TOUR REVIEWS

July 26th - PNC Bank Arts Center - Holmdel, NJ. U.S.

Let bygones be bygones (by Mark Voger for Asbury Park Press - 7/22/2005)

Wireimage: Photos from Holmdel 7/26/2005:  Lots of great close-up photos of the opening bands, but NO Black Sabbath pictures due to the photo ban.

Film Magic: More Ozzfest 2005 photos (NO Sabbath).

KNOCKING 'EM DEAD AT OZZFEST: (by Michael Riley for Asbury Park Press - July 27th, 2005)

A bit of metal fatigue (by Mac Randall for New York Daily News - July 27th, 2005)

Review by Chris Stewart:

Here's my review of the Holmdel show.  I got some pictures, but nothing like the Camden pictures, as I was using a disposable camera.  However, I did get to meet Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi, which was awesome, but a little disappointing.  Anyway, I'll talk about it in my review.

I got to the PNC Arts Center at about 3 o' clock or so.  It was 97 degrees out and boy!  You could really feel every degree of it.  I went to the FYE Tent to pick up a wristband for the Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi autograph signings.  Then from about 3 till 4, I just chilled in my seat under the shade.  

So, at about 4, I got up and went to the FYE tent as Geezer and Tony were supposed to be signing at 4:30.  So after the 30 minute wait, they finally arrived right on time.  For anyone thinking of going to the FYE tent to meet Tony and Geezer, I have a brief overview/review of how everything works.  They have 3 lines - 1 for Tony, 1 for Geezer, and 1 for people meeting both of them.  Since I bought both CD's, I was in the middle line.  The way they run this thing is really a damn shame because it could be a really cool event.  But it is more like an assembly line than an autograph session.  They don't let you hand your own CD book to Tony.  A guy took out of my hands and laid it on the table and Iommi laid his John Hancock on it.  I got 2 words in and was
literally shoved down the line almost like the kid in "A Christmas Story".  

I got a little more time with Geezer who was there with his Nephew Pedro Howse, who also plays guitar on his CD "Ohmwork".  I didn't get to shake either Tony or Geezer's hand or really get in but a couple of words.  They seemed like they wanted to be out of there as fast as possible.  I mean, don't get me wrong.  They didn't seem angry or impatient, but they weren't exactly warm and didn't greet anybody.  It was a quick smile, sign and move along.  Basically, I have a feeling this FYE tent thing was a ploy to sell more CD's for each of them.  Getting to stand 1 ft. away from music legends like Tony and Geezer was amazing and worth the money.  But when I compare this to other signings I've been to, this one was a little lame.  I guess the heat and doing it everyday almost makes signings like a chore to Geezer and Tony - and not a thrill like doing every once in a while is. 

Anyway, enough of my bitching - on  to the show. Sabbath was awesome!  However, the Camden show was much better than the Holmdel show.  The show started about 15 minutes earlier, around 9:15 PM, I would say.  Ozzy sounded great again tonight but "Into The Void", "The Wizard" and "Sleeping Village" were left out of the set.  During the show, Ozzy said he felt a little funny, but I think everyone did with the extreme heat during that day.  Everything up to "Children Of The Grave" went off without a hitch.  

At that point, the band seemed to be taking longer coming back out on stage than on 7/19 when I saw them in Camden.  I think maybe they were discussing whether or not Ozzy could go back out to do "Children Of The Grave".  Well, like the great performer Ozzy is, he came back out.  Then Tony Iommi seemed to be missing for a minute or two.  "Where did he go", asked Ozzy.  Then jokingly, he started saying in a professional voice, "Paging Tony Iommi!"  Tony returned and Sabbath did "Children Of The Grave", but his voice cracked badly.  To make up for this, he drenched the crowd in water and gave us some awesome Ozzy frog leaps.  

By now, everyone knows that Black Sabbath cancelled the 2nd show in Holmdel.  I know how it feels.  I was at the Camden show last year when Rob Halford filled in, but only now do I realize how lucky I was to witness such a great event.  I was shocked today when I read someone in the band (possibly Ozzy) was sick and Sabbath would not be playing.  He seemed in very good health last night, except towards the end.  A couple of times during the show when he said he didn't feel good, I was afraid he might pass out because the heat was sweltering.  If he felt weak, he sure hid it well because he was the same Ozzy he always is.  The show ended by about 10:30.  All in all, an excellent show from Sabbath.

Review by Steven Burg:

Last night, a woman blew chunks all over my seat.  It turned out to be the best thing to happen to me all day!  Luckily, I was up at the concessions stand when it occurred, and more importantly because my seat was so fucked up I was upgraded to front row center.  On the bar baby!  That was exactly where I wanted to be when the almighty Sabbath took the stage. 

I already saw Sabbath play in Camden this year and I recognized that there were some changes to their set list.  First of all, "Into The Void" was dropped tonight, as well as the "Sleeping Village" intro to "Children Of The Grave".  However, perhaps to compensate for the loss of these songs, something very interesting happened.  At the end of what I believe was "Dirty Women", Ozzy left the stage while the rest of the band were still playing.  Sabbath then proceeded to jam in a way that I have never seen them do before.  It was at least a good two minutes of improvisation.  It didn’t completely go astray from the song itself, but at the same time it wasn’t just Iommi soloing over a riff like I’ve seen in the past.  Geezer was experimenting with different bass lines and Bill was mixing up the drumming a bit.

Ozzy was very energetic and sounded good throughout the show.  I was officially “baptized” tonight with one of Ozzy’s buckets of water which felt great.  However, by the last song, "Children of the Grave", his voice was cracking.  He did look genuinely pissed off at himself when the song concluded.  He looked at Tony and just muttered “fuck” and shook his head.  Tony gave him a pat on the back.  In my opinion, he had nothing to be upset about.  With Ozzy it’s never been about being a perfect singer and hitting every single note.  It’s his charisma and showmanship that have put him on the map.  Overall, I think the band had a pretty kick ass show tonight.  As long as Black Sabbath is playing, I will always come out for them.  I hope they are rocking out for many more years to come.

THE time has come for the great and powerful Ozz to come out from behind the curtain and take his final bows after a life forging metal music.

At this year's Ozzfest, which invaded distant PNC Bank Arts Center Tuesday and Wednesday, as in the past editions of the show, Ozzy Osbourne was the big draw.  He was also the big drawback.

The annual heavy metal migration — led, organized and powered by this Black Sabbath founder turned TV star — was an excellent day of music, which made Osbourne's awkward, often embarrassing onstage sleepwalk all the more evident.

Ask any of the 17,500 headbangers who attended this first of two shows at PNC. Ozzy howled like a wounded dog, he was out of tune with his band, and he could hardly keep time with the music.  When he tried to incite the house to clap along, his tempo was so off that he looked like a disabled athlete failing at jumping jacks.

Despite the variety of nu-metal and the more than 20 bands and artists that pummeled the fans during the course of the 10-hour metal marathon, this show was about two acts — Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath — that faced off in an end-of-day concert showdown.

In this scissors race down the stairway to hell, it was Bruce Dickinson's Iron Maiden who put on the better show.

Where Ozzy created horror with his cringe-inducing vocals, Dickinson delivered clean, powerful operatic bombast that would peel paint off walls. 

But in the guitar department, Sabbath slew Maiden.

Where the Iron boys were often overpowering with their three-guitar crunch, Sabbath is extremely lean — totally depending on Tony Iommi's concise, yet powerful fretwork.  Iommi's rhythm-based style was also nicely supported by fat, old Bill Ward's tremendous drumming.

The two were best early on when they roasted "War Pigs," later hitting the same kind of high for both "Iron Man" and "Black Sabbath."

During their hour-plus set, Maiden had many high points, including the songs "Revelations," "The Trooper," "Number of the Beast" and "Phantom of the Opera."

Whispers among the fans were rampant that this would be the last edition of Ozzfest. Hopefully, the rumor just applies to Ozzy.