BLACK SABBATH ‘LIVE…GATHERED IN THEIR MASSES’ DVD DUE OUT NOVEMBER 26
With BLACK SABBATH’s North American tour wrapping up last week (September 3) with a sold-out show at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, fans who didn’t see the band live will now have the chance to experience them via a new DVD, “Black Sabbath: Live…Gathered in Their Masses” (Vertigo/Republic).
Due out November 26, the DVD was recorded in April 29 and May 1, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia (additional details TBA), when the band–OZZY OSBOURNE (vocals), TONY IOMMI (guitar) and GEEZER BUTLER (bass)–kicked off their world tour in support of their 13 album, which entered the charts at #1 in 13 countries (including their first #1 in the U.S.). Meanwhile, BLACK SABBATH will head to South America and Mexico in October for a headlining stadium tour (where they’re expected to play to more than 300,000 fans) and then onto Europe in November and December.
Here’s some live critical praise for BLACK SABBATH’s 2013 tour:
“If you listened very closely on Tuesday night during Black Sabbath’s return to the city, you could hear the Big Bang of heavy metal echoing through the sweat-drenched Los Angeles Sports Arena.It was buried in the slow, menacing guitar lines of guitarist Tony Iommi, and propelled by Geezer Butler’s cavernous bass lines…the unholy yowl of Ozzy Osbourne…the vastness of Sabbath’s influence was on full display. The acrobatic tempo shifts, the wicked solos, Butler’s structured bass runs, the defiant, resolute abandonment of all things holy–these foundational texts can be heard in nearly every heavy metal song recorded since. Whole hard-rock sub-genres–from black metal, speed metal, doom metal, drone metal and hard-core, were born in the band’s wake…”
–Randall Roberts, LATIMES.COM, September 4, 2013
“The last show of Sabbath’s North American tour saw them run through their standard set list, but the band wasn’t just going through the motions. The show had punch…Beginning with the thunderous ‘War Pigs,’ Sabbath was on top its game, sounding crisp and precise…the band powered through classics like ‘Iron Man’ and ‘N.I.B.’ These songs were well received, but it was during new songs that Sabbath showed its grit. ‘End of the Beginning’ and ‘Age of Reason’ didn’t feel out of place, and between Iommi’s rich guitar and bassist Geezer Butler’s pulverizing bass lines, the band managed to make the notoriously unforgiving Sports Arena actually sound like a venue fit for a concert.”
–Daniel Cohn, LAWEEKLY.COM, September 4, 2013
“…what Black Sabbath conveyed within 15 epic songs was such a summarization of metal matters–the plodding thunder and the power grind, the satanic overtones and the underlying hope for humanity–that it felt like standing at the center of an erupting volcano. On-again-off-again they will forever be, but when they’re together, they’re a cohesive behemoth. They remain the core from which all heavy fare flows, spewing forth dystopian sounds via Iommi’s gut-punching riffs, Butler’s grotesquely beautiful bass lines, and Ozzy’s deranged howl.”
–Ben Wener, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, August 29, 2013
“Black Sabbath…stubbornly arguing for its place among the greatest rock bands of all time…Great rock riffs can cleave the summer air, but on Friday night, Sabbath’s made ugly dents. Iommi and Butler spent nearly two hours inverting the traditional guitar-and-bass dialogue, to pulverizing effect…”
–Chris Richards, WASHINGTON POST, August 2, 2013
“…the great form the band displayed all night…several things were striking, the least of which is the staying power and sheer magnitude of Black Sabbath’s music all these years later…What also stood out was that this beautifully loud, forceful and pounding wave of music is being made…here our rock and roll saviors continue to assault the senses all these years on, and we thank them for it, beg for it, pleaded for more.”
–Glenn Burn Silver, PHOENIX NEW TIMES, August 31, 2013