Live Review: Black Sabbath – Back To The Beginning

Live Review: Black Sabbath - Back To The Beginning

5th July 2025

Words: Tim Finch/Cat Finch
 

As the sun breaks through the overcast Birmingham sky the crowd are warmed up with the excitement of oversized beach balls and the waving of a huge Aston Villa flag, the latter of which is surprising badly received… not many Villa fans in their own house today.

Kicking things off Mastodon bring their brand of progressive heavy music to the stage. For fifteen minutes they mesmerised with ‘Black Tongue’ and ‘Blood and Thunder’. All rounded out with a rendition of ‘Supernaut’ where the band are joined by Mario of Gojira and Danny of Tool.

As the stage rotates for the extremely quick turn over Jason Mamoa appears for the first time to chants of “Aquaman, Aquaman” from the baying crowd. He introduces Rival Sons who bring some rock and roll swagger to proceedings. ‘Do Your Worst’ is followed by the cover of ‘Electric Funeral’ and closed out by ‘Secret’

Anthrax are the first band to get pulses racing as their fifteen minute moment in the sun kicks the pace up a few notches. The ever popular ‘Indians’ is followed by a cover of Sabbaths ‘Into The Void’. Whilst excellent, the two songs fill their allotted time and the stage rotates once more.

It’s back to the rock vibe with Halestorm as they deliver ‘Love Bites (So Do I) and ‘Rain Your Blood On Me’ before switching the cover track up. A rather excellent rendition of Ozzy’s ‘Perry Mason’ with Lzzy’s magnificent vocals holding their own saw the bands allotted fifteen minutes through.

The aggression then gets ramped up again as Lamb of God hit the stage. ‘Laid To Rest’ followed by ‘Redneck’ had the fans foaming at the mouth before ‘Children of the Grave’ closed things out.

After another stage rotation it’s time for the first “Supergroup” segment of the show. Jason Mamoa returns to introduce Lzzy Hale, Mike Bordin, David Ellefson, Nuno Bettencourt and Jake E Lee. It’s akin to the Freddy Mercury tribute show with superstars rotating in and out to play Sabbath and Ozzy classics.

They kick off with a killer rendition of ‘Ultimate Sin’ before Lzzy makes way for David Draiman. There is a round of boos for his appearance (see recent news as for why) as they play into ‘Shot In The Dark’ where the crowd felt distinctly muted.

Scott Ian replaces Jake E Lee for ‘Sweet Leaf’ before a whole set of changes, Sleep Token II arrives on drums, plus Frank Bello and Ugly Kid Joe’s Whitfield Crane for ‘Diary of a Madman’. As the song end Whit puts on a backpack and walks off, much to the crowds amusement, to be replaced by Yungblud for the closing ‘Changes’.

All in all the first supergroup segment worked well, even with muted crowd reactions at times and showed a passion for all musicians for the music we are hearing today.

As the band rotations return we are met with Alice in Chains. Launching into ‘Man In The Box’ the audience really come alive and the band feed from it. This is the stand out performance of the day, so far. ‘Would?’ follows with a cover of ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ rounding out an excellent, yet far too short, set.

Another rotation sees Gojira take to the stage and for the first time today the band sets start getting longer. ‘Stranded’ and ‘Silvera’ kick things off, but it’s ‘Mea Culpa’ (the one performed at the Olympic opening ceremony) that gets the first circle pit of the day going. As the pace heats up the band finish off with Sabbath cover ‘Under the Sun’. That leads us into a “drum battle” which it seems everyone uses as an opportunity to stock up on food and beer.

The next supergroup segment then kicks in. KK Downing, Billy Corgan, Danny Carey, and Jones and Tom Morello team up on a cover of Judas Priest’s ‘Breaking The Law’ and Sabbath’s ‘Snowblind’. A switch in personel sees Sammy Hagar, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Rudy Sarzo, Chad Smith and Vernon Reid take to the stage for ‘Flying High’ again and a cover of Montrose’ ‘Rock Candy’. The ever talented Tobias Forge/Papa V Perpetua joins them for ‘Bark At The Moon’ before the next personel change.

Steven Tyler, Ronnie Wood, Nuno Bettencourt and more close out the segment with a true of ‘The Train Kept A-Rollin’, ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’.

