AMN Reviews: Brownout – Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath (2014; Ubiquity)

Black Sabbath tribute albums and cover albums are not in short supply.  Quite a few have been made over the years, with varying degrees of quality.  Here, we have Brownout, a 9-piece Latin funk band, using the moniker Brown Sabbath.  They cover a number of songs from the classic Sabbath era of the latter band’s first three albums.

Though driven by heavy guitar, Brownout adds full horn and percussion sections to these tunes.  This works to particularly good effect on The Wizard, which along with N.I.B., Hand of Doom, and Planet Caravan, feature vocals.  While most of these covers stay true to their original albeit with the aforementioned instrumentation, Iron Man for one is almost unrecognizable when given the Brownout treatment. Black Sabbath (the song) also deviates from the original with a thick horn passage to accompany the guitar solo.

Brownout Presents Brown Sabbath will go down as one of the more inspired and unique Sabbath cover efforts – probably the best one since Rondellus released its medieval tribute to the band in 2003. Imagine Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and the crew teaming up with Santana’s backing band, with a modern edge.  Maybe this doesn’t say much, but even Ozzy Osbourne himself is a fan.