Black Sabbath - Forsyth Barr Stadium - Dunedin New Zealand 30 April 2016

So Far this year has been one of the best in a long time for live concerts, not just the frequency of the amount of gigs happening but also the quality.

 Black Sabbath did play in NZ a few years back but not in the South Island and I didn't know at that time that it was most of the original lineup that was actually playing or I might have been tempted to go up and see them.

 After the release of their album "13" in 2013, I was blown away by the quality and shear heaviness of that record and I have said before that Sabbath are almost, if not, my all time favourite rock band. So I was not gonna miss seeing this original lineup playing for what they have told us is the last ever Black Sabbath tour.

 Of course I was disappointed that Bill Ward did not play on "13" and also that he was not on this tour, the lowdown that I have read on the internet is that Bill was not at all happy with the deal he was offered in contract to participate in the tour and although he was apparently very keen to be involved he refused to sign the contract. It appears their is a bit of bad blood between Bill and Ozzy , especially after Ozzy apparently made some statements to the effect that Bill was not physically up to the tour. I was watching some footage of Bill in his prime in the first original Sabbath line up from the 70's and he was such a fantastic drummer, very fast and hit those drums very hard, and after watching him then and seeing them live now with the much younger drummer that are using at present, I really wondered if someone of his age(67) and  the fact he has had some health issues of late, was capable of playing like that, especially on a full tour.

 Anyhow, I met up with a friend late afternoon in Dunedin and had dinner after which 3 of us were dropped off at the relatively new Forsyth Barr Stadium, a covered ground used for the local Rugby Team and international Rugby tests. It is a great venue and has the perfect place for a large stage setup at the northern end. The first thing we noticed as we entered the stadium about 40 minutes before the support band was due on was that it was all set up to only use half of the stadium and although it looked like most of the seating was full, it wasn't a tight crush on the floor where we were, I read that the attendance was about 10000.

 The support band, Rival Sons, Hit the stage in due time as the venue was still filling and impressed most with their Bluesy Hard Rock-a-la The Cult being one reference that came to mind. They did well and the crowd responded well to their assault, although I found the songs all sounded a bit the same if you didn't already know their music as I didn't.

 After a not too long break between sets and the stage was reset, the roar of the crowd signalled that something was happening on stage as the huge video screen at the back of the stage showed us an introduction that I am going to let my video below describe, before the bell chimed with the intro to "Black Sabbath", the opening song from their first album of the same name from 1970, as if no one knows.

 This was fucking amazing, it was loud, as it should be, it was pretty clear, Ozzy was coming through pretty clear, most of the time, the thunderous drums were awesome and Tony's Soloing sounded clear and fantastic.  They thundered through a barrage of their 70's classics in all their glory with Ozzy constantly encouraging the crowd to go "Fucking Wild". Classic after classic of bone crushingly heavy music sent the crowd into ecstasy, this scribe included, it was just awesome. They played"War Pigs" much to my relief and i managed to get it on video before my memory got too full on my cell phone. "Rat Salad" gave the drummer, Tommy Clufetos, a chance for his moment in the spotlight with something like a 10 minute drum solo while the rest of the band had a nice rest off stage. Tommy was fucking phenomenal and I was very impressed with what he did. If I tried to do something like that i would need about 30 minutes to get my breath back, but ha had to go on and play another four songs. As I said all the set was from their 70's peak but one song I couldn't quite place and it turns out it was on the Technical Ecstasy album, so I had heard it before, it was definitely lighter in feel but Tony did what stood out for me as the best solo of the set. After the gig we were buzzing, certainly one of the best gigs ever for me. It was just brilliant.

Black Sabbath Set list:
Black Sabbath
Fairies Wear Boots
After Forever
Into The Void
Snowblind
War Pigs
Behind The Wall Of Sleep
N.I.B.
Hand Of Doom
Rat Salad (drum solo)
Iron Man
Dirty Women
Children Of The Grave
Paranoid

  

Black Sabbath - Masters Of Reality (UK 1971)

Fuck Yeah!!!

I am reading a Black Sabbath biography called "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" by Joel McIver, not a particularly great book but it's Ok and so I am listening to The Sab's early albums as I read through. I have already covered "Paranoid" much earlier on this blog so now I'm headbanginmg to their 3rd album in "Masters Of reality. This album opens and closes with two of the best Sabbath tunes, with the ode to The Leaf with the magnificent "Sweet leaf", yet another monster riff of mind blowing proportions  and the truly brilliant "Into the Void closing the set, also another unforgettable Sabbath Riff. In between these two masterpieces lurks another bunch of awesomely heavy tracks to bludgeon your ears. Another all time classic album that should be played loud and gets a rating of 5/5.  

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (UK 1970)

Oh Yeah!

If anyone actually reads this blog they may be familiar with the admission some time back that I had finally decided that Black Sabbath are my all time favourite band ever. So much of the music I have loved over the last 30+ years may not have been made if this band had never happened. I don't need to describe the music on their debut album, it is classic and any serious music fan probably knows it, and knows that it was the heaviest music produced at the time and had a huge hand in the creation of what we now call Heavy Metal.

Sabbath's music just wipes the floor with any and all contemporary metal bands, they are the masters as far as I am concerned and their latest album "13", with most of the original lineup, proved that to me again.

The music herin is just sublime, gives me goosebumps and levels of excitement and joy seldom experienced with most music. It is so powerful, Tony's monster Riffs have never been bettered and were surely liberated from heaven. Geezer had the dirtiest bass on the planet and Bill Ward is a fantastic drummer, perhaps my favourite. Ozzy just fits perfectly with this music and this was only their first album, better was to come.

