Los Angeles, CA · parody metal

Mac Sabbath

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Black Sabbath covers performed by fast-food mascots — exactly as great as it sounds, with lyrics rewritten as fast-food satire.

Mac Sabbath formed in Los Angeles in 2014, built around vocalist Ronald Osbourne, backed by guitarist Slayer MacCheeze, bassist Grimalice and drummer the Catburglar, each costumed after characters from McDonaldland. The band calls its style "Drive Thru Metal," a genre it says it invented, treating Black Sabbath's catalogue as raw material for songs rewritten entirely around fast food.

The music itself stays close to the originals: guitar lines and rhythms are played straight while the words are swapped out, so "Iron Man" becomes "Frying Pan," "Paranoid" becomes "Pair-a-Buns," "Sweet Leaf" becomes "Sweet Beef" and "Symptom of the Universe" becomes "Zipping Up the Uniform." Beneath the joke sits a steady target: processed food, low wages, genetically modified ingredients and the corporate food industry generally.

The band members do not perform out of character, and the live show leans heavily on props, theatrics and a deliberately absurd stage setup, with video segments, audience singalongs and oversized inflatable food props giving the whole thing a chaotic, cartoonish edge.

Manager Mike Odd of Rosemary's Billygoat has long served as the group's public spokesman, maintaining an elaborate origin story around them. He says he first met Osbourne, already in full costume and character, at a fast-food restaurant in Chatsworth in late 2013, and continues to claim Osbourne comes from a 1970s enchanted forest where burgers grow on trees, sent through time to warn the public about government control of food.

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