What could be more metal? At 76, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Ozzy Osbourne accomplishes his ultimate rebellion by giving a giant farewell concert. He died seventeen days later, on Tuesday July 22.
Birmingham, cradle of heavy metal
This concert, named Back to the Beginning (“Return to the beginning”), took place on July 5 in Birmingham, where, in 1968, the singer founded Black Sabbath, the first group of Heavy Metal in history, with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward.
At the time, their rehearsal room was in front of a cinema that projected horror films. Ozzy says that he “found it weird that so many people go to see films that were scary. No one listened to us, so we decided to play music that was scary.” Thus, the metal was born.
Fifty-seven years later, on the occasion of what was announced as the biggest unit of Heavy Metal in history, the museum and art gallery of Birmingham presented an exhibition retracing the life of the singer, entitled Ozzy Osbourne: hero of the working class.
Except that this time, they did not return alone, but accompanied by eighteen groups or supergroups which followed them in the great adventure of metal. From Metallica classics to Psychedelics Tool, including the French Gojira, unique non-English-Saxon honored with an invitation. The concert lasted ten hours, in front of 45,000 spectators. When Black Sabbath appears on stage to close the evening, Ozzy seated on a black throne. Although his illness prevents him from getting up, he sings and galvanizes the crowd. An ode to life and perseverance.
“True Satanism is war”
If he is known for his sense of spectacle, as the day he crunched a bat that a spectator had launched him, the English, who had grown with the Monty Pythonalso knew how to take himself seriously. One of their most emblematic pieces is War Pigs (“War pigs”), written during the Cold War and more specifically in the midst of the Vietnam War. In an agonizing sound atmosphere, Black Sabbath denounces “generals who assemble sorceses to black masses” and “politicians who are hiding (…) and treat people like chess pawns”. Because, as the bass player Geezer Butler explains, “real Satanism is war.”
