Lets be frank. Ozzmosis wasn’t too bad, but I was young when it came out, so that probably had something to do with my affinity for that album. Since then, it’s been a stream of poor releases by Ozzy. Some people attribute this to Ozzy’s sobering up, Sharon’s influence in the production of the albums, or the changing face of “metal” music. I happen to think it was micro management of the albums. Listen to Zakk Wylde speak about the process that surrounded making Down to Earth and you’ll soon realize that it wasn’t Ozzy the band, but it was Ozzy the factory.
Black Rain appears to be a little different. Whatever the change has been, this is the closest thing to a follow up to No More Tears that we’ve gotten so far. With that being said, what’s missing is the Zakk Wylde country influence. To me, that’s something that’s missing. The true successor to No More Tears? It’s This Blessed Hellride by Zakk Wydle’s Black Label Society. We’re not going to get anything like No More Tears from Ozzy again.
The album’s not perfect, but it’s still pretty good. This is a slight departure from the glossy nu-Metal Ozzy that captured the attention of all the mall metal kids in 1999 and started taking bands like Slipknot and Disturbed on tour with him on the OzzFest. It’s got the usual amount of nu-Metal moments, but the songs are better, but they don’t get much worse than Down to Earth.
The one thing this album is missing the the ability for me to remember anything after listening to it. While it’s not a bad listen, I just don’t retain anything besides the choruses of “I Don’t Wanna Stop” and “Civilize the Universe” and the ballad “Here For You”. There’s nothing to reall ysing along to like there was pre-retirement or even in Ozzmosis. Perry Mason wasn’t a great song, but everyone remembers the chorus and can sing along. I can’t remember much about the song “Dreamer” outside of the fact that I thought it was wretched garbage.
With Ozzy, there’s something that doesn’t exist with other bands. While you can spend hours debating what is the best rock band of all time, you can make a debate for which Ozzy band is the best of all time. I know my brother thinks that Randy Rhodes, Bob Dasiley and Lee Kerslake is the best Ozzy band. My favorite is Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez and Randy Castillo, but I liked the touring Joe Holmes, Geezer Butler and Randy Castillo band too. This makes it easy to cut up Ozzy’s career into sections like classic rock (Rhodes, Daisley, Kerslake), 80’s rock (driven by Jake E. Lee’s guitar playing), 90’s metal (Zakk Wylde & Castillo anchored this band) and then the nu-Metal Ozzy (Wylde & Mike Bordin anchor this one). In theory alone, my favorite Ozzy bad of all time is Zakk Wylde, Jason Newsted and Mike Bordin, but they never released any albums, just went on one tour. Put those four in a room together for a few months and you’ll get a great album in my opinion.
I think the bottom line is that the classic rock Ozzy is dead and gone. We won’t get another song like “I Don’t Know”. Hell, we won’t get another “I Don’t Wanna Change the World” either. We’ll have to deal with the slick over the top production that becoming more and more en vogue these days.
- “Not Going Away” - ***
- “I Don’t Wanna Stop” - ****
- “Black Rain” - ***
- “Lay Your World On Me” - **
- “The Almighty Dollar” - ***
- “11 Silver” - ***
- “Civilize the Universe” - ***
- “Here for You” - ****
- “Countdown’s Begun” - ***
- “Trap Door” - **