Opeth have covered Black Sabbath’s Solitude in tribute to late singer Ozzy Osbourne.
The Swedish progressive metal favourites played the song, originally from Sabbath’s 1971 album Master Of Reality, as part of their set at Beyond The Gates festival in Bergen, Norway on Friday (August 1).
Footage of the performance has been uploaded to YouTube and can be watched below.
Osbourne, who co-founded Sabbath in 1968 and had multiple stints with the pioneering heavy metal band, died of undisclosed causes in his Buckinghamshire home on July 22 at the age of 76.
His passing came merely 17 days after he sang at Sabbath’s final show Back To The Beginning, which was held at football stadium Villa Park in the band’s hometown of Birmingham on July 5. Osbourne sang five songs with fellow Sabbath founders Tony Iommi (guitars), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) as well as four songs with his solo band to mark his onstage retirement.
Opeth singer/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt wrote about Osbourne’s death on social media on July 24. He wrote in part: “John Michael Osbourne has left us, and it’s so incredibly hard to accept it. Even if I have braced myself for this inevitable fact since the 80s, it just feels completely unreal. He was like an ancient oak tree to me. A listed tree that people would visit and marvel at.”
The band’s onstage tribute is one of many to come in the wake of Ozzy’s death. Such metal bands as Mastodon, Gojira, Haken and Machine Head have covered Sabbath songs to pay their respects. On July 30, the day Osbourne was laid to rest in a private funeral, the Band Of The Coldstream Guards at London’s Buckingham Palace performed a rendition of Sabbath song Paranoid during the Changing Of The Guard.
Opeth, who released latest album The Last Will & Testament in November, will continue their European festival tour with a set at Brutal Assault in the Czech Republic on Sunday, August 9. A headline European tour kicks off on September 29 in Hamburg, Germany, and the band will play in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in October and November.
