Today marks the final performance of the godfathers of heavy music as a whole, Black Sabbath. Without their crafting of dread-laden doom and impeccable riffing, metal as we know it would not exist. Without the devil's tritone ringing out on the first notes of their first LP, it is difficult to imagine this genre of music we love so much.
Nu metal is but one branch on the oak tree that is heavy metal. With things like Ozzfest, we know that Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic frontman of the band's most famous line-up, was a believer in this genre we love so much. He, along with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward, founded a whole new brand of music over half a century ago, and continued that spirit of innovation throughout their tenure.
Sure, you may be likely to hear Sabbath on the classic rock radio station in your area. Just as our own Holiday Kirk said recently in our Best Nu Metal Covers list, his dad or your own dad might be their biggest fan, to the point where they may allege that they don't make music like they used to. But before we started adding hip-hop and funk textures to heavy metal, Tony Iommi had the idea to tune down lower, with their Master of Reality album seeing them play in C# standard, three semitones below the standard E tuning for guitars.
Point is, Black Sabbath are directly responsible for where heavy music has gotten to, after over fifty years of inventing and reinventing the wheel. Before we could be one step closer to the edge, we had to finish with our woman cuz she wouldn't leave us with our minds. Before something took a part of me, we had to wonder what is this that stands before me. And before we could contemplate the meaning of life, we had to have Black Sabbath.
So on this, the day of their last performance, this swan song for the forefathers of what ended up as our nu world, blast a little Sabbath, enjoy a little bit of the Sweet Leaf, don't get too Paranoid with all of the fireworks still going off this holiday weekend, and celebrate the victory lap of the ones who made all of this possible. Let us do so while they are still with us, rather than regret a lack of acknowledgement later. This may be the beginning of the end, but it can also be the end of the beginning for us as lovers of heavy music.
We had to start somewhere, and the roots of this stalwart oak are those of Black fucking Sabbath. Godspeed, gentlemen. Thank you for everything.