Jason Mamoa is back to introduce Pantera and as he does he calls “I’m joining you mother fuckers in the pit” and true to his word he climbs off stage to enjoy the set from the crowd. The band kick off with ‘Cowboys From Hell’ and ‘Walk’ and this is where they really get lively. Circle pits open up and the echo of fans chanting “RE.SPECT.WALK” bouncing around Villa Park sounds awesome. The remainder of the set features their historic Sabbath cover ‘Planet Caravan’ and ‘Electric Funeral’.

Tool squeeze three songs into their twenty minute slot, more than expected given their usual performances; with ‘Forty Six & 2’, ‘Ænema’ and Sabbaths ‘Hand Of Doom’ making the cut. The latter being styled in a way only Tool can do.

It’s now time for the big guns, and a reformed Slayer get thirty minutes to blow this crowd away. And that they do with ‘Disciple’ and ‘War Ensemble’ kicking things off. This leads nicely into their cover of ‘Wicked World’, yet the best was till to come. As the opening bars of ‘South of Heaven’ the standing area at Villa Park went mental. From golden circle back to the Holt End, circle pits, bodies flying and flailing limbs filled the arena. Through ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Angel of Death’ this continued. Slayer are back and on fine form.

It would probably best to skip over Guns n’ Roses performance, but for the sake of completeness we won’t. Musically Slash and Duff held the band together, delivering precision like only they can. But vocally it was a car crash from start to finish. Kicking off with three Sabbath covers ‘Never Say Die’, ‘Juniors Eyes’ and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, yet Axel was barely legible introducing ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and it was only recognisable when the music kicked in. How long Slash and Duff will put up with his squealing like a strangled seagull is anyone’s guess, but in a day of great performances, this was really a let down.

It’s up to Metallica to pick up the pieces, as they often have for Guns n’ Roses and they do it in style. No ‘Long Way To The Top’ or ‘Ecstasy of Gold’ tonight, instead we are straight into a cover of ‘Hole In The Sky’. However it’s the classics that strike a nerve, ‘Creeping Death’ and ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ get the crowd up. From front to back the crowd are insane as James rasps through the two numbers. They role out another obscure Sabbath cover in ‘Johnny Blade’ before the heat goes up another notch. ‘Battery’ followed by ‘Master of Puppets’ is a salvo no one can beat and it marks the high point in performance today.

We’re now at the stage we’ve all been waiting for, first an Ozzy solo set, and the question remains how will Ozzy perform this evening?

With the sun setting over the back of Villa Park Ozzy appears on a huge black throne with the ever trusty Zakk Wylde at his side. Through ‘I Don’t Know’, ‘Mr Crowley’ and ‘Suicide Solution’ he has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. Singing along in glee as Ozzy conducts them, his voice fairing better than most had expected.

As he speaks to the crowd, his struggles become a little clearer and into ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ his vocals begin to wane. Yet fear not, 48,000 fans singing in unison help Ozzy through and there’s something quite emotional hearing is sung so loudly, so proudly. Closing with ‘Crazy Train’ we were treated to a short, yet special farewell to Ozzys solo career.

Red lights bathe the now darkened stage as a bell begins to toll. ‘War Pigs’ is first up, Ozzy still his black throne, now flanked by Tony, Geezer and Bill - and what a huge reception Bill gets when he is shown on screen. Black Sabbath are on stage for their final swansong. Ozzy’s vocals haven’t quite recovered from his solo set, but the other three play like they are at the beginning of their career once more.

‘N.I.B.’ Is up next. Perfectly introduced by Geezers heavy bass line bringing Tony’s guitars in with perfection. There’s life in this beast yet and they are giving it everything they have got. After short band introductions, as if they were needed, it’s the rasping Tony Iommi intro to ‘Iron Man’ that rings out, 48,000 fans singing the tune in unison. ‘Paranoid’ was always going to be the one to end it. Ozzy asks the crowd to “go fucking crazy” and they oblige. What a showman, what a show.

As we close out the day we can reflect on the career of four gents from Aston who turned the music world on its head. When this show was announced there were many doubters, both of Ozzy’s ability to perform and the format of the show. Addressing the latter the format worked perfectly, 15/20 minutes short blasts of music with five minute turn arounds was refreshing and one I’d like to see again. As for Ozzy’s performance, one last time he has proved everyone wrong. God bless you Ozzy, Tony, Bill and Geezer. That was emotional.