Black Sabbath-The End: Live In Birmingham(2017)

 

So Black Sabbath has closed up shop and you know what? I kinda believe them as Ozzy is out there back doing his solo thing and it sounds like that’s going to  take up the next few years anyways BUT with any artist saying they are retiring could be a big bunch of B.S!

Time will Time…

Ozzy along with Tony Iommi/Geezer Butler / Tommy Clufetos and Adam Wakeman have documented their last ever show together as Sabbath this past February back where it all started. (Birmingham  England)

The End album is the end result from Sabbath which is a 17 song set that entails basically the bands whole Ozzy fronted  career.

From opening track Black Sabbath right through to the last  tune Paranoid and all points in between the Sabs lay down that doom n gloom stomp like hammer to the head that these guys are known for!

Course there is the obvious tracks like War Pigs/N.I.B/Children of the Grave and Fairies Wear Boots ( love the drumming by Tommy on this track)

The Ol Buzzards though play some cool different tracks like Hand of Doom/Dirty Woman/Behind The Wall of Sleep and a cool version of Under The Sun/Everyday Comes and Goes.

The standout track for me on all of this is After Forever. I always loved how they fused those Happy like riffs that begin on a track and within a millisecond were all onboard the bus driven by Ozzy going straight to HELL! The verses on this song are so wicked and I just the love the groove … Hey BMellis! Put your toast and coffee down and crank this as the video is posted at the top! Update: they yanked the video  in its place is War Pigs

The musicianship on The End is brilliant. The production is left a little raw so kudos to the boys for not polishing it up in the studio! Iommi plays likes there’s no tomorrow while Butlers bass is jacked up on this album and him and Iommi more than once lock into those dual like Bass/Guitar riffs and all bets are off!

At some  points on this album you can hear Wakeman adding some rhythm guitar behind Iommi’s brilliant solo’s of doom which is alright and at least they credit him as such!

Clufetos drumming is excellent as well.  I know people are going to go no Bill Ward blah blah blah. I get it but it is what it is. You want Sabbath or no Sabbath.

Sure Bill is missed and I totally enjoyed his drumming once I dug deep into the Sabbath catalogue and reviewed those 8 Bill driven albums before the whole Vancouver debacle of a Ozzy no-show back in March 2016! The song Never Say Die from said album is one of my fav Ward drumming tracks as Bill swings it like a jazz drummer trying to kick down  the Gates of Hell!

Ozzy well ,is he singing live or did the studio Wizard do his magic? Dunno and quite frankly at this stage of the game who cares! I do like the fact that Ozzy isn’t cussing his brains out like he did on live albums like his solo Live And Loud double release  from 92 where after each verse it was a ‘go F’ing crazy’ over and over. If  you are there live  its a hoot. To own a copy of it gets tiring   after a while….

Still though Ozzman sounds vocally good here! And whether its live or Memorex (HA! Been wanting to use that line for months now! Anyone remember?) It’s just great to hear some loud Sabbath Rock!

Overall this is a great live album and when it was released back on November 17th it came out the same day as the mighty Iron Maidens  Live Chapter!

Now how’s that for a couple of heavyweight releases!

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