Black Sabbath Soundtracks New Birmingham Royal Ballet Performance

Black Sabbath will need to practice their port de bras and pirouettes. The Birmingham Royal Ballet has announced a new performance featuring music from the metal icons.

Obviously, the band won’t be taking to the ballet stage, but Black Sabbath – The Ballet is premiering this September. According to the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s website, the special performance will run September 23-30 at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Tickets go on sale Thursday, February 9 at BRB.org.uk. The ballet is expected to announce additional performances in London and Plymouth, England at a later date.

Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta is helming this ambitious three-act ballet, which also features collaborations with three composers and three choreographers. Acosta said, in part, in a statement, “Black Sabbath is probably Birmingham’s biggest export, the most famous (and infamous) cultural entity to ever emerge from the city.” He added, “The band’s enthusiasm for the project is a huge endorsement.”

Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi said in his own statement, “I’m looking forward to seeing how this all develops! Black Sabbath have always been innovators and never been predictable, and it doesn’t come any more unpredictable than this!” He added, “I’d never imagined pairing Black Sabbath with Ballet but it’s got a nice ring to it!”

Black Sabbath: The Best 30 Songs From The Ozzy Osbourne Era(s), Ranked

Fifty years ago this week (September 18), the mighty Black Sabbath released their second album, Paranoid, in America. A bit tighter than their self-titled debut, which came out earlier in the year, Paranoid‘s title track became their biggest radio hit in America. The album also had “Luke’s Wall/War Pigs” and “Iron Man,” But the 41-minute album didn’t waste a second: it’s a perfect album.

In fact, seven of the eight songs made our list that we put together in honor of Paranoid‘s 50th. And yes, Black Sabbath did some incredible stuff with Ozzy’s replacement, the late, great Ronnie James Dio… and that’s probably a list for another day (and yes, both RJD and drummer Vinny Appice should have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the founding four members, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward) .

Here, we decided to stick with songs from the Ozzy eras of the band. 1970’s debut album (and the “Evil Woman” single) through 1978’s Never Say Die! and also 2013’s 13. Yes, we know that they put out two new songs in the ’90s, but those didn’t come close to making this list… which, like Paranoid, doesn’t waste a moment. The roots of every heavy metal band can be found in these thirty songs.