Ozzy Osbourne's Scream

[Nighthawk76]

I recently got around to buying Ozzy Osbourne's new album Scream and I have to be honest and say that I don't like this album. It is far too heavy and the songs have no melody to them at all. One of Ozzy's geniuses as a songwriter was to combine heavy riffs with a pop sensibility. Its like Ozzy is trying to sound more like the new metal bands that he plays alongside at Ozzfest and less like himself. This album sounds more like Metallica than anything by Ozzy,

[ABlairican Pie]

Interesting how he was about to name the new album "Soul Sucka".

I guess it's not heavy in a good way, but like he's trying to be like all the NU-metal bands and similar ilk who have glutted the Ozzfest stages for the past several years. He seems to trying to "connect" with younger fans, but he's losing what makes him Ozzy. I only know what I've heard on the radio, and he has a new guitarist Gus G., who's played with some other bands, but I can't tell what his new stuff sounds like other that what I've heard. I think Ozzy's best stuff was done long ago. I wasn't planning on buying 'Scream' anyway.

[Dr. Thong]

While I love Ozzy's work with Sabbath and his early solo work, I lost interest in his new stuff sometime in the nineties. Ozzy is pretty much at the mercy of his collaborators, because even though he gets co-writing credits, it's known that Ozzy writes little or nothing.

He's certainly a legend, but most artists at some point lose that spark and from what I've heard of his newer stuff, I have zero interest in buying it.

[robyrob]

i love Ozzy and almost everything he's ever done; but this ain't Ozzy.

[JamesG]

I was disappointed with 'Scream' myself.

The album he did before it, 'Black Rain', I liked much better.

[Nighthawk76]

I think where Ozzy went wrong with this album is that he is trying to make music for the hardcore metal fan, which I am not. I like classic rock. By the standards of today neither Sabbath nor classic 0zzy is really heavy metal, and maybe because of the type of audiance who come to see the other bands performing at Ozzfest, he is trying to create a more modern style of heavy metal to appeal to them, which is not Ozzy.

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally Posted by Shine

I think where Ozzy went wrong with this album is that he is trying to make music for the hardcore metal fan, which I am not. I like classic rock. By the standards of today neither Sabbath nor classic 0zzy is really heavy metal, and maybe because of the type of audiance who come to see the other bands performing at Ozzfest, he is trying to create a more modern style of heavy metal to appeal to them, which is not Ozzy.

By hardcore metal, are we talking about current metal bands such as Children Of Bodom, Lamb Of God, etc., more of a thrash variety, or are we talking about the really edgy hardcore bands who are technically metal, but are more of the cutting edge sort of ilk that fill the second stage at Ozzfest in the past few years?

[Nighthawk76]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

By hardcore metal, are we talking about current metal bands such as Children Of Bodom, Lamb Of God, etc., more of a thrash variety, or are we talking about the really edgy hardcore bands who are technically metal, but are more of the cutting edge sort of ilk that fill the second stage at Ozzfest in the past few years?

I have no idea. When I used the word hardcore I pretty much meant that it was music that was much heavier than what we would expect from Ozzy. Scream sounds more like Metallica than Ozzy. I'm not a metal fan so what I consider hardcore others may not. I've never considered either Ozzy or Sabbath to be metal, they are hard rock or classic rock. To me metal is like Metallica or Megadeth, music which has never held any interest for me.

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally Posted by Shine

I have no idea. When I used the word hardcore I pretty much meant that it was music that was much heavier than what we would expect from Ozzy. Scream sounds more like Metallica than Ozzy. I'm not a metal fan so what I consider hardcore others may not. I've never considered either Ozzy or Sabbath to be metal, they are hard rock or classic rock. To me metal is like Metallica or Megadeth, music which has never held any interest for me.

