Concert Reviews

Mac Sabbath attack Pittsburgh

Published

2 years ago

November 24, 2023

Can a band be a bit creepy, profound, and enigmatic while offering insightful commentary on our grotesque feeding habits and our society’s behaviors buried under theatrical costumes, stunts, and heavy metal riffs? Mac Sabbath, fronted by Ronald Osborne, provides a twist to a slew of classic Black Sabbath songs. Bringing these masterful metal riffs back to life are guitarist Slayer MacCheeze, bassist Grimalice, and pulling drum duty is a half Hamburgler, half Peter Criss character known as the Cat Burglar.

Mac Sabbath Live Pittsburgh PA Nov 11 2023 By Josh Drespling for Empire Extreme

Mac Sabbath has been crisscrossing the United States for the last few months on the “More Than Meats The Eye” tour with the band of Transformers known as The Cybertronic Spree, along with Playboy Manbaby, who are taking a brief break from their jobs in the fast food industry.

As the band prepared to perform, the air hung heavy with the scent of fried mystery meat and the distant echo of deranged laughter. The intro music began to play, which was coupled with the sounds of hooves of stampeding cattle pounding the ground and long, woeful mooing. The scene was set for a descent into a gastronomic hallucination. The stage was flanked by two larger-than-life plastic Ronald McDonald heads with glowing red eyes that were ripped from the top of a set of exterior trash cans at McDonald’s chain restaurants in the mid-80s.

The four horsemen of the fast food apocalypse emerged onto the stage and blasted into the haunting opening riffs of “Organic Funeral” a parody of Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral”. A full minute and forty-five seconds into the song, the groups of fast-food mascots were joined on stage by vocalist Ronald Osborne, clad in a straitjacket. He spent several moments gyrating in an effort to free himself from the confines of the white straitjacket that was stained with greasepaint and what one could only assume was ketchup.

The leader of the culinary renegades of rock stepped up to the mic with a manic energy that was equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. His eyes, wide and wild, scanned the crowd as if searching for souls to devour. He began bellowing the lyrics, “Asparagine in the fries warns you of synthetic food dyes. Warm numbing feeling inside from the poisons that are fried ammonium sulfate. Monosodium glutamate, Monsanto run FDA, ONLY LEGAL IN THE USA!”

As the unholy communion of music and madness continued, the band played “Sweet Beef” (Black Sabbath “Sweet Leaf”) and The Lizard (Black Sabbath “The Wizard”). In this surreal circus of sonic excess, reality and absurdity collided, creating a dimension where the boundaries between fast food and heavy metal dissolved like a cheeseburger in a vat of hot oil. Ronald proceeded to douse the audience with water from squeezable ketchup and mustard bottles.

As the kaleidoscope of characters laid down the songs “In Dreams” (Roy Orbison), “Bread” (KISS “Beth”), and “Love Buns” (KISS “Love Gun”), one began to realize that the experience was not just a concert; it was a psychedelic trip through the greasy underbelly of rock and roll, a journey into the heart of a culinary carnival where the only rule was to embrace the madness and savor the high calorie content of the chaos.

As the carnival of parody and homage wound down, the lead singer, in his carnivalesque regalia, reached out to the crowd like a mad preacher, exhorting the congregation to embrace the madness as the band marched through the tracks “Supersize” (Black Sabbath “Supernaut”), “Chicken for the Slaves” (Black Sabbath “Children of the Grave”), and “Frying Pan” (Black Sabbath “Iron Man”). Ronald shouted, “Cows, we’re going to grind. Hope your stomach is well lined. Do I have the gall? Chopping onions makes me bawl, to the tune of Iron Man.

As the final notes reverberated into the ether, the crowd knew there was more to the orchestrated psychedelic feast for the senses. Mac Sabbath returned to the stage for a two-song encore that featured a collaboration with members of The Cybertronic Spree on the track “Hallowiener Schnitzel” (Misfits “Halloween”), followed by “Pair-a-Buns” (Black Sabbath “Paranoid”), which left an indelible mark on the collective consciousness of all who bore witness to their peculiar brand of musical alchemy.