I just have to rate this 5/5 and remember, Play loud, Play Fucken loud!

Black Sabbath - 13 (UK 2013)

New CD arrival.

What an amazing surprise this is. Sabbath's first studio album since like 1995 and the first with Ozzy since they kicked him out of the band some time back in the late 70's. The only person Missing from the original lineup for this set is the amazing Bill Ward, Oh what bliss if he was on this too.

So listening to this album now and it sounds stylistically just like so many contemporary metal albums, except it fucken blows most of those pretenders of the fucken planet. These guys invented this music and even now this bunch of over 60's can bludgeon our ears better than 99% of those who worshipped the riffs of before.

I really dig the feel of Heavy Metal, the riffs, the heavyness, the sound, but many many highly rated groups and albums disappointed me and so my metal collection is very small. Sabbath are the quintessential Metal Band both back in the early 70's and again now with this latest release. I have goose bumps listening to this.

The riffing is sublime, Ozzy sounds as fresh as he was on the first Black Sabbath album and the long tunes never lose focus. The band is tight. This is classic Sabbath and will not disappoint. 

Is it as good as the early albums? No, of course not, it could never be, they were a sublime peak thast can never be matched, but this comes damned close, confirming Sabbath to be my all time favourite rock band.

Rating 5/5.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid UK 1971

Well, it's been a while since my last album review as I have been busy with work, gardning and tramping etc...  Although I have been listning to plenty of very cool music as well, inbetween times, I just haven't found the time to sit down and get really stuck in to any albums to give them a proper review.

The other day my one and only follower of this blog, Leo, asked me what was my all time fave group/musician and I wasn't sure I really had one that stood head and sholders above all else, but as I was writing to him a list of several contenders to that crown, including these guys, my eyes keept coming back to the Sabs' and my mind keep remembering just how utterly mindblowing their early music is. Then tonight I had the stereo room to myself for a couple of hours and after hearing Led Zepplin's "Over the Hills and far Away" come on during random play while clearing up after tea, I was inspired to get out some Sabbath and play at neighbour annoying volume(how else do you play Sabbath) and "Paranoid" was the first one that came out of the Black Box.

What a wounderfully mindcrunching, ear bludgeoning, truly awesome experience this album really is. this was Sabbath's second album and includes their biggest hit, "Paranoid", which was No.1 in the UK and is now played all over classic rock radio. Again my limited vocabulary fails me to describe what a completly joyful experience listining to this album still is. One of the greatest heavy rock/metal albums of all time, I only have two small complaints, one is "War Pigs" should have closed the album instead of opening it and "Paranoid", for me, is actually their worst song of this period, and sounds terrible on my Cyrus, very distorted.

Apart from that this is all killer and no filler.

"War Pigs" - This is right up there, as one of the greatest songs ever written. truly outstanding, with Geezers dirty sounding bass at the start amongst the sirens and Tony Iommi's slow burning guitar leading us into Ozzy's exellent anti war lyrics. Bill Ward's drumming in this is also exellent and the song changes time signitures throughout. Tony's brilliant guitar solo sounds like a twin guitar attack(maybe double tracked). As I said, this epic should have closed the album. Undoubtably their best song. 5+/5

"Paranoid" - This is the track they should have actually opened the album with. Although I do like this song, it isa the weakest on the album. Pretty straight ahead song short and to the point, proberbly why it got to number one, but I think it is badly recorded, very distorted and after hearing "Warpigs" as the opener this sounds quite lame in comparasion. 3.5/5

"Planet Caravan" - To show that not all the Sabs' music will bludgeon your ears to pulp and your brain to mush, they give us this etheral peice which starts with bass , bongos, lightly strummed guitar and Ozzy's treated vocals. Once Ozzy has finished, the song improves with a lovely guitar solo from Tony, which sees the track out. Great late night mood music. 4.5/5

"Ironman" - Ok, back to the bludgeoning again with this awesome monster riff which is a classic, great drumming, all over the place as seems to be the thing with this album. Another wicked guitar break in the middle then back to THAT riff. The last part of the song lifts the tempo again while Tony lets rip with some more of his subliminal guitar. 4.5/5

"Electric Funeral" -  Another slow burning but heavy start to this one, slow motion heavey guitaring as Ozzy chimes in with his classic vocals. this is another one that lifts the tempo to rock out in the middle before taking us back to the original refrain. 4/5

"Hands of Doom" - A song about heroin, with references to needles and holes in the arm and how it will kill you. Songs starts with an awesome creepy bass line leading into a light drum beat before Ozzy chimes in with his late night vocal, next verse is much louder and full on and then drops back again to the first verse tempo for the third. We then experience a dramatic change of structure and its like we're in a diffrent song, then another change with a wicked rhythm envolopes the ears, before Tony lets rip again with his cool guitar solo, and then back to the starting refrain.4.5/5

"Rat Salad" - The instrumental track of the album, a great uptempo rocker with drum solo and Tony really getting up there on the fretboard. 4/5

Fairies Wear Boots" - A great song title about the effects of too much indulgence of mind altering substances, (and Ozzy should know all about that) starts off with an exellent echo drenched guitar intro, before we get into some great drumming and mini guitar solos, then Ozzy gets to tell us about his visions and what his doctor has got to say about it. Some classic blissful guitaring assults us throughout and we have just been presented with another brilliant song. This should have been the second track on the album. 5/5

This is an absolute Classic heavy Rock/Metal album which really gets My adrenlin pumping. it is amazing how music this heavy can move my soul.4.5/5