Today, I'll be talking about Ozzy's albums, and basically saying my thoughts on each one.
Overall, this is a pretty decent album. Some songs I quite like- namely I Don't Know, Goodbye to Romance, Suicide Solution and Revelation (Mother Earth). Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Crazy Train. I can't definitively say if it's just the song, or if it's because I've heard it so much. The same is true for Mr. Crowley- it's a pretty good song, but I've heard it a lot of times, so I tend not to want to listen to it often.
I don't particularly care for the first two songs on this album, but I actually really like the rest. The titular song, Diary of a Madman, has a really cool riff- apparently based off an old classical piece (Ozzy said it was Mozart, but I'm not sure that's entirely accurate). Honestly, this might actually be one of my favourite albums by Ozzy- though I don't listen to it often, for two main reasons. Firstly, my taste in music has been drifting more and more away from metal with age (I used to listen almost exclusively to Ozzy, but now it's pretty rare for me to listen to him). Secondly, I listened to this album so much a few years back that I've made some pretty strong mental connections between certain songs on the album and champions from League of Legends.
Looking back, this album has the same problem as Sabbath Bloody Sabbath for me. I really like a few songs on it, but the album as a whole just gets inexplicably tedious to listen to. There aren't any songs I specifically dislike, but I definitely wouldn't say they're all equally good. Bark at the Moon and Waiting for Darkness are probably my favourites on this album, though You're No Different, Spiders in the Night and Rock 'n' Roll Rebel aren't bad either. The song Bark at the Moon always reminds me of seeing Ozzy in concert- it's the song he opened with, and being a very high-energy song, it did a good job of setting the mood for the concert.
I'm gonna be honest- I don't really like this album. There are some songs on it that I do quite like, however- Killer of Giants and Shot in the Dark are both really good (and, I believe, both played in the concert). I like Thank God for the Bomb in theory (the lyrics and such), but honestly I feel it could have been done a bit better. The rest of the album feels a bit bland, honestly- it's not Ozzy's best vocal performance, and a lot of the songs just sound like somewhat generic metal.
I don't know why exactly, but I've always thought of this album as being essentially what The Ultimate Sin should have been. Of course, it is a bit metal-y for my current taste, but I still like most, if not all, of the songs on it. My favourite songs are probably Fire in the Sky, Demon Alcohol and The Liar (interestingly, that's two of the milder songs, and then probably the most high-energy song).
I always think this album is heavier than it is, for whatever reason. There are no songs on this album that I don't like, honestly- though I can say, the title track is my favourite from the album. Honestly, I don't have much to say about this one- it's good enough that I don't have much to complain about, but not so good that I feel I could write about what makes it so good.
As heavy and metal-y as this one is, I honestly think this is tied for being my favourite album. I'm not sure if it's purely for musical reasons, or if it's just because of all the associations I have with it, though. Truth be told, it can be a bit hard to listen to this one- every song brings back really vivid memories of a specific time or event in my life (anything from one specific walk with my friend to a time I was working for my dad), and it can get rather nostalgic. That aside, there are some really good songs on this album. Tomorrow was always one of my favourite songs, and looking back now, Ghost Behind My Eyes, Denial, My Little Man and Old LA Tonight are all very good as well.
This one is very heavy. Even when I first listened to it a few years back, I thought the same. I like a lot of these songs for the tunes- No Place For Angels, for whatever reason, was one of my favourite songs for some time- but they are very heavy and distorted, to the point where I seldom listen to them. Honestly, if I was better at playing more instruments, and had the setup, I'd love to do some less metal covers of some of these songs. I mentioned in a previous blog that the song Gets Me Through is very much like a Black Sabbath song, structurally, and I doubt it's the only one.
This one, like Ozzmosis, has a lot of songs that I really like, but it's a bit too metal-y for me. The majority of the album is pretty good, but specifically the songs Black Rain and The Almighty Dollar are great. The latter was one of my favourite songs for quite some time (before, unfortunately, I got it associated with a game that has since shut down, so listening to it now is a bit bittersweet). I really like all the changes it goes through musically, and it's got a good message in the lyrics, which is always a bonus.
This album represents a very interesting time for me- the point at which Ozzy albums were no longer a thing of the past, and they started to come out after I started listening to him. (Honestly, until making this post, I had no idea Black Rain came out as recently as 2007- I always assumed it was at least 1-2 decades old). That might have something to do with why I don't care for this album so much- though it might be because of the style as well. Scream is a very heavy album, probably even more so than Down To Earth. That, along with the fact that the first song on the album (and therefore, my first impression of it) contains what's essentially rapping, makes it one of my least favourite Ozzy albums, honestly. That said, when played loudly in concert, or in a car with good speakers, these songs definitely can be exciting.
Anyways, that's gonna be it for today (at least until Ozzy releases another solo album). Hopefully you enjoyed this post! If you've got any opinions that differ from mine, let me know- I'd be interested to hear what other people think.
