| Written by Alex Stojanovic OZZY OSBOURNE BAND IS: Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals Zakk Wylde - Guitars Rob "Blasko" Nicholson - Bass Adam Wakeman - Keyboards & rhythm guitars Tommy Cluefetos - Drums Release Date: November 8, 2019 Label: Epic Records Website: www.ozzy.com The Prince Of Darkness: Ozzy Osbourne has had a pretty eventful decade. He started off 2010 with the release of his last studio album Scream, which was the only album that Gus G. from Firewind played on while he was in Ozzy's band. |  |
After he toured in behind the album for a year, the world went crazy because the original Black Sabbath lineup reunited, but it wouldn't be long before drama would start with Bill Ward and the unsignable contract. The first Black Sabbath studio album since Forbidden would come out in 2013, aptly called 13, and it was the first album to feature Ozzy on vocals since Never Say Die. The band toured for a year and a half in support of the album from 2013 to 2014. It was two years later that they announced their final tour, which culminated with two hometown shows in Birmingham in February 2017. Since then, Ozzy continued his solo career, eventually bringing Zakk Wylde back into his band in 2017.
His on-going No More Tours II tour was plagued with show cancellations due to health issues and injuries, especially over the last year. He was initially scheduled to do a European tour at the start of the year, followed by an Australian tour, only to have them cancelled due to illness. If that wasn't enough, he had a whole North American tour scheduled for this past summer with Megadeth, and then that tour got cancelled due to injuries suffered from a fall at home. The European tour was rescheduled for January 2020, and now it has been cancelled a second time in order for more recovery time. I understand that Ozzy wants to continue to do his thing, because it keeps him going, but I'm worried about him because of all that he has gone through over the past year with illnesses and injuries and constantly cancelling and postponing tours. It's time for Ozzy to quit playing live. I'm okay with him still making music, but the wheels are clearly falling off, which is not a good thing.
Speaking of music, over the last few weeks, we got not one, but two new Ozzy tracks, which I will talk about in two separate reviews. Ozzy will be releasing his brand new album Ordinary Man in January, which is his first studio album in 10 years since Scream. This first review will focus on the first of the two new songs called "Under The Graveyard". After listening to it, I'm not sure how I feel about this track, for a few reasons. One, it lacks anything compelling to make it an awesome track, and two, the guitar tone doesn't sound convincing. It sounds more processed. Recently, Zakk Wylde said that he had absolutely NOTHING to do with Ozzy's new album, which is just strange. Plus, the guitar tone you hear on the recording is clearly not Zakk's. Whether this is just a demo recording remains to be seen, but I'm hearing some rumours that Ozzy might be working with the producer that was involved with the Post Malone / Travis Scott collaboration. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. There are however a couple of lyrics that really hit hard like "Death doesn't answer when I cry for help." You can feel that one.
On top of that, people are saying that vocally, Ozzy is sounding like he did back on Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman. I don't believe for a second that he did those high notes naturally. If you've seen Ozzy live in the past few years, you know that he can't hit that high register anymore. It's pretty obvious that he had the help of pro-tools and auto-tune, which are two things in music that I despise with a passion. Before all of you declare me as a hater, just know that I'm NOT a hater. I'm merely stating how I feel about this song. I love Ozzy. The only person in the Osbourne family that I hate is Sharon, and that should not be surprising. Will this track grow on me over the course of time? I'm not sure.
His on-going No More Tours II tour was plagued with show cancellations due to health issues and injuries, especially over the last year. He was initially scheduled to do a European tour at the start of the year, followed by an Australian tour, only to have them cancelled due to illness. If that wasn't enough, he had a whole North American tour scheduled for this past summer with Megadeth, and then that tour got cancelled due to injuries suffered from a fall at home. The European tour was rescheduled for January 2020, and now it has been cancelled a second time in order for more recovery time. I understand that Ozzy wants to continue to do his thing, because it keeps him going, but I'm worried about him because of all that he has gone through over the past year with illnesses and injuries and constantly cancelling and postponing tours. It's time for Ozzy to quit playing live. I'm okay with him still making music, but the wheels are clearly falling off, which is not a good thing.
Speaking of music, over the last few weeks, we got not one, but two new Ozzy tracks, which I will talk about in two separate reviews. Ozzy will be releasing his brand new album Ordinary Man in January, which is his first studio album in 10 years since Scream. This first review will focus on the first of the two new songs called "Under The Graveyard". After listening to it, I'm not sure how I feel about this track, for a few reasons. One, it lacks anything compelling to make it an awesome track, and two, the guitar tone doesn't sound convincing. It sounds more processed. Recently, Zakk Wylde said that he had absolutely NOTHING to do with Ozzy's new album, which is just strange. Plus, the guitar tone you hear on the recording is clearly not Zakk's. Whether this is just a demo recording remains to be seen, but I'm hearing some rumours that Ozzy might be working with the producer that was involved with the Post Malone / Travis Scott collaboration. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. There are however a couple of lyrics that really hit hard like "Death doesn't answer when I cry for help." You can feel that one.
On top of that, people are saying that vocally, Ozzy is sounding like he did back on Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman. I don't believe for a second that he did those high notes naturally. If you've seen Ozzy live in the past few years, you know that he can't hit that high register anymore. It's pretty obvious that he had the help of pro-tools and auto-tune, which are two things in music that I despise with a passion. Before all of you declare me as a hater, just know that I'm NOT a hater. I'm merely stating how I feel about this song. I love Ozzy. The only person in the Osbourne family that I hate is Sharon, and that should not be surprising. Will this track grow on me over the course of time? I'm not sure.
FINAL RATING:
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