'Back To The Beginning': The Highlights From Black Sabbath's Final Show

Black Sabbath and frontman Ozzy Osbourne performed their final shows on Saturday (5 July) to a rapturous audience at Villa Park and fans watching from their homes.

Entitled Back To The Beginning, Black Sabbath and friends returned to the band’s home of Birmingham for a hell of a farewell.

The highly influential heavy metal band was joined by special guests, including Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Anthrax, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Mastodon, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Tool, and more. A pair of supergroups also paid tribute to the music icons. Meanwhile, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello served as the musical director for the massive event.

The whole concert spanned over eight hours, with bands performing short sets in honour of Black Sabbath’s five-decade-plus career. With everyone from Guns N’ Roses to Halestorm covering Black Sabbath to surprise collaborations, there’s too much ground to cover, so we’ve chosen five moments to relive, over and over again.

Some of the highlights will be on YouTube and social media, but fans can also watch the broadcast until midnight AEST on Tuesday, 8 July. Watch the full show here.

Read on for The Music’s round-up of the biggest highlights from the show.

YUNGBLUD GOES METAL

British singer-songwriter Yungblud proves that his flowing black hair, black eyeliner, and all-black attire aren’t just aesthetic. During the Back To The Beginning concert, he joined an All-Stars supergroup alongside Sleep Token’s II and Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt for an emotionally charged performance of Black Sabbath’s Changes.

Yungblud’s performance of the power ballad didn’t just show off his heart and respect for the band everyone was celebrating, but it also spotlighted his range and undeniable rockstar energy.

LAMB OF GOD TAKE ON ‘CHILDREN OF THE GRAVE’

American heavy metal outfit Lamb Of God performed what was perhaps the heaviest rendition of a Black Sabbath classic with their performance of the riff-tastic cover of Children Of The Grave.

Respecting the original song’s melody, vocalist Randy Blythe sang clean in the first verse before launching into his signature guttural screams. A confident, authentic take on the beloved tune, Lamb Of God provided one of the best moments of a huge day.

GOJIRA REUNITE WITH MARINA VIOTTI

While all the sets of the day were much too short, less than 20 minutes of Gojira just feels wrong. But that didn’t mean they didn’t do the most they could with the short runtime.

Earlier this year, the French groove metal act became the first metal band to perform during the Olympics Opening Ceremony, and for their performance at Back To The Beginning, they reunited with opera singer Marina Viotti for Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!), transporting the audience back to a huge French castle. The only thing that was missing was the face of Marie Antoinette.

STEVEN TYLER PROVES HE STILL HAS THE CHOPS

With Aerosmith retiring from touring last year due to singer Steven Tyler’s vocal recovery taking longer than anyone expected, seeing Tyler back on the stage for one of the All-Star supergroups at the Back To The Beginning concert likely would have caused some concern. It turns out that said worries were unfounded, as Tyler proved his vocal chops are still intact, ripping through a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love and The Train Kept-A-Rollin’ by The Yardbirds.

BLACK SABBATH BEING BLACK SABBATH (OF COURSE)

After all the covers – some more impressive than others – and Ozzy Osbourne’s solo set, it was finally time for the headliners and reason for celebrating: Black Sabbath.

Ripping through a set of undeniable classics—War Pigs, N.I.B., Iron Man and Paranoid—the show marked the first Black Sabbath show with original drummer Bill Ward since 2005, and their first show since 2017’s The End tour.

Singer Ozzy Osbourne, dealing with Parkinson’s disease, still showed off all his charisma from a black throne, while Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi traded timeless riffs on bass and electric guitar, respectively. They couldn’t have ended their incredible career any better.