Black Sabbath kicked off their farewell “The End” tour last month, and if the band is to be believed, it truly is the end.
By now, of course, it's accepted fact that the Sabs are arguably the most influential act in heavy metal history. As such, many, many bands have covered their songs many, many times throughout the years (including on multiple tribute albums). Here are 10 of the best live renditions of Black Sabbath songs.
1. Type O Negative – “Paranoid”
Seeing as Type O Negative are the band that brought heavy metal doom to goth rock, it’s no surprise that they were huge Sabbath fans. And while their best-known Sabbath cover is “Black Sabbath,” from the original ’94 'Nativity in Black' tribute album, a few years earlier (it was tacked on as a bonus cut to 1992’s “live” album ‘The Origin of the Feces’) they took on the Sab’s biker metal classic “Paranoid,” turning into a very Type O-esque dirge. “This used to be a Black Sabbath song…til we got a hold of it,” says frontman Peter Steele, announcing the song at this 1991 live show.
2. Faith No More – “War Pigs”
Faith No More covered this epic Sab tune on their 1989 breakthrough album ‘The Real Thing,’ demonstrating that even while they were becoming famous for funk-influenced rap metal, they knew their roots.
3. Pantera – “Planet Caravan”
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Pantera doing a Sabbath song isn’t so far-fetched. The fact that they chose a mellow, trippy one was more unexpected. The Cowboys From Hell covered the song on 1994’s Far Beyond Driven; here they are doing it live in 1996.
4. Suicide Silence with Robb Flynn – “Die Young”
As a tribute to deceased Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker, Machine Head’s Robb Flynn joined members of Suicide Silence for an acoustic rendition of this Dio-era Sabbath classic at the Mitch Lucker Memorial Show in 2012.
5. Melvins – “Into the Void”
On which Buzz Osborne and Co. take one of Sabbath’s doomiest, most stonerific riffs and manage to up the sludge factor by roughly one thousand percent.
6. Metallica – “Iron Man” / “Paranoid”
Metallica teamed up with the Ozzman himself at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert in New York City to bang out these Sabbath classics. Two of the biggest names in metal, playing two of the biggest metal songs ever.
7. Sepultura – “Symptom of the Universe”
Sepultura covered this Sabbath classic for the ‘Nativity in Black’ tribute record, but they had been performing it live for years at that point—even, amazingly, on Brazilian television.
8. H.I.M. – “Hand of Doom”
Sabbath has started playing “Hand of Doom” again on their current tour. But Finnish goth-metal band H.I.M. have been doing it onstage for years, as evidenced by this video.
9. White Zombie – “Children of the Grave”
White Zombie covered “Children of the Grave” for ‘Nativity in Black,’ and it also became a staple of their live show. It’s probably one of the Sab’s most groove-heavy tunes, making it perfect fodder for a Zombie makeover.
10. Ministry with Kirk Hammett – “Supernaut”
Al Jourgensen first covered “Supernaut” in 1990 with his side project 1000 Homo DJs, and he later did it with Ministry on their ‘Cover Up’ album. Here he is performing the song onstage with Ministry in 1992, with a helping hand from Metallica’s Kirk Hammett.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
