Metal pioneers Black Sabbath rock Minneapolis one last time

Music | January 30th, 2016

There comes a time when every musician needs to hang up their axe and succumb to the darkness ... of retirement. Some don’t always choose when that time comes, as we’ve seen with a few big name musicians dying lately, but Black Sabbath has. And for the Godfathers of Heavy Metal, the end is nigh.

In the third concert of their appropriately-named The End tour, Sabbath filled the Target Center in Minneapolis on Monday night with the slow, sludgy doom metal they created. The band, dressed all in black, opened with the first track off their self-titled debut, 1970’s “Black Sabbath.” It was a perfect opener for a set heavy on early hits and fan-favorite tracks. In fact, only two of the 16 songs they played were released after 1972 (“Dirty Women” from 1976 and “God is Dead?” from 2013).

While not known for being most intelligible speaker, Ozzy Osbourne’s singing voice is his strong suit, but even that had its weaker moments and fell flat during a few songs. But at the ripe age of 67, the Prince of Darkness still had the energy to parade the stage and yell to the audience, “Let me see your f*cking hands,” about 30 times too many.

Guitarist Tony Iommi, who has been the sole member to play in each incarnation of Black Sabbath, played excellent. Aside from lyrics about death, Satan, the apocalypse and all things ominous, it’s Iommi’s guitar playing that defines the band. Most of the reason this is their final tour has to do with Iommi’s health, having been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012.

While the tour is the last for the band, only three of the four original members, the previously mentioned two and bassist Geezer Butler, are on board. Drummer Bill Ward is sitting the tour out, as he did the last tour and on their 2013 album “13,” because he says he wasn’t asked to be a part of it, while Ozzy claims Ward isn’t in good enough shape. Ward was replaced by Tommy Clufetos, Ozzy’s solo drummer.

Clueftos is a great drummer but didn’t always gel with the show, such as when he was given a lengthy drum solo. It felt like a wasted opportunity for the band to actually play what everyone was there to see: Black Sabbath songs.

By the end of the show, the band had pumped out enough tracks to please most fans, including “Iron Man,” “War Pigs” and just about every other song off their second album “Paranoid.” They even closed the set with the title track from that album, which is arguably their biggest hit, but they still made room for one encore song so long as the audience yelped and clapped hard enough for it, and they did.

What came next was unexpected, instead of playing a more well-known song, they played “Children of the Grave.” It’s a great song, but maybe it would’ve made more sense to play “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” or even “Sweet Leaf,” which judging by the smell in the air, the crowd would’ve definitely appreciated.

It’s become a joke when a band announces a farewell tour, as many bands wind up reuniting and giving yet another goodbye. In Sabbath’s case, let’s hope they don’t pull the same gimmick. Judging from this concert, which was great overall, this isn’t a gig they could keep up for much longer.

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