Reviews from Tweeter Center At The Waterfront, Camden, NJ - August 26th, 2004

[Editor's note: Personally, I would have been THANKFUL to see such a unique show by Black Sabbath - especially with such a great vocalist as Rob Halford.  But if I were a younger fan that had never had the opportunity to see the original lineup of Black Sabbath in concert, I too might have felt cheated.  Thus, I do think this person has a right to their opinion here.

On the flip side of this coin, you also have to ask yourselves what you would have done if YOU were in their shoes.  The band apparently made the wrong decision when Ozzy fell sick before an Ozzfest show in Columbus, OH on June 17th, 1997.  That night, Black Sabbath called off the show entirely and were replaced by a 'Black Sabbath tribute' set performed by members of the opening acts.  About 1,000 fans rioted and turned the show into a rather ugly scene.  But Sabbath still returned on July 1st (after the tour had officially ended) to play a make up gig in Columbus.  Thankfully, there were no riots when Mike Bordin was unable to play that night, due to previous obligations with Faith No More.  He was replaced by Ugly Kid Joe drummer, Shannon Larkin.

Bottom line - Some day, you'll be able to brag that you saw Sabbath with Rob Halford...and not other Sabbath fans will be able to say that!

Chris Stew: “Bill Ward and a DJ from a local station came on stage at exactly 9:20.  I am positive of this because I had been looking at my watch since I knew Sabbath was supposed to go on at about 9:30 or so.  At first, I was star struck and then I figured that they were announcing some radio give away crap or winners of a contest or something.  But then I suddenly realized that they never have done anything like this before at Ozzfest.  Bill Ward said Ozz was very sick and added "If you're angry, we're gonna play our balls off.  If you're let down we're gonna play our balls off.  And we have a good friend Rob Halford who will be filling in for Ozzy."” 

“The booing started immediately. I started kicking the chair in front of me because I was so pissed.  But then I thought there might be a riot and figured ‘Well, maybe it's just a joke?’  It was a very confusing 2 minutes.” 

“Then the show started right away, I guess in fear that they couldn’t give people too much time to absorb what was just said.  Halford came out and looked very scared and not as confident as he had looked with Judas Priest earlier in the night.  “War Pigs” was very good.  Halford sounded very similar to Ozzy. If you closed your eyes, it was almost like you were in the 70's again.  Right after “War Pigs”, they slammed right into “N.I.B.”, but with no bass solo unfortunately.  Halford missed the "Oh Yeah" parts, but got the melody down pretty fast as Tony had to nod him in on most of the songs.” 

Halford's discomfort was really starting to show after a while.  He was just sort of playing air guitar and not really doing a whole lot onstage.  He seemed nervous to me anyway.  Then I believe came “Fairies Wear Boots”, which sounded pretty good.  Still, Halford just doesn't have the right type of voice for this song.  He is a very trained singer whereas Ozzy is not, but still cool.  During “Into the Void”, I left my seat to take some pictures from the back.  A lot of people still looked to be having a lot of fun anyway.” 

After that, my friends and I found some empty seats right at the front of the stage.  It was then that some asshole threw the Snapple bottle that hit Rob right in the chest.  He was getting so many scumbags throwing bottles and yelling, "Die fag!"  I couldn't believe it.  If it wasn't for the Metal God, we would have gone home an hour early and he didn't have to do this.  I mean, really Halford is the man!  Do you think Ozzy could fill in for Judas Priest???  NO!!!” 

“Halford being the great performer he is didn't let it get to him and introduced the next song as "The most beautiful song ever written - Black Sabbath!"  Halford sang it very well, but mixed up a couple of verses and lost the melody on the "Is this the end my friend” section.  After this, they went into "Iron Man".  One thing I did start to notice is the instruments were very mixed up whereas the vocals could get lost at times.  I guess they did this to hide if Rob just said gibberish with a melody (improvised), which a couple of times he did.  “Iron Man” was a blast, but I did notice Halford looked very uncomfortable about yelling the all important "I am Iron Man", but still sang the song very well.” 

At this point, I was very disappointed.  I thought maybe we would be treated to some Dio era songs possibly, thinking back to the ‘92 Costa Mesa shows.  Rob knew those very well, but I was pissed when I realized they’d dropped “Snowblind”.  “Children of the Grave” was awesome, but Tony didn’t play “Embryo” beforehand and Halford ended on a sour note by singing parts of the second verse in the 3rd verse.  Then “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” started followed by “Paranoid”.  Poor Rob messed up where it came in, which immediately lead to confusion and booing.  He quickly picked up though, then at the end he messed up the last verse and the band had to repeat it twice before Rob came in at the right time.  I suppose he never like “Paranoid” that much – LOL!”

“I know there's been a lot of controversy surrounding this show.  I would love for there to be a makeup show.  I think the reason most people are so angry is that the Ozzy or Sab camp hasn't addressed the issue on the Internet, besides the weak ass note read by the DJ at the beginning of the show.  This sounded like a very generic Ozz statement and was probably written by Tony his assistant.  The show was good I must say, but I almost did leave because I was so disappointed. Then I said to myself ‘this is what you've been looking forward to for months and you might as well enjoy it’, which I did.”

“I think this concert was good as long as you looked at it with the positive outlook of "Hey, it's been a good day why spoil it."  I think the fact that it was historical sunk in only much later.  All and all, I think the other reason a lot of people we're disappointed by the show was that a lot of Ozzy era fans in attendance.  I was there with 2 friends who were seeing Sabbath for the first time, one was disappointed but had a good time and the other thought the show as brillant.  I have mixed feelings but regardless it was a great show.  I would've paid to see it again but only if it was booked as Sabbath with Halford and not the original Black Sabbath.”