Judas Priest has released an official cover version of Black Sabbath‘s War Pigs ahead of the Ozzy Osbourne-fronted heavy metal legends’ final concert this weekend.
Although singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton, Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis aren’t scheduled to perform at Saturday’s massive Back To The Beginning event in Birmingham, United Kingdom, they have paid tribute by recording a studio version of the 1970 Paranoid classic that they have used as walk-on music before hitting the stage. They have also released a performance video for the track, which can be seen below.
PRIEST said in a statement, “We are honored to show our love for Ozzy and Black Sabbath with our homage of War Pigs, a song we play at every show around the world that fans sing along to, reinforcing their love as well for the legendary Prince Of Darkness!”
13 Responses
Just an awesome version of this great Sabbath song! And I agree with MikeyMan….true to original version with Priest blended in.
This is really good, 2 thumbs up from me!
Cracking version by the Mighty Metal Godz! They’re on there their 3rd wind….just unstoppable. Love Travis’ work, so glad Rob brought him on for Painkiller. Gotta say, much to @Rattleheads chagrin, my boys in METALLICA do some brilliant covers of Sabbath, e.g. Sabbara Caddabra. Faith No More’s cover of Ironman is stellar. Looking forward to hearing the show in Bermie from earlier today. UP the Irons.
Tasker, I agree with you regarding Scott Travis’ drum work….he’a an awesome drummer and his playing really brings Priest’s cover of “War Pigs”over the top. Personally, I like his drumming on this song better than Bill Ward’s drumming on the original version…and I mean that with the utmost respect for Bill Ward, whose playing really made the Sabbath songs so heavy. And I agree with you about Metallica’s cover songs…..Metallica has always done an excellent job of performing cover songs of their influences. Their covers are always fantastic! Now, their original songs/material after “Justice…”…..well, that’s another story…… :o)
My favorite band, so there is no need to gloat 🙂
God bless Glenn Tipton. Also, as always, The Metal God, is fierce (even more so, in my humble opinion, in his lower, growling register).
Is this the most covered song in metal?
I saw Tesla once and their second song was War Pigs. Honestly I was upset, cause they have such a great catalogue of songs I didn’t wanna hear a cover, especially so early in their set. Its because of that that War Pigs is not one of my favorite songs…every time i hear it all i think of TESLA SANG THIS SONG SECOND IN CONCERT!!!!