Someone has made the most dramatic video of the Black Sabbath bench in Birmingham you can possibly imagine

The Black Sabbath bridge in Birmingham — (Image credit: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Birmingham, the UK city famous first and foremost for being the home of Black Sabbath, is keen to play up its legacy as the birthplace of heavy metal.

Back in February 2019, the Black Sabbath Bench was unveiled, while in June of that year the band's Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler attended a ceremony in which the Black Sabbath Bridge was named.

Now the Westside Business Improvement District (BID), an organisation that works for a "more attractive, better marketed, brighter, safer and cleaner business environment" in the city, has commissioned a drone operator to make a dramatic video promoting the bench. And we think they've succeeded.

The footage begins by rising up above Broad Street, before travelling its length to the Black Sabbath Bridge, where the Black Sabbath Bench bench is located. The footage then propels the eager viewer past the Gas Street Basin, through the canal tunnel under the bridge, then approaches the historic seating from a previously unseen angle before hovering above the bench, its faces adorned by the likenesses of the band. And it's all soundtracked by Tony Iommi's Scent Of Dark, the instrumental he released two years ago for the launch of the perfume of the same name.

"This is a spectacular video which really captures the drama, suspense and excitement behind the Black Sabbath Bench," boasts Mike Olley, general manager of Westside BID. “Since we created and unveiled the bench, hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world have come to Birmingham to see it.

“This new bird’s eye view video does two things: first, it enables people to experience the bench from their own homes, wherever they may be on the globe. But second, and more importantly, it gives visitors the precise visual guidance to find the bench, whether it be by road, footpath or canal, and adds that extra dramatic element to their adventure."

It certainly does.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.