Review: Ozzy Osbourne – Scream

Palmer reviews Ozzy Osbourne’s Scream.

Artist: Ozzy Osbourne
Album: Scream
Year: 2010
Genre: Metal/Hard Rock

So, I’ve been placed in an odd position; fresh-blood reviewing one of the gods of metal, Ozzy Osbourne. I’ve accepted the fact that no matter what I say about this album, more than half of you are going to say I’m wrong. I can praise it, I can call it trash – it won’t matter.

By now, people have formed their own opinions on who Ozzy is. Most people either love him or hate him, but regardless of the way you feel about him, everyone has respect for him. He is one of the pioneers of the hard and heavy, and without him we wouldn’t have access to the metal of today.

With that in mind, I want everyone to understand something: this review is not meant to criticize the almighty Ozzy as a person, just as a musician. I’ve decided the best way to review this is to approach it as a standalone album. I’m dropping the preconceived notions that I already have of The Prince of Darkness and listening to his latest effort, Scream, with an open mind.

The album leads in with tribal rhythms flowing off toms; followed by heavy guitars with that signature Zakk Wylde pinch harmonic. But wait – you mean to tell me that Zakk isn’t on this album? He’s not, but Ozzy has found a very filling replacement named Gus G, who is no stranger to the metal scene. He’s been playing lead with many heavy hitters including the likes of Arch Enemy; and he has his own band, Firewind. Gus may have been just what Ozzy needed to inject new life into Scream. Gone are the tired riffs of the lukewarm effort that was Black Rain (2007), they’ve been replaced with new groove metal riffs that instantly catch the listener’s attention.

This whole album is a pretty standard mainstream metal affair. You’ve got your heavy tracks, which get heads nodding and moshpits started, and your rock power ballads that we – or at least I – tend to skip through. The thing I like about this album is the fact that Ozzy is singing over different types of music. A couple good examples are the third and fifth track, ‘Soul Sucker’ and ‘Life Won’t Wait’. The third track is so Jerry Cantrell that I honestly think more about Alice in Chains performing this than Ozzy; and the fifth track reminds me more of something written by Angels and Airwaves or The Temper Trap.

It’s nice to see Ozzy branching out into new directions with his music and I think the new guitarist is a step in the right direction. The album is a helluva lot better then Black Rain, but the second half of Scream takes a sudden, and disappointing, turn in quality. After about the ninth track, the album loses everything that was holding it together and proceeds to walk directly off a cliff, falling down into some sort of abyss of boring music. I also find the religious lyrics in ‘Diggin’ Me Down’ and ‘Crucify’ a bit questionable coming from the mouth of the Prince of Darkness. Other people I can understand, but there’s something odd about the man that bit the head off of a bat trying to find Jesus. Not judging – I’m just saying, given Ozzy’s profile it’s a bit odd. Overall, not a bad effort, and I look forward to seeing what Gus is capable of in the next album, assuming he plays lead again. Long live the Ozzman! And cheers to what is, hopefully, the start of his journey back to the top.

Best Tracks: ‘Let It Die’, ‘Soul Sucker’ and ‘Fearless’

77/100

- Palmer Sturman
Sturman.Palmer@gmail.com
www.despitefulminate.wordpress.com
www.twitter.com/despitefulminat