Black Sabbath: The End of the End (2017)

Directed by: Dick Carruthers | 124 minutes | documentary, music | Starring: Ozzy Ozbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Tommy Clufetos, Adam Wakeman

The band Black Sabbath saw the light of day in 1968 in the British industrial city of Birmingham. An appropriate birthplace for a band that was initially not welcomed by most music journalists, but would acquire a prominent place in music history as one of the founders of heavy metal. Metal is now a mature music genre that consists of a colorful spectrum of extreme and more conventional subgenres. Other big names from the metal world, including Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Judas Priest, Slipknot and Anthrax, count Black Sabbath among their main examples and musical influences. The most notable Sabbath band members? Guitarist and ‘riff master’ Tony Iommi, who is regarded as the main engine and brain of the band, and the eccentric enfant terrible Ozzy Osbourne. For the fans of reality television who are less well versed in the metal world: yes that is indeed the often unintelligible babbling and walking around like a half zombie paterfamilias from the MTV reality show ‘The Osbournes’.

Because his excessive drink and drug consumption ran rampant and regularly made Osbourne unmanageable, the singer was thrown out of the band in 1979 and replaced by Ronnie James Dio. Despite his dismissal, Ozzy built a wildly successful solo career, a feat he believes is entirely due to the efforts of his commercially savvy wife Sharon. “Without her, I probably would have ended up in the grave or jail early.” As for Black Sabbath: the band has always remained a superpower in the rock world even without its original vocalist, despite the fact that the line-up has changed several times over the years (with Iommi as the only constant).

In ‘The End of the End’ we see Black Sabbath again in the near-original line-up. Only drummer Bill Ward is missing. The film shows much of the very last Sabbath concert ever, a happening that took place in Birmingham in 2017. Fans will undoubtedly experience the tightly arranged show as an extremely pleasant feast of recognition. From the first sounds, which usher in the ominous and devilish climax ‘Black Sabbath’, to the last note of their biggest hit ‘Paranoid’: the aging gentlemen show that they still master the trick, which leads to a dignified farewell.

Quite clever, because in the interviews shown in between the musical violence we hear, among other things, that the band was not exactly frugal with the use of narcotics of various kinds in earlier times. In fact, according to Ozzy, it has been a blessing in retrospect that much of the wealth earned from the early years of success ended up in the pockets of shady managers. “If we had all gotten that money ourselves then, we would probably have spent it on even more alcohol and drugs,” says the Prince of Darkness with a lot of self-knowledge and the healthy dose of self-mockery that we are used to from him.

‘Black Sabbath: The End of the End’ is a pleasant concert film that offers a nice cross-section of the oeuvre of one of the most influential metal bands in music history. The interviews and additional anecdotes certainly spice things up, but are ultimately secondary to the live music. ‘Black Sabbath: The End of the End’ is a must for fans of the band, but also fun viewing for the more generalist metal or rock lover who wants to enjoy two hours of solid guitar music without any worries.