Does Ozzy Still Have It? Let Me Hear You 'Scream!'

This is how rock should be: loud, fast and full of eye-liner.

With few exceptions (Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie) my taste for metal music is somewhat... inhibited. Truth be told metal, in all its infinite forms, has just never really held much appeal to me. But, when someone I do admire (like Ozzy) releases a brand new album full of ear noise for the dark soul, the musically-inclined hell-raiser inside compels me to give it a listen. So I did.

I don't think that anyone would argue with Ozzy being one of the godfather's of modern day metal, but over the years he seems to have fallen into a viscous cycle of mediocre albums and single-driven tracks. His latest album (Scream) struggles to rise about the mediocrity of previous efforts with a new guitarist (Gus G) and a take charge attitude, but unfortunately can't escape its lack of inspiration.

While the album itself isn't bad, there are quite a few really good tracks in my opinion, it becomes clear the the source material just isn't deep enough to provoke any lasting imagery beyond the title. Ozzy does manage to mix up both the darker and lighter sides of his personality (like Soul Sucker), but also makes everything feel indecisive at the same time.

In the end I can't fault Ozzy for mixing it up a bit, but I would certainly be down with hearing more of the Prince of Darkness' "dark" side. Perhaps he just needs to poke around a little deeper in that inner basement... I'm certain there's still a few hungry beasties lurking in the shadows.

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