Ozzy Osbourne - Scream Tour Edition CD Review (Epic Records)

Many days, I shake my head at the inanity of the music industry. On positive side, you have King Crimson revitalizing the back catalogue by releasing 40th year anniversary edition CDs (which seems like a good approach). On the negative side, Epic has just released the ‘4 Month’ anniversary edition of Ozzy’s latest disc Scream. C’mon guys, do you really think fans are going to go out and buy a second copy of Scream just to get the seven bonus tracks (…or are they just going to download it)?

Here is what you have on the bonus disc:

Studio Tracks:
"Hand of the Enemy" – exclusive to this disc
"One More Time" – originally an iTunes pre-order exclusive
"Jump the Moon” – originally on the Japanese edition of Scream

Live Tracks (from the UK Scream tour):
- “Bark at the Moon”
- “Let Me Hear You Scream”
- “No More Tears”
- “Fairies Wear Boots”

The second disc also contains the video for “Let Me Hear You Scream” along with some behind the scenes footage.

Fans of Scream will likely enjoy “Hand of the Enemy” and “One More Time” as these tracks fit perfectly with the original studio disc. I’m not sure though what Ozzy is trying to do with “Jump the Moon” as it sounds like bad barroom alt-metal. The live material is competently executed and seems to have been chosen to show that new guitarist Gus G. can play Tony Iommi, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde’s licks. Gus G. hits the mark but adds no personal flair of his own.

I continue in my belief that poor product is going to put the final nail in the music industry’s coffin quicker than any illegal downloading will. Why would anyone rush to buy Ozzy’s next album when you inevitably know there will be a ‘Nice Price’ 2CD edition that follows which contains the foreign b-sides, iTunes “exclusive” tracks and more.

If you haven’t picked up Scream, the Tour Edition provides a good bang for the buck as it is priced at $10.81 (about one dollar more than the standard edition) on Amazon. If you already have Scream, there are more interesting things to spend your money on.

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Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne - Scream CD Review (Epic Records)

Earlier this summer, Ozzy Osbourne released his 10th studio album, Scream. This isn’t the ‘return to form’ that some claim but this is the best that Ozzy has sounded in years.

When reading earlier reviews of this disc, a lot of internet chatter has focused around Ozzy swapping out guitarist Zakk Wylde for little-known guitar player Gus G. I don’t think this swap was the key reason for Ozzy’s revitalized sound as I don’t hear a significant difference between Gus and Zakk’s playing; Ozzy may have just wanted the fresh blood. The sound of this disc was shaped by co-writers Kevin Churko (who produced this disc and 2007’s Black Rain) and Adam Wakeman (who co-wrote five of the disc’s eleven tracks).

Producer Kevin Churko retains some of the industrial leanings of Black Rain but Scream is a darker album than its predecessor. Churko rounds this out by giving a high-gloss finish to the disc’s arena-rock power metal anthems, sludgy nu-metal rawk and (the expected) ballads. This is a heavily commercial album but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Let’s face it – Ozzy’s menacing, p*ssing on The Alamo days are long past.

The first single from this disc is a fist-pumping, pounding rocker, “Let Me Hear You Scream”, which should make for both an FM-radio and concert staple for years to come. The current single, “Life Won’t Wait”, is a by-the-numbers power ballad which is carried by strong layered vocals from Ozzy. There are a couple of sludgy, almost Rob Zombie-ish numbers (“Soul Sucker”, “Latimer’s Mercy”) scattered across the disc but these are balanced by the ballads “Time” and the mostly instrumental “I Love You All”.

I remember sitting in the Brooklyn Brewery early one Saturday afternoon in 2007 and they announced that they had a pair of OzzFest tickets, free to any takers. While there were no takers then, I don’t think that would be the case now. Ozzy sounds revitalized on Scream and this disc will go a long way toward revitalizing his fan base.

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Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osboune - Black Rain CD Review

I have been putting off writing this review as this CD just didn't 'catch me' and I have been trying to figure out why. After a couple listens to the disc, I think the reason is that Ozzy breaks no new ground. None of the songs on this disc are really distinctive and very few songs bare repeated play. To be blunt, without Ozzy's distinctive vocals, this disc could easily be mistaken for the work of an unknown bar band. I have read some reviews of this CD that talk about Zakk Wylde's guitar work. Unfortunately, I don't hear anything special or out of the ordinary.

I don't mean to say that this is a terrible CD. It isn't like I am going to throw out this disc -- I just won't play it often. A point of comparison would be Alice Cooper's solo work in the mid-70's. After breaking up the Alice Cooper Group, tracks like Only Women Bleed were a bit of a shock. There are two ballads Ozzy's new CD that really invite a comparison to this era of Alice Cooper's career.

Anyone who is a fan of Ozzy's Down to Earth release will probably like this one as well. Anyone new to Ozzy's solo career would be better served by starting with Bark at the Moon.