Black Sabbath confirm split after 49 years of inspiring kids with ‘evil-sounding sh*t’

Undated picture of Ozzy Osbourne on stage with Black Sabbath (Picture: Getty Images)

Black Sabbath, the seminal English rock band founded by Ozzy Osbourne, appear to have confirmed that they have split, nearly fifty years after forming in 1968.

The band played what was billed as their ‘final gig’ in February after the band’s guitarist Tommy Iommi admitted that ‘it’s time to stop roaming the world and be at home for a bit’, and now the band, known for the occult themes within their music, horror-inspired lyrics, and that iconic moment on stage when Ozzy allegedly bit off the head of a bat, have decided enough is enough, completely.

Taking to Facebook, the band simply wrote ‘#TheEnd’ along with a picture of the band’s logo and the dates ‘1968 – 2017’.

On February 5 the band took to Birmingham’s Genting Arena to conclude their tour, aptly named The End; the set saw frontman Ozzy, Tommy, and bass player Geezer Butler power their way 

through a 15 songs in two hours in their home city.

The band streamed their final song on Facebook, and shared with fans across the world the emotional moment as they took a bow at the end following a suitably raucous rendition of their first major hit, Paranoid.

On February 5 the band took to Birmingham’s Genting Arena to conclude their tour, aptly named The End; the set saw frontman Ozzy, Tommy, and bass player Geezer Butler power their way through a 15 songs in two hours in their home city.

The band streamed their final song on Facebook, and shared with fans across the world the emotional moment as they took a bow at the end following a suitably raucous rendition of their first major hit, Paranoid.

Ozzy previously revealed that he would not be hanging up his musical boots just yet though, admitting that it wasn’t him that wants to retire, but just the band.

‘I’ll be continuing my own musical thing. My wife is good at telling me partial information, but I know I’m not hanging my boots up for a while,’ he told Ultimate Classic Rock.

Black Sabbath sold over 70 million records worldwide during their career which spanned six decades.

Black Sabbath in 1976 (Picture: Redferns)

Billed as ‘the Beatles of heavy metal’ by Rolling Stone, helping to define a genre that would lead to bands such as Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and System Of A Down, and later the creation of new genres including thrash metal, death metal, and nu metal.

‘Sabbath got me started on all that evil-sounding shit,’ James Hetfield, the lead singer of Metallica, told Total Guitar magazine in 2008, while Guns N Roses’ Slash added that the band ‘just opens up your mind to another dimension.’