Ozzy Osbourne

Blizzard of Ozz

This review is for the original recording

Review Score:

(10/10)
When Ozzy Osbourne got fired/quit Black Sabbath in the late 1970's, no one thought he would return to the lime light. Years of drinking and doing drugs had come to a kind of peak, and when Sharon (later to be Ozzy's wife) found Ozzy, he was in bad condition. Sharon became Ozzy's manager (to upset her dad who was Sabbath's manager?) and the years have proven that she sure has a talent for her trade.

In 1980, Ozzy released his first solo album ("BLIZZARD OF OZZ") and even to this day (almost 25 years later) it's considered to be one of the finest metal albums ever recorded. The line up is of course Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), the by then unknown Randy Rhoads (R.I.P) on guitar, bass player Bob Daisley (later to join Gary Moore) and drummer Lee Kerslake (ex Uriah Heep). The original album includes only nine songs but the standard in material is surprisingly high. Four of the songs are real classics - the opening rocker "I don't know", the melodic master piece "Crazy train" (just as great sung by Pat Boone in a different version as the theme song to MTV's "The Osbournes"), the immortal and best Ozzy Osbourne song ever "Mr. Crowley", and the alcohol tasting "Suicide solution" which resulted in a law sue. Then there's a nice ballad in "Goodbye to romance" and a couple of steamy rockers by the name of "No bone movies" and "Steal away". The rather dark "Revelation" and the short instrumental piece "Dee" might not be equally great but that doesn't matter because "BLIZZARD OF OZZ" is still one of the finest when it comes to heavy metal - a must have!

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