On July 5, the original lineup of Black Sabbath —Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, and the late Ozzy Osbourne— reunited for the last time in their hometown of Birmingham for an unprecedented charity concert.
The heavy metal show, titled Back to the Beginning, featured a true lineup of legendary bands, including Mastodon, Anthrax, Lamb of God, Gojira, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Tool, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica, all using the Cohesion audio system installed for this historic event at Villa Park Stadium in Aston.
The iconic concert raised tens of millions of dollars, which will be donated to Acorns Children’s Hospice, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Cure Parkinson’s. Ozzy Osbourne passed away on July 22, just 17 days after his performance at Back to the Beginning.
I think he stayed alive just to be able to do that concert. He was determined to make it happen, and he did. The show was really for him, and also for us, Sabbath, as a farewell. It was the end of the band, and we will never do it again, said Tony Iommi to ITV News the day after his passing.
“It was a unique and very special show. Black Sabbath were national heroes playing in their own city”, said Greg Price, sound engineer for Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy. “I had already worked with Cohesion when it was first launched with Black Sabbath, so it was very symbolic to use it again in this concert. It’s one of my favorite sound systems”.
The audio system included 18 Cohesion CO12 in the main L/R arrays, 16 CO12 on the house right hang, and 18 CO12 on the house left hang. The latter was longer to cover the upper tier, located about 10 meters higher than house right, due to Villa Park’s asymmetrical design.
“We achieved a powerful show while keeping the same tonality on both sides without needing to hang a huge number of cabinets”, explained Rich Schoenadel, Clair Global engineer, who collaborated with Price on the system design. “We had the low and mid drivers working together and muted the highs to minimize reflections off the metal or the roof of the shorter side of the venue”.
Six Cohesion CP218 II+ subwoofers were flown alongside the main arrays, and three more were hung vertically next to each side hang. On the ground, 30 CP218 II+ subwoofers were placed symmetrically on either side of the central thrust and camera platform, all in cardioid configuration.
Schoenadel noted that instead of the traditional flown end-fire sub array, they chose to place them on stage to project greater SPL from the front, while also allowing Ozzy to move along the thrust with a controlled and consistent low-end balance.
Two delay towers carried 12 CO12 each. Although the original design called for three towers, venue reconfiguration allowed full coverage by slightly tilting the two towers and adding ground stacks of four CO12 each.
At the front of the stage, 12 Cohesion CO10 were used as front-fill in stacks of two placed on top of the CP218 II+ subs. The PA deployment was handled by AudioRent Clair. Villa Park, with its open-air design in the urban area of Birmingham, requires strict control of sound emissions.
There’s a dB limit at Aston Villa, and the health and safety authorities were delighted with what we delivered. We put on one of the biggest shows they’ve ever had, and I kept the level within the city’s dB limit. The audio was perfect and not a single complaint, added Price.
The festival atmosphere was evident from the first minute of the 10-hour show, with performances that built energy up to the final climax.
“The crowd went wild when Pantera came out with 'Cowboys from Hell', and I thought: ‘Yes, we nailed it’”, recalled Leon Fink, system engineer. “The audience also went crazy for Metallica, but when Ozzy sang 'Mama, I’m Coming Home', that was the ultimate moment for me. You could tell Ozzy was emotional too”.
Osbourne, seated on a custom throne, closed his solo set with Crazy Train. Then Butler, Iommi, and Ward joined him for Black Sabbath’s final performance, playing classics like War Pigs, N.I.B., Iron Man, and Paranoid, moving the 45,000 attendees and the millions streaming online to tears.
I have no words to describe the incredible job the team did. The FOH staff worked harder than I’ve ever seen. Mixing Sabbath, Ozzy, and Metallica, and being able to deliver that message, that power, and that moment to the audience, was truly amazing, summarized Price.
A 100-minute cut of the show, titled Back to the Beginning: Ozzy’s Final Bow, will be released in theaters by Mercury Studios in early 2026.
