Unless Black Sabbath follow the example of Meat Loaf and Jay Z and perform a “farewell tour” and forget to say farewell, then this really is – as the tour title has it – The End for them, at least as a touring unit. However, there are no grand goodbyes or misty-eyed nostalgia, just three legendary metal musicians (with Tommy Clufetos replacing the original drummer, Bill Ward, who has been estranged since 2012) playing a blitzkrieg of hard rock for 100 minutes.
Bassist Geezer Butler has the nimble fingers of a much younger man. Guitarist Tony Iommi’s barrage of detuned, ominous riffs defy his lymphoma diagnosis. After a year on the road, Ozzy Osbourne’s occasionally erratic voice is remarkably pure and strong.
The frontman may need a teleprompter for his lyrics these days and is mostly rigid at the microphone, but he is in imperious form. At one point, he begins hooting like an owl, prompting the audience to follow suit. One fears the worst when he introduces War Pigs – the classic anthem about capitalism’s reliance on conflicts – as “something to sing along with”. However, with the darkly clad band rocking furiously and the crowd chanting about generals gathering “like witches at black masses”, the song becomes such an unholy celebration that the building may require exorcism.
Although 2013’s 13 gave them their first No 1 since 1970, the setlist comes almost exclusively from their first four albums, which defined heavy metal. Back then, they were losers from dead-end jobs in the West Midlands, which the hippy dream didn’t reach. More nihilistic music and lyrics brought success and escape from the members’ own private highways to hell. It’s one thing to address doom and death when you’re young and feeling immortal, quite another to sing, “When you think about death do you lose your breath or do you keep your cool?” – as Osbourne does in After Forever – when mortality edges closer and friends are dying around you. Perhaps this is why Sabbath sound reconnected to their songs’ desperate, dark heart.
Fairies Wear Boots, Snowblind, NIB and the rest rock relentlessly, and while Clufetos is more of a power tub-thumper than the jazzier Ward, these songs really swing. It’s a shame that Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Supernaut only feature as an instrumental medley: a drum solo allows many a toilet break. However, the rarely played Hand of Doom – about heroin-addicted soldiers in Vietnam – is a thrilling highlight: when the camera zooms in on Osborne’s aged features, he looks positively demonic.
A strange, uncanny atmosphere descends as The End reaches the end, but Children of the Grave becomes a giant wake and signature anthem Paranoid triggers joyous headbanging in the aisles. It’s been a bumpy ride for 49 years, but when the final curtain falls in their hometown of Birmingham next month, Sabbath can walk away with their ears ringing and their legacy intact.
- At SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 24 January. Box office: 0844-395 4000. Then touring until February 5.