That's interesting, because Black Sabbath has been the official founding band of metal in 1970, due to their dark lyrics and heavy, detuned sound. But they didn't even consider themselves "heavy metal'--Ozzy didn't even like the term, because he thought it "sounded like a moose taking a dump in the woods"! But bands such as Judas Priest, who were peers of Sabbath, actually wanted to be the definition of metal. In the late 70's/early 80's bands such as Iron Maiden and Saxon emerged as part of the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) movement, which replaced punk as the cutting edge rock of choice among British kids back then, and though they disavowed punk, the NWOBHM scene adopted punk's hard, fast aggression and combined with metal's more complex structure and heaviness (i.e., Maiden's "Phantom Of the Opera"). This, in turn, launched what would become the thrash metal movement in the early 80's with the Bay Area scene
with Metallica, Exodus, and later, Megadeth and Slayer.

It's strange that for Ozzy's impact on metal, his first solo band could be more considered part of the early 80's L.A. Sunset Strip metal that followed Van Halen. Ozzy's guitarist, Randy Rhoads, was a member of Quiet Riot, whom later metal purists loathed for being "hair metal", even though Rhoads was supremely talented and had a huge impact on guitarists for decades.


Just the rock and metal historian in me explaining all.

[Nighthawk76]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

That's interesting, because Black Sabbath has been the official founding band of metal in 1970, due to their dark lyrics and heavy, detuned sound. But they didn't even consider themselves "heavy metal'--Ozzy didn't even like the term, because he thought it "sounded like a moose taking a dump in the woods"! But bands such as Judas Priest, who were peers of Sabbath, actually wanted to be the definition of metal. In the late 70's/early 80's bands such as Iron Maiden and Saxon emerged as part of the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) movement, which replaced punk as the cutting edge rock of choice among British kids back then, and though they disavowed punk, the NWOBHM scene adopted punk's hard, fast aggression and combined with metal's more complex structure and heaviness (i.e., Maiden's "Phantom Of the Opera"). This, in turn, launched what would become the thrash metal movement in the early 80's with the Bay Area scene
with Metallica, Exodus, and later, Megadeth and Slayer.

It's strange that for Ozzy's impact on metal, his first solo band could be more considered part of the early 80's L.A. Sunset Strip metal that followed Van Halen. Ozzy's guitarist, Randy Rhoads, was a member of Quiet Riot, whom later metal purists loathed for being "hair metal", even though Rhoads was supremely talented and had a huge impact on guitarists for decades.


Just the rock and metal historian in me explaining all.

Well, Sabbath were heavy by the standards of 1970, but not compared to today's heavy metal bands. So maybe they could have once been conisdered heavy metal, but really shouldn't be anymore. They were certainly more heavy metal than Led Zeppelin!

[Nighthawk76]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5JJy8Z4dNM


This is "Let Me Hear You Scream", the first single off of Ozzy's Scream CD. I think anyone who watches this clip will clearly see this is not Ozzy of old.

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally Posted by Shine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5JJy8Z4dNM


This is "Let Me Hear You Scream", the first single off of Ozzy's Scream CD. I think anyone who watches this clip will clearly see this is not Ozzy of old.

That was a really decent clip. Of course, would Ozzy want to be thought of as "the guy from thirty years back"? The video makes sense because Ozzy was the pioneer of dark-themed music, so he's carrying on the tradition.

I have a problem where so many people complain that many "classic" metal and rock artists don't stay with the styles and image that made them huge in the 70's and 80's. When I went to see Rush last summer, some people in the crowd were ragging on the Iron Maiden show a few months earlier for not featuring more of their 80's hits and focusing more on their current albums. I thought the whole Maiden show last summer was AMAZING!!! I was completely drawn in to their more recent songs. It's frustrating that people at the Rush show were more into their older songs and ignoring their newer song "Caravan", which was a great song and video. Rush is supposed to be a progressive band, looking ahead and coming up with something newer and great, but everyone seems to want to stay stuck in the past--"like the time I lit my first joint, duuuuuude!!!!!"