FULL SET LIST:
Organic Funeral(Black Sabbath “Electric Funeral”)
Sweet Beef (Black Sabbath“Sweet Leaf”)
The Lizard (Black Sabbath“The Wizard”)
Grilled by Death (Motörhead“Killed by Death”)
Drive Thru the Void(Black Sabbath “Into the Void”)
In Dreams (Roy Orbison)
Bread (KISS “Beth”)
Love Buns (KISS “Love Gun”)
Supersize (Black Sabbath “Supernaut”)
Chicken for the Slaves (Black Sabbath “Children of the Grave”)
Frying Pan (Black Sabbath “Iron Man”)
Hallowiener Schnitzel (Misfits “Halloween”) with members of The Cybertronic Spree
Pair-a-Buns (Black Sabbath “Paranoid”)

About Author

Josh Drespling

Josh is the Publisher and creator of Empire Extreme and it’s sister publication Kingdom Extreme Magazine. He is an accomplished writer, photographer and graphic designer. He is always conjuring up new ideas and has a amazing passion for the music industry and all the things that surround it.

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Concert Reviews

Ministry brings the squirrelly years to Baltimore Soundstage

Published

2 weeks ago

May 16, 2025

Ron

Ministry on tour now with Die Krupps and Nitzer EBB stopped into Baltimore to bring us the early years of Ministry.

German industrial band Die Krupps opened up the show and got the crowd pumped and ready. With a good mix of synth , guitars and booming bass, Die Krupps was a great opener. With songs like Metal Machine Music, Robo Sapien, and Bloodsuckers.

Nitzer EBB was up next. Armed with just vocalist Bon Harris and his keyboardist , Nitzer EBB set was full of energy and life, Bon was all over the stage dancing and just living his best life. With songs like Blood Money, Hearts and Minds, and Join in the Chant, Nitzer got the goth crowd up and moving.

Ministry was up next and it was gonna be a fun and weird night. I’ve seen Ministry many times but this would be the first time I’ve seen them without them playing either Thieves or NWO. That’s because we got blasted back into the in 1983 and 1986 with albums “With Sympathy” and “Twitch”.

The band sounded and looked amazing with AL supporting a disco fever fuzzy hat and glasses. Now like I’ve said I’ve seen Ministry many times and they have been heavy as all hell, but apparently the old school set with much bass in it was too much for Soundstages speakers as the band blew them out many times during the set.

The fans didn’t care they stuck in full force and watched one of the most fun Ministry shows. It was great to hear all the old songs with a little bit of a modern twist to them. If you get to go and see this tour I encourage you to do so.

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Concert Reviews

M3 2025 SHOW REVIEW

Published

3 weeks ago

May 13, 2025

Ron

Another M3 has come and gone and we are still rocking out to what an amazing weekend it was.

M3 this year was a lot of fun. We had some big surprises in the acts that played, and we had some really great nights of rock and roll.

On Friday, Sebastian Bach rocked the hell out of the crowd, and we got to hear some great Skid Row songs by the voice behind the song.

Saturday was another kick-ass day. Child’s Play rocked thee, and then I helped my buddies at the Metal Summit with an interview with John Allen. Adler killed it again, and with The Metal Summit, we interview Ari once again. Slaughter and Winger rocked it; it was sad to know that Winger wasn’t going to be touring anymore. Accept made us rock out and get our balls to the wall with some German metal. Check out my interview with Wolf Hoffman below. The big surprise for Saturday was the return of Diamond Dave, or David Lee Roth to those that don’t know. Damn, he blows me away! It was great hearing all those Van Halen songs sung by the man himself. David sounded great, his band was amazing, and his backup singers were awesome. David would have to be a top 5 favorite band to play M3 ever, and that’s saying a lot.

Sunday was another great day of bands and interviews. Opening up with Spread Eagle, who I joined with my guys in The Metal Summit for another kick-ass interview. Vixen and Lita Ford showed everyone that women kick just as much ass as the guys do. My big jaw-dropping moment of M3 was that I got the approval to sit down and talk to Lita Ford herself for a quick interview. Lita is a legend and such an amazing person. Check out the interview below. Great White and Warrant kicked ass. Ace Frehley was great and brought his smoking guitar to blow all of our minds. And ending the night, it was great to see Pearcy and DeMartini back on stage together and rocking all the dirty RATT rock ‘n roll.

All in all, it was a great M3 again; the rain and thunderstorms kept themselves in check and gave us a good weekend of killer rock ‘n roll. I’m looking forward, as always, to seeing what bands M3 will bring next year. I love that they posted an online survey to see what bands they have had in the past that people would like to see and some bands that haven’t played before. But in my opinion, good rock ‘n roll doesn’t matter who’s on the stage; we go to M3 to listen to some kick-ass bands and hang out with our family of rockers for a weekend—that’s what it’s all about.

About Author

Ron

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Concert Reviews

MAC SABBATH 10 YR ANNIVERSARY TOUR PITTSBURGH SHOW REVIEW

Published

4 weeks ago

May 5, 2025

Kylie Thomas

A drummer who looks like a cross between Peter Criss in Kiss and the Hamburglar—a guitarist with a huge, cartoon-looking burger head featuring long, silver tusks—a bassist, quite literally, in a gigantic, slightly terrifying Grimace costume, and a singer sporting a yellow and red striped jumpsuit featuring long strips of fabric hanging from the arms, bright red hair, and a clown makeup look with an uncanny resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne. That’s the summary of what you’d see walking into Jergel’s on April 29 during Mac Sabbath’s show.

To explain Mac Sabbath, you need to know a little about this extraordinary band’s backstory. I spoke with Mike the Manager, the manager for this fast-food-themed act, who took the band from performing in restaurant basements to stages at festivals around the world. He gave us a bit of insight into where the group came from and how their relationship came to be.

After a period of owning an oddities shop, Mike was used to receiving strange phone calls requesting him to come see something that would change his life. When he got another one of these calls, which required him to meet at a local burger franchise (which shall remain anonymous), he would’ve never expected that statement would actually be true.

“It was like a fight club sort of secret situation where all these people from this organization were there and weren’t supposed to be there. They were all against the organization, even though they worked for it. Everybody was waiting for this red and yellow curtain, stuffed between packages of hamburger buns and boxes of condiments. Then, the curtain drops, and it’s these mutated mascots doing these Black Sabbath riffs and screaming about MSG and GMOs. It was like radical performance art.”

So, after years of playing small shows, the band went on to open for bands like Kiss and Mötley Crüe and even meet Ozzy, the Prince of Darkness, himself. If you’ve ever seen anything online about the band, you probably know their silly antics, but their live show is really beyond what you would expect. Rather than just presenting a concert, Mac Sabbath aims to create an experience that leaves you pondering the intentions of the government.

“It’s something you really have to experience live because it’s more like a play. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s an entire arc that you cannot appreciate by watching videos. There’s comedy, there’s magic, and then there’s also a social message. It’s very important for Ronald to keep it family-friendly to get the message to the kids because when a country is specifically poisoning its people on purpose, it starts with the children’s food. So everything Mac Sabbath does is tangible and appeals to the child in us all.”

And appeal to the child in us all they do. Like many others, I thought I knew what I was in for when arriving at the Mac Sabbath concert in Warrendale, PA. I figured I’d see a few “Fast Food” inspired characters making up Black Sabbath parodies much like Weird Al. Well, boy, was I wrong.

With two laser eyes, Ronald heads adorning each side of that red and yellow curtain Mike mentioned earlier, a crowd suddenly packs against the stage. What’s most interesting to me is I’ve never seen a crowd get so excited over a curtain drop. Immediately their vision clung to the stage as if they were children watching a cartoon show. And no wonder why; you’d be in a trance too if four fast-food mascot-looking musicians took the stage with ketchup and mustard bottles, flaming frying pans, chicken nuggets, larger-than-life straws, and a wacky cast of guest characters.

If you want to throw yourself into this adventure with Ronald Osbourne, the Catburglar, Grimalice, Slayer MacCheeze, think of the show as an alternate universe. This is an alternate universe where Ozzy Osbourne has a passion for the toxins of fast food and joins a cast of mascots to bring the man down from the inside. There is no Black Sabbath; there is only Mac Sabbath. And honestly? After hearing songs like Sweet Beef (Sweet Leaf), where ketchup and mustard (water) are squirted into the crowd’s mouth, or More Ribs (War Pigs), where a bucket of beer turns into confetti, I’m pretty okay with that universe.

Needless to say, if you want to understand this review in totality, you need to go to a Mac Sabbath show yourself. Between the characters and the music that’s familiar yet completely new, there are a lot of reasons to press full-send and buy that ticket. Even Ozzy’s seen Mac Sabbath, so why haven’t you?