LONDON: Legendary British heavy metal band Black Sabbath has announced their final tour.

The band’s farewell tour, ‘The End’, begins on January 20, next year. It “promises to surpass all previous tours with their most mesmerising production ever”, read an official statement on Black Sabbath’s website.

According to the announcement, the band will kick off their tour in North America in January 2016 and subsequently visit Australia and New Zealand in April next year. More tour dates will be announced in October.

Black Sabbath, who have released 19 studio albums since 1970, the last of which was 13 that was released in 2013, are considered the pioneers of the heavy metal genre.

With their debut self-titled album Black Sabbath in 1970 and subsequent releases Paranoid and Master of Reality, the band helped in developing the heavy metal sound, which went on to spawn several sub-genres and also initiated a global music phenomenon.

The band’s current line-up features of vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler. Original drummer Bill Ward, with whom the band had a fall out, is still out of the line-up for the tour.

Although Tommy Clufetos from Osbourne’s solo band played with Black Sabbath on the tour of their last album, the band hasn’t yet announced the drummer for their last tour.