This 1976 Black Sabbath concert is from the tour that promoted the band's Technical Ecstasy album. This Warner record followed a series of masterful album releases and thus failed to reach its anticipated mark. A few years after this recording was made, the band would go through a major transition, with the firing of Ozzy Osbourne for excessive drug and alcohol abuse and the hiring of Ronnie James Dio as his replacement. But the original lineup…entire summary

Ozzy Osbourne - vocals
Tony Iommi - guitar
Gerald Woodruffe - keyboards
Bill Ward - drums
Geezer Butler - bass

This 1976 Black Sabbath concert is from the tour that promoted the band's Technical Ecstasy album. This Warner record followed a series of masterful album releases and thus failed to reach its anticipated mark. A few years after this recording was made, the band would go through a major transition, with the firing of Ozzy Osbourne for excessive drug and alcohol abuse and the hiring of Ronnie James Dio as his replacement. But the original lineup of Osbourne, Iommi, Ward and Butler would last for another two years and produce one more studio album before the splinter.

Emerging from the working class city of Birmingham, England, Black Sabbath evolved from a hard rock band called Earth, which formed in 1968. They met through ads in the UK's Melody Maker magazine, and by 1969 had signed with Warner Brothers Records. With their bombastic low end power chords and riffs, Sabbath captured the interest of the ever growing young music scene with their self-titled debut LP in 1970. By early 1972, they were the biggest hard rock band in the world, essentially becoming the influence for much of today's contemporary metal sound.

This show is not the greatest musical performance of the classic Sabbath lineup, but it is a good testament to the overall power and impact Sabbath had on the international metal music scene. Opening with "Symptoms of the Universe" the band runs through a set of Sabbath classics and hits, along with material from what had been the newer albums at the time. They perform hard hitting versions of "War Pigs," Electric Funeral," "Snowblind," and the original ode to the dark side, "Black Sabbath," from the band's first album. Along with extensive solos from Iommi and Ward on guitar and drums, the band closes the show with the ominous, "Children Of The Grave."

Read more about Black Sabbath in Crawdaddy!:

"The Wit and Wisdom of Ozzy Osbourne"

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