Black Sabbath

Ozzy Osbourne    vocals

Tony Iommi         guitar

Geezer Butler      bass

Bill Ward              drums

"I love Black Sabbath. They made an amazing contribution to music today. Almost every band that made it big in the'90s owes a debt to them," enthuses ex-Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl.

Grohl is not alone in his tribute to the original Black Sabbath lineup. In fact, the music created by the band's founder members-Ozzy Osbourne, Tony lommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward-has created a legacy which can possibly only be rivaled by the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles.

From Metallica to Marilyn Manson, from Smashing Pumpkins to the Prodigy and beyond, the eight albums recorded by Black Sabbath between 1970 and 1979 have provided a template for every hard-edged outfit that's followed in their wake.

"The first stuff that had a real impact on me was [Sabbath's third album] Master Of Reality," offers Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan. "In my head, that was the way music should sound."

While most of their contemporaries have either retired or become embarrassingly irrelevant, Black Sabbath have emerged as the most uncompromising band of their generation. Since 1979, when the original group imploded in a haze of drug abuse and business nightmares, classic albums like Paranoid (a UK Number One upon release in September, 1970), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and their chilling self-titled debut have undergone a constant reissue process, garnering a new audience on an almost annual basis.

No mean feat for a bunch of blokes whom Ozzy refers to as "four dickheads from Aston, near Birmingham." The fact that the foursome also managed to rewrite the rulebook of hedonistic excess in the'70s simply embellishes the mystique which surrounds Black Sabbath. Stories of Geezer Butler's "horrible visitations," tales of the band recording in a haunted Welsh castle, and positively lunatic episodes involving band members setting Bill Ward aflame-such anecdotes are plentiful enough to fill numerous rock-based potboilers. Despite Black Sabbath's roller coaster ride through the Seventies, however, their music remains at the heart of the band's legendary status. It's music that goes beyond sheer nostalgia to become utterly timeless. Yet for the most part, the musicians themselves have remained oblivious to their eternal popularity.

"We were always made to feel worthless and told that what we did with Black Sabbath never meant anything," comments Ozzy Osbourne. "It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized how popular we were.

"I was on the road in the mid-Eighties with Metallica opening the shows, and I heard them playing Sabbath songs in their dressing room before they went on. I thought they were taking the piss! It wasn't until much later that I found out how much of an influence Black Sabbath were on them."

The original band's ongoing influence is reflected in the number of Sabbath covers served up by contemporary outfits: grunge kings Soundgarden ("Into The Void"), new metal titans Pantera ("Planet Caravan"), crossover crew Faith No More ("War Pigs," an FNM live staple), and even Swedish lounge-popsters, the Cardigans (whose cheesy listening versions of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and "Iron Man" must be heard to be believed).

Sabbath's legacy has haunted all four band members since the'79 split. While Ozzy embarked on a hugely successful solo career, and Tony has kept the Black Sabbath flag flying through numerous lineups-some of which have included Geezer and Bill intermittently nothing has quite matched the impact created by the foursome when they roared out of Birmingham the first time around.

"A lot of people have played the classic Sabbath stuff over the years, including me," states Ozzy. "But there's really only four people that can get it to sound right, and that's the lineup of Tony lommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, and Ozzy Osbourne. When one of us is missing, it doesn't sound right."

Hence, on December 4-5, 1997-after almost five years of trying-the four founder members of Black Sabbath managed to put aside their differences and return to their hometown to play two shows at the Birmingham NEC Arena in front of 8,000 partisan fans per night.

"To be honest with you, we were shitting ourselves before we went on!" laughs Tony lommi. "Not only were we playing our first shows together for eons, we were doing it in our hometown-and recording a bloody live album, too! How much more pressure could there have been?"

Pressure aside, anyone who actually witnessed the rebirth of Black Sabbath at the NEC is unlikely to forget the scenes of euphoria that greeted the return of Birmingham's most infamous favorite sons. Those who didn't get the chance to live through this bona fide piece of rock history can now experience the sheer electricity of those shows with the release of the two-CD live album, Reunion (Epic Records).

Reunion features 16 awesomely powerful renditions of Black Sabbath's best-known and best-loved classics, including "War Pigs," "Fairies Wear Boots," "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," and "Children Of The Grave." Also included are two brand-new studio tracks, "Psycho Man" and "Selling My Soul"-the first new studio recordings in 20 years by the original lineup.

Reunion captures Black Sabbath as they should be heard. Flying in the face of reason, somehow they still manage to sound as fresh-and as unhinged-as they did the first time around.