Way back in 1985, I received my first CD player as a gift. The
\nvery first CD I bought was Ozzy Osbourne’s latest at that time,
\nThe Ultimate Sin<\/i>. Osbourne had made a solid impression on my
\nmind with the first single “Shot In The Dark” (and no, it wasn’t
\nthe body of the female star that made me want to buy the album, it
\nwas the song)… and besides, the CD I received with the player was
\ngetting lonely. (One day I’ll get to reviewing that one.)<\/p>\n
It’s now twelve years since that day. Osbourne has had several
\ndry spells and battles with the bottle since this time, has
\nretired, has un-retired (thanks a lot, Magic Johnson), has
\noccasionally reunited with Black Sabbath, and has started his own
\nrecord label. I, meanwhile, have expanded my musical tastes past
\nthe metal which dominated my adolescence, though I still like to
\nslam my head against the plaster now and then. (Memo to my new
\nlandlord: Just kidding.)<\/p>\n
But
\nThe Ultimate Sin<\/i> still can make me smile, even if some of
\nits messages are a tad dated, and this remains one of the few
\nguilty pleasures I still allow myself.<\/p>\n
This album proved to be the swansong for guitarist Jake E. Lee,
\nwho had come into Osbourne’s band following the tragic death of
\nRandy Rhodes. And while Lee may never have replaced Osbourne’s
\nfavorite guitar player, he managed to carve out his own niche quite
\nwell. As for the rest of the crew, well, neither bassist Phil
\nSoussan or drummer Randy Castillo put out enough power to light a
\nfire underneath me.<\/p>\n
“Shot In The Dark” still remains one of Osbourne’s solo career
\nhighlights, while “Lightning Strikes” is a little more fast-paced
\nand intense – kind of like Osbourne himself. Probably one of the
\nbest tracks on the album is “Secret Loser,” though Osbourne’s
\nvocals are restrained. And while he never was much of a screamer in
\nhis solo career, I kind of keep hoping he’ll abandon the control
\nand cut loose with a killer vocal.<\/p>\n
Osbourne does come close once on
\nThe Ultimate Sin<\/i>– too bad it’s on the laughable “Thank God
\nFor The Bomb” (end of the chorus: “Nuke ya \/ Nuke ya” – give me a
\nfuckin’ break). And while Osbourne sings about the “glories” of the
\natomic age on one cut, he laments the damage it can do on “Killer
\nOf Giants,” which is one of the most beautiful metal songs I can
\nremember ever being recorded.<\/p>\n
But for every hit
\nThe Ultimate Sin<\/i> has on it, there is a song whose
\nfirecracker failed to go off. “Never Know Why” was supposedly an
\nanswer to all the charges levelled against Osbourne around that
\ntime (“You’ve missed the message that says it all”), but it just
\ndoesn’t have the anger that I think it was supposed to. (Give
\nOsbourne some credit for dealing creatively with his detractors,
\nhowever.) Two other songs, “Never” and “Fool Like You,” have
\nsimilar sounds, and neither works very well. As for the title
\ntrack, it’s not bad, though Castillo’s drumming shows its limits.
\n(I thought Osbourne didn’t like drummers who sounded like the video
\ngame Space Invaders.)<\/p>\n
Despite the weaknesses,
\nThe Ultimate Sin<\/i> is not a bad album, and is enjoyable for an
\noccasional spin on the CD player. It is not, however, one which
\nyou’d want to keep available on a regular basis, and it ranks in
\nthe “average” category of Osbourne’s career. Still, I can think of
\nworse ways to spend an hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5775],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-35663","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ozzy-osbourne","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35663"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35663"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}