Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning review: Ozzy’s earth-shaking farewell

“Let the madness begin!” bellows a mischievous Ozzy Osbourne from his bat and skull encrusted throne in front of a sold out Villa Park. The Prince Of Darkness has finally taken to the stage after a marathon of legendary metal bands have paid homage to his life and work throughout the day. 

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The Summer Of Sabbath has been in full flow in Birmingham for weeks now though. The proud home city of heavy metal has rolled out the purple carpet for its most famous sons’ homecoming. Boozers are decked with purple balloons and flags, murals are everywhere you look, people don Ozzy outfits while battered t-shirts and denim jackets flood the streets. It feels like a World Cup final for the metal fans who have flooded in from every corner of the planet. 

That carnival atmosphere hits the moment you step out of New Street Station, where fans are gathering around the nearby Black Sabbath Bridge mural, which Ozzy and the band duly signed earlier in the week. We meet one fan from London, who says he’s on a Sabbath pilgrimage before the gates open later in the day. “I’m going around the city doing all of the sites like The Crown where they played their first ever show, the various exhibitions and Ozzy The Bull!” 

This of course is before you even make your way to Villa Park, the historic football ground housed in the working class suburb which was once home to the band’s four members tonight. 

Arriving, we’re greeted by rumbles of  distortion and a giant inflatable Ozzy who watches over his parish. Heading into the stadium, fan Cody Holl who has travelled from Pennsylvania in the US is in a state of giddy delirium as he says, “It’s Black Sabbath’s last Sabbath, I’ve never seen them before and I told myself after that 2017 tour, I’m going no matter what, I just had to be here.”

The heavy metal royalty gracing the stage throughout the day are clearly struck by a similar sense of awe, that’s perhaps because Black Sabbath have shaped and influenced each and every one of them, from openers Mastadon right through to thrash veterans Anthrax and Lamb Of God. The latter deliver an early standout moment with a cover of ‘Children Of The Grave’ which sees a gaping circle pit form on the pitch. 

The day is packed with such moments, for those lucky enough to get a ticket to the sold out bash, the main challenge presented is bottling it all up. 

Even on this -studded lineup though, there’s always room for surprise as Yungblud joins the day’s first supergroup set for a cover of ‘Changes’. Stomping onstage with spit and venom, he dedicates the band’s most heartfelt song to the late Diogo Jota. “We’d all collectively like to dedicate this next song to Diogo Jota, God bless Black Sabbath and god bless Ozzy Osbourne” he declares before a heartfelt rendition that stops the stadium in its tracks. 

Amid the palpable emotion there’s also scope for the ridiculous as Blink 182’s Travis Barker and Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s Chad Smith and Tool’s Danny Carey indulge in a drum off fronted by Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. That’s before Billy Corgan and Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing enter the frey and tear into ‘Breaking The Law’.

The extravaganza rolls on with more legends in Alice In Chains, Gojira, Pantera and Tool, who all seize their respective thirty-minute sets. As the sun dips under the clouds, Slayer take to the stage and produce the day’s biggest moshpit so far, the kind that you’re dicing with death when entering as they shred through genre-defining epics like ‘Reign In Blood’ and ‘Angel Of Death’.

Guns N’ Roses tee up the home straight towards Metallica, Ozzy and Sabbath. Having headlined this very venue themselves but a week prior, the rock giants are clearly loving life as they cover ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ before the iconic guitar intro of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’. 

One of the most profound tributes to Sabbath comes from Metallica’s James Hetfield as he surveys the thousands ahead of him. “Without  Sabbath there would be no Metallica, thank you boys for giving us a purpose in life,” he says before unleashing a career-spanning run of the band’s biggest anthems.  

After a strobing montage of his glory days, Ozzy takes to the stage and shoots straight from the hip. “It’s so good to be on this fucking stage you have no idea,” he says before questioning, “Have you had a good day today?”, before the ominous organ intro of Mr Crowley.

Osbourne is trembling with emotion as he sings the ballad ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ and the sense of meaning is almost unprecedented as he’s back where it all began over fifty years ago.

After a riotous rendition of ‘Crazy Train’, he departs and returns for a condensed set with Black Sabbath who arrive to the rain and church bell tolls of ‘War Pigs’. It’s pure theatre as Osbourne clutches the microphone stand with OZZY tattooed upon his knuckles and sings that opening line that still speaks to the world today:  “Generals gathered in their masses…”

Though confined to his chair, Ozzy writhes and wriggles like a man summoning every last inch of the hellraising spirit still in him as he bows out with ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Paranoid’. “Go fucking crazy it’s the last song”, he says before the latter and boy do the masses oblige. 

For all the false farewells and goodbyes in his career, there’s something so final about this one that adds a crushing poignancy to the night.  

The great tragedy is that so often such legends have passed before celebrations on this level can take place, yet by some great miracle or divine intervention Ozzy is here to take his final bow with his own tribe.