines: We're disturbing the priest, won't you please come to our feast
Do we mind disturbing the priest, not at all, not at all, not in the least.
In Sweet Leaf, an early number, the track begins with a coughing sound, which, reportedly, belongs to Ton Iommi, who coughed after having a joint.
The recording was on and the band decided to keep it, making the intro unique.
The last concert on 5 July, 2025, was called Back to the Beginning and, officially, the band members have said, there will not be any more concerts in the future.
We can live with that!
Maybe not concerts with full electronic support but what about unplugged sessions?
Disciples of the dark side are not supposed to call it quits.
That would be the Ultimate Sin!
As Sabbath fans, we hope, some day, in the future, the band will get together and have an unplugged session.
Maybe they will call it – Satan’s siesta is over!
Towheed Feroze is a former journalist and an avid Black Sabbath fan.
