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Once upon a time, not that long ago, the Great Dark Lord reached out
through the void and cast his metallic glove across the land in search
of the force to preach his word to the unbelieving masses. He scoured
the land for many eons - from the cold and frozen North, ever Southward
he moved - until he came to the place known as Aston in the middle
lands. It was here that the ancient one found four young warriors who
were destined to carry his power, not only through the Kingdom, but
eventually across the oceans to enslave the whole world with their
devastating metalliferous music. These four were known as John Michael
Osborne, Anthony Frank Iommi, Terence Michael Butler and William Thomas
Ward. For them it had been a hard life. The dream that their music
would cross all language and political barriers was already burning
deep inside all of them. Their collective name was ‘Pulka Tulk’ - a
name which seemed to condemn them to obscurity. The name was changed to
‘Earth’ but this did little to help, and the warriors sunk lower into
the pools of despond and despair.
Meanwhile, the Dark Lord was also influencing others in the land, and
touched a soul who could help the chosen ones. He was known as James
Simpson, and he offered the warriors the means to advance into the land
and spread the word of the Dark Lord’s Kingdom. The Dark Lord sent
other messages through a disciple called Dennis Wheatley, who spoke to
Butler through the written word. The warriors started to grow in
stature as the channelled power of the Dark Lord fed their inspiration.
Long moons passed as the battle plans were drawn, and the warriors were
given the weapons of conquest. Iommi was armed with a left-handed sonic
axe ; Butler - bestowed with the subsonic power to weld together the
crack between the worlds ; Ward - with a battery of percussion
energised to rent the earth to the very core itself - and finally Ozzy,
who was gifted with a voice which could rumble like summer thunder or
scream with the might of a destructive lightning bolt.
Equipped with the gifts bestowed by the Dark Lord, the warriors began
their journey towards the great city of lofty spires and golden streets,
which lay far to the south of the kingdom. Here they would do battle
with the powerful Barons of the recorded sound and written word - who
cared nothing for the Dark Lords message. The warriors screamed across
the country, drawing with them many followers who saw the old oppresive
ways being shattered into a million jagged shards. The time of
reckoning was at hand - ‘Shake in terror helpless mortals the time of
BLACK SABBATH has begun." The ensuing battle was fought at monstrous
volume, but the Barons were systematically beaten into submission.
Word of the warriors conquest spread over the Kingdom as the Barons
were forced to open the secretive lines of communication which had
always been so carefully guarded against change by the Lords of the
old ways. The time of BLACK SABBATH had arrived - and the Dark Lord
sat in his high place and watched as, with the passing of time, all in
his kingdom bowed down before their might. The warriors became Lords
but seemed almost to challenge the Dark Lord himself. There were
attacks from without - and within. Old friends were lost and new ones
found. Ozzy was seen as the figurehead of the Warriors power. He
appeared to be almost possessed when the Band played, as the Dark Lord
channelled his message through Ozzy’s very being. He could be seen as a
maniacal, thrashing figure who flung himself around the stage with
little regard for the conventions of the old ways.
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