About
Bleak Sabbath is an Ozzy/Black Sabbath tribute band from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
Performing the most memorable and deep tracks from Ozzy & Black Sabbath.
Bio's
Izzy Serious
(a.k.a. Brian Maxwell)
The girl at the counter of a now-extinct record store said to me, "Buying some albums to cheer you up today?" They were the first four Black Sabbath albums. I was probably 16 and I couldn't get enough of them. I enjoyed the sarcasm, but I never felt better than when I was singing along with those records. Almost 40 years later, Bleak Sabbath formed, giving me the chance to sing the songs I still love in front of an audience, along with some of the most talented musicians I know. And now, there's no better feeling than bringing those songs to life and seeing the audience feel it too.
Iommic PenSameter
(a.k.a. Sam Rhode)
Some years back I saw a shirt that read “Black Sabbath Ruined My Life.” When I was 6, my Dad introduced me to Paranoid. It had songs about killer robots killer pigs and electrified funerals. I wasn’t sure what that meant but I figured it had to be better than a regular funeral. In any event, I was hooked, first by the sci-fi lyrics but ultimately by the riffs that seemed to tower over everything else I’d known of music up to that point.
Fast forward to age 14, I get my first guitar (SG knockoff nonetheless), my teacher shows me the power chord, and the mighty “Iron Man” riff issues from mine own fingers. Life ruined: what could have been a respectable career in accounting or animal husbandry ended up an existence spent obsessed with guitar and all things heavy. I played in cover bands in high school and college, then moved to Minneapolis from nowhere South Dakota looking for a real scene. I found one and have been here since, playing in original bands like Sirens Of Titan, Living Through Ghosts, Magneto Effect, and Megonia. Now I’ve come full circle, the student has become…well, if not the master, at least competent. And I find myself in Bleak Sabbath playing the songs that got me started. And familiar as they are, they’ve lost none of their potency. Life ruined indeed.
Old Geezer Butler
(a.k.a. Pico, The Bass Demon)
(a.k.a. Darrin Gordon)
I have been into music most of his life. I played rhythm guitar for a number of years early in my “Rock Band” ventures and started playing the bass guitar just to fill an empty position one day. I fell madly in love with it and have filled this position for more than 3 decades now. I have been a huge fan of Black Sabbath ever since I first heard Iron Man when I was a youngster. It gave me an appreciation and love for the dark melodic tones of the early metal bands and highly influenced my style of playing. When I received the opportunity to join up with Bleak Sabbath, I jumped at it and have loved every minute of being able to enjoy one of my most favorite bands from the musicians perspective!
Ed-Ward-O
(a.k.a. Robert Luna)
As a young kid looking at changing instruments from guitar to drums, there was no other drummer I listened to more than Bill Ward of Black Sabbath. Later Neil Peart would probably equally share my interest but Ward was first. Even in the last few years before I joined up with Bleak Sabbath, Black Sabbath has always remained in rotation in my playlists. I studied Bill Ward’s feel on the drum kit. I knew it didn’t sound like anyone else’s style. I also listened to a lot of Kansas, Rush and Judas Priest back in the day, but there was something about playing in the style that Ward played that stuck. He was the Ringo Starr of early Heavy Metal and I’ve been hooked ever since. It doesn’t surprise me that even so late in my drumming career that I would finally be in a Black Sabbath tribute/cover band. Hope you dig the music and my homage to a great drummer. Glad to be here.